Party Ready: Inside A Chicago Pied-à-Terre With A High Glam Factor

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A dark study with black...

Architect and designer Joan Craig reimagined a high-rise pied- à-terre from scratch, cultivating spaces that readily transform for spontaneous cocktail parties. The home office demonstrates this ethos, with dramatic brass and Keleen Leathers hide on the walls. A Coup Studio sofa and Hao Wai Ltd swivel chairs encourage lounging. Simen Johan’s Untitled #153 hangs above the Frederick P. Victoria & Son desk.

A seating area with four...

Joan Craig created spaces suitable for entertaining on both a grand and intimate scale. This cozy seating area in the living room proves ideal for conversations, with Mattaliano chairs around a coffee table by the same brand. The straw marquetry cabinet features doors by Alexander Lamont and handles by Ged Kennett.

A living room divided into...

Connected to a terrace overlooking the city, the elongated living room consists of a procession of seating areas, made luminous with Venetian plastered walls by Simes Studios. The room is anchored by the Peter Beard photograph, Maureen Gallagher and a Late Night Feeder. Below the work are a Vladimir Kagan sofa and Roman Thomas chair.

A floor-to-ceiling marble fireplace with...

Slices of Silver Roots marble were carefully book-matched to create the living room’s spectacular fireplace. A coffee table by Adam Hebb, a Holly Hunt sofa and Mattaliano lounge chairs carve out a glamorous, yet intimate, seating area by the fire.

A gilded dining room with...

Light filtering through a blown-glass ceiling installation by Jeff Goodman Studio bathes the dining room in a warm glow enhanced by custom illuminated wine displays on the north and south walls. A chocolatey Callidus Guild wallcovering further cocoons the space, surrounding a Martin Massé dining table and Mattaliano chairs.

A built-in bar cabinet with...

To bring cohesion to the home’s playful blending of wall materials, the team introduced a repeated grid pattern that appears in various rooms, including the kitchen’s bar area. Here, they iterated the motif with walnut molding and a combed, plastered wall finish by Simes Studios. An antique-brass bar nook is seamlessly integrated into the millwork.

A marble-topped walnut island looking...

Primed for entertaining, the kitchen features a generous island-turned-bar counter of Quarzo Azulado quartzite and custom stools made by Interior Dynamics. The design team illuminated the space with Articolo pendants and sconces by The Urban Electric Co. An abstract work by Hananiah Harari occupies pride of place.

A bedroom in shades of...

A Fromental wallpaper brings dappled movement to the guest bedroom, which the team composed with hues inspired by the iconic cityscape outside. A gray lounge chair by Barron Custom Furniture overlooks the spectacular view. The ceiling wears a Schumacher wallcovering and is adorned with a Gregorius Pineo chandelier.

A black-and-silver powder room with...

The home’s signature grid wall pattern appears again in the powder room, reinterpreted with silver-hued frames and black Venetian plaster applied by Simes Studios. Saint Henry Black granite tile flooring and a dark stone vanity countertop continue the dramatic theme. A pair of Holly Hunt sconces punctuates the space.

A balcony with greenery and...

Landscape designer Jayson DeGeeter cultivated a lush oasis for the private terrace off the couple’s bedroom suite. Focusing on tonal and textural variations for the surrounding planters, DeGeeter blended climbing white hydrangeas, autumn ferns, coral bells, and sugar and spice foamflowers. A Holly Hunt cocktail table and lounge chairs complete the intimate alcove.

A balcony with a fire...

Drawing from the adjacent living room’s soft tones, the south terrace features a neutral palette of materials, including Indian Coast sandstone pavers, aluminum planters with a hammered bronze finish and McKinnon and Harris chairs around the fire pit by Ore. DeGeeter defined the space with topiary pillars of dwarf Korean lilac and boxwood hedges.

