Midnight snacking used to take some serious trekking at the 1894 country manor that Gary Beyerl recently renovated in Lake Forest.
“As with many classical plans, you had to access the kitchen from a side entry through the rear stair, which really separated the kitchen from the life of the house,” says architect Beyerl of Burns + Beyerl in Chicago.
That may seem odd today, but it was common in the Classical Revival homes built in the wake of Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition. In an era when formal and informal spheres of life clearly had their place, even at home, grand entryways led to ornate “public” spaces (dining and living rooms). Private family quarters were less elaborate, and especially no-frills were the servants’ domain, which included kitchens.
That all worked in the early 20th Century, but today’s homes tend to be more about informal relaxation than formal entertaining. So updating these homes–and still preserving some sense of the symmetry, proportion and formal detailing that define them–can be a tricky proposition for remodelers.
“Design-wise, this actually makes things much more challenging,” says Cathy Osika, an architect with Burns + Beyerl in Chicago. “You have to be more careful in the steps you take so that you don’t confuse what’s formal in the house with what’s informal,” she explains. “You still need to make transitions.”
“It’s a fascinating process,” agrees Chicago kitchen designer Mick de Giulio, who has remodeled kitchens in many important period homes. “I ask myself, how would Howard Van Doren Shaw or David Adler approach things if they were working today?”
In Classical Revival homes, living and dining rooms frequently were placed on either side of a spacious entry anchored by a grand staircase. Service areas, such as kitchens, were blocked from view. That sense of separation, however, is no longer practical for most of today’s homeowners, who tend embrace the kitchen and informal areas as the heart of the home.
“Now people live in their kitchens,” de Giulio says. “They don’t just want food prep areas and breakfast nooks–they want family rooms, fireplaces and mudrooms as well.”
With no need to separate front- and back-of-house spaces, many homeowners have removed walls, opening views to kitchens and areas beyond. Charles and Andrea Young, for example, wanted “clear views from the front to the back” of the three-story Georgian house they purchased in Kenwood, to help manage a household with young children, Osika says. To make it happen, Osika enlarged the opening between the foyer and dining room and created a second, symmetrical opening between the dining room and kitchen. “We made the more family-friendly connection but designed it to keep sight lines between formal space and potential kitchen mess out of view,” she says.
For Michael and Joy Conners, owners of a similar home in Kenwood, the goal was to give the first floor a more open feel by transforming former servant spaces into a more spacious front hall and new library area. Beyond the central entry, the Conners removed walls that enclosed a “little hobbit room” with beautiful arched windows. Formerly a servants’ sitting area, the room now is a library. A spiral wood staircase was removed to make way for an arched passage that now connects the kitchen to the front hall. Above the grand staircase, the couple removed the second-floor ceiling, so the space now soars 20 feet , opening views to a 10-foot Palladian window.
Making kitchen areas more functional without scrambling the symmetry of a classical layout can be challenging too, architects say. It usually means removing butler’s pantries or food pantries and incorporating balanced proportions and classical details into the new design.
To integrate the kitchen at the Henry Ives Cobb-designed home in Lake Forest, architect Beyerl added a symmetrically placed entry from the foyer. That done, he set about creating order to “a pretty dreadful” 1970s kitchen remodel. “It looked the inside of a 1970s station wagon,” he said.
Beyerl worked to make the kitchen more rectilinear and organized. “We reorganized the space, creating a breakfast room, powder room and kitchen proper. The whole idea was to keep everything very balanced with each gesture counteracted by another.”
To give the Young family the room they needed for their kitchen space, Osika planned a small addition. First, she had to “clear out all the crazy little rooms–a servant’s back entry, butler’s pantry and servants area.” That done, she divided the kitchen into a prep area and breakfast area. To add a sense of proportion to the space, Osika used ceiling trim and cased openings to delineate the 10-by-12-foot breakfast area from the 12-by-16-foot kitchen. Fourteen feet of brick wall was opened to add the family room and mudroom. Outside a broad porch with pillars and balustrade was created to match those at the front of the home.
Along with updating kitchen spaces, many architects are reconfiguring rear entryways and former servants-only staircases, which now are used as much or more than the front.
“They’re still less formal than the living room or dining room–meaning you don’t use the same finishes or decorative details you’d use for the front entryway, living or dining area,” says architect Mark Weber, of Wheeler Kearns Architects in Chicago. “But they have ascended beyond just being service areas. The hierarchy of detailing would be similar as those used in bedrooms or less formal family areas.”
To visually link the kitchen/dining space he created for Nate and Lisa Eimer’s Kenwood home with the yard and children’s play areas, Weber added windows and created a much grander stair and back entry.
For a kitchen de Giulio redesigned at a David-Adler-built house in Lake Forest, the designer relocated the back staircase entry by removing a kitchen wall and partially exposing the back stair. He then picked up architectural cues from the front staircase, adding a balustrade with curved side rails.
“Now it’s all about collectivity with a classic foundation,” he says.
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Adding in the extras
Some of the fun in remodeling a Classical Revival home is in the details. Restoring molding, mantels, newel posts and other trim not only can be guided by the house’s initial plans but also by the owner’s taste and budget.
“The nice thing is that Classical Revival homes were proportioned so well they look good with or without the extra details,” says Vince Michael, director of the historic preservation program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Some homeowners add extra details in phases. Michael Conners, for example, has had renderings drawn to include possibilities for hand-carved fireplace mantels and ceiling and wall trims for his Kenwood house.
Kim and Simon Perutz, owners of an 1894 Georgian in Evanston, are honing interior details, removing “an Italian Villa-styled kitchen, Prairie-style elements in the living room and some awful ’70s-style stuff throughout,” Kim Perutz says.
With help from Richard Goldberg and David Szafarz of Lake Forest-based Goldberg Downey Architects, the Perutzes have created an interior they hope comes close to the original architect’s intent. The best features–such as curved bays with curved, double-hung windows–are being duplicated, and interesting ceiling details and trim are being repeated.
— Monica Kass Rogers