Tom and Cindy Shelby had no intention of leaving their Chicago pied-à-terre at the Ritz-Carlton Residences. Just a few years before, architect and designer Joan Craig had carved out their ideal urbane abode, swathed in dark floral fabrics and Art Deco-inspired accents. It was perfect. 

Then an entire floor a few stories above became available. Boasting 360-degree views of both Lake Michigan and Chicago’s iconic skyline, the unit’s opportunity to experience the city so cinematically felt irresistible. And because it was unfinished, “we had carte blanche to do whatever we wanted,” Cindy says. 

“Our hearts were beating pretty quickly,” laughs Craig about that exciting first tour with her design team, which was co-led by architect Dave Pickert and designer Christina Stillwaugh and rounded out with architects Tracie Cote and Nicole Zielinski. “We could program different elements according to the light, the views and the orientation,” says Craig, who worked with builder Brandon Rogalski, project manager Chris Bulak, superintendents Todd Rieger and Frank Mendicino, and project engineer Dan Hefley to execute these concepts. 

The Shelbys envisioned a home primed for entertaining, so the layout pivots around spaces that shift according to the type of gathering, from sunlit brunches to cocktail hours. “We knew the living room had to be this long space that took advantage of the full view,” says Pickert. Accordingly, the team situated the room alongside the south terrace facing Michigan Avenue. Guests can easily circulate between indoor seating near the marble fireplace and outdoor lounging around the fire pit—surrounded by a lush sanctuary of topiary lilacs and boxwoods composed by landscape designer Jayson DeGeeter. 

As the sun sets and the city’s lights flicker on, the festivities transition to “our core of sexy nighttime rooms with darker finishes,” notes Stillwaugh. Take the dining room for instance, aglow in amber-hued light that filters through a custom blown-glass installation. The space is further cocooned with tinted glass panels featuring an inner layer of shimmering metallic mesh. Not just a pretty façade, these built-ins double as illuminated wine displays, which, as Rogalski explains, were carefully engineered to control temperature and humidity.

The team also reconsidered typically pragmatic rooms as potential areas for spontaneous socializing. One such space is Tom’s office, which transforms after hours into an intimate cocktail spot, the midnight palette mirroring the room’s view of the iconic black steel John Hancock Center. For the kitchen, the couple “really wanted something that felt like a bar lounge,” says Craig. To meet that desire, half of the room’s footprint gives way to a vast island that doubles as a bar counter. 

Though these rooms embody distinct personalities, the dwelling still feels unified by a repeated grid motif on the walls. Materials vary, from cowhide and brass in the office to walnut and textured plaster in the kitchen, yet the spaces “are all held together by that geometry,” explains Pickert. The dramatic dark terrazzo floors also became an aesthetic through line, featuring “larger chunks of aggregate to give it a deep, rich look,” says Bulak.

As Craig and her team had designed the couple’s previous apartment, they retained many of their existing Art Deco-esque furnishings. But, Stillwaugh explains, “since this home had a more contemporary architectural envelope, we looked forward to adding some modern furnishings.” Newer pieces like a curvaceous Vladimir Kagan sofa and a straw marquetry cabinet introduce more dynamic silhouettes. The couple’s existing art collection of abstract paintings and black-and-white photography also proved key to animating the abode. From Peter Beard’s languid Maureen Gallagher and a Late Night Feeder in the living room to Simen Johan’s famed buffalo photograph in the hide-clad office, “we were very deliberate in how we could punctuate the architecture and design using art,” says Craig. 

Just as artwork helped cultivate the atmosphere, so too did the lighting design by Nathan Orsman. The lack of previous wiring made room “for a custom ecosystem, which means every light in the unit can be adjusted to whatever the couple wants,” notes Rogalski. At night in particular, the precisely calibrated network offers warm illumination while avoiding any harsh reflections against the glass windows that could obscure views.

Indeed, Chicago’s metropolitan charm feels woven into every element of this new home—perhaps most so when night falls and the skyline starts to glimmer. Perched up so high, says Craig, “you really get a sense of looking out over the city as it begins to shine.”