Modern Meets Historical In This Chicago Art Deco Building

Details

The den is decorated in...

In the den of this home designed by Jessica Lagrange, Jennifer Durand and Jennifer Sucher, the family dog, Tess, relaxes on a rug from Oscar Isberian underneath a Made Goods pendant. Above the fireplace hangs a painting by Earl B. Lewis.

A wood console topped with...

The eclectic style of the entryway sets the tone for the rest of this home. A Summer Classics wood console provides a visual anchor, with an RH mirror floating above and a Stark Carpet rug on the floor.

The living room, which is...

The thoughtfully composed seating area in the living room was conceptualized to harmonize with the adjacent kitchen, conveying modernist expression balanced with comfort and warmth. The Hickory Chair sofa upholstered in Cowtan & Tout sits opposite A. Rudin armchairs covered in Jim Thompson fabric.

The dining room is minimal...

A minimalist, gallery-like approach was taken in the dining room, where the owners’ own art and dining table are offset by a Circa Lighting pendant and Donghia ivory lacquer chairs.

The kitchen has white cabinets,...

The goal for the kitchen was for it to be clean, contemporary and functional, with two key focal points: the Baker counter stools and the pendants from Circa Lighting. The sleek cabinetry is by Ernestomeda.

The office has light blue...

Kenn Kwint’s A Place to Enter hangs above an Avery Boardman sofa in the seating area of the office, which is coated in Benjamin Moore’s Aegean Teal. The bronze ottoman from deAurora is upholstered in a Chris Barrett textile. The side table is vintage.

The light teal office has...

JJ Millwork Design created the custom desk and tackboard in the wife’s colorful office. The team then paired it with a Theodore Alexander chair.

The clients' bedroom is decorated...

The design team wanted to bring a softer, more feminine approach to the clients’ bedroom. A Theodore Alexander bed and vintage touches, such as the rug from Oscar Isberian, 1960s Gigi Radice armchair and gilded sunburst mirror, achieve that goal.

When dreaming of their retirement roost, few people envision its location as a former parking garage. And yet, for a recently retired couple who moved from Dallas to Chicago to be closer to family, a converted 1930s Art Deco building with streamlined, contemporary interiors proved to be exactly what they were looking for. “They didn’t want to buy in a high-rise, but they didn’t want the upkeep of a single-family home,” explains design principal Jessica Lagrange. The happy medium? A two-story unit in the converted Lincoln Park historical building that had the feel of a single-family home but with the ease of a residential building. There was also an added enticement: two outdoor terraces—a rarity for buildings of its kind in the city—with floor-to-ceiling windows that drenched the interiors with natural light.

Embracing the freedom that comes with new beginnings, the couple decided to try a different design aesthetic from the one they’d had in their suburban Texas home. “They wanted to be a littler hipper. They wanted us to push them a little bit and go outside of their box,” says Lagrange, who, along with design director Jennifer Durand and interior designer Jennifer Sucher, was brought on to infuse the space with personality. “They were looking to start fresh.”

So, aside from some select artwork and antique pieces, the couple brought very few things with them. While they were willing to indulge their adventurous side, they were still minimalists at heart. And that meant certain things, such as elaborate patterns and bold colors, would be pushing them a little too far outside the box. “They really liked more organic textures and weren’t big on pattern,” notes Durand. “Everything is pretty much a solid, so we added interest by using chunkier knits and different materials.” Mohair, velvet and metals such as burnished brass bring warmth to the space, while the sleek geometric forms of lamps and side tables keep it feeling fresh and modern. A sculptural black-and-brass chandelier provides a counter to the master bedroom’s softer, feminine tones, while the chandelier over the dining table echoes the clean lines of the building’s interior.

Since the wife was easing her way into retirement and planned to continue doing some consulting, she needed a home office. Situated on the second floor, where she could take phone calls away from the TV in the husband’s first-floor den, the office is one of the residence’s bolder spaces, featuring jewel-tone walls and statement accessories as well as a Moroccan rug, African stool and assorted other items collected from the globe-trotting couple’s travels.

More visual surprise resides in its petite powder room, where a vibrant graphic print adorns the walls. “This is truly the one place in the home that they really allowed us to go a little bit crazier and bring in that pattern,” says Durand. “And because it was such a small powder room, it was fun to use such a big and kind of overscale print in that space, playing with the different proportions.” Adds Lagrange, “It was a push for them, but because it was behind a door, they trusted us.”

To strike a balance with the contemporary interior architecture and tie into the building’s Art Deco roots, the design team sourced one-of-a-kind antiques and works by regional artisans. Custom vintage furnishings paired with modern variations on midcentury classics gracefully segment the large living room into a series of more intimate spaces, among them a cozy seating arrangement in front of the ribbon fireplace that makes long Chicago winters bearable for the Texas couple.

But during the city’s warm summer days, the two outdoor spaces, which flow off the kitchen and living room, are where the couple spends their time. Landscape designer Jayson DeGeeter drew his color themes for terraces from Lagrange’s organic interior palette. Using ipe decking and glazed terra-cotta pots filled with shrubs and perennials, DeGeeter says he was also inspired by the owners’ love of the nearby lake. “Combined with the texture and colors of the glazed pots, the plants selected for each terrace—juniper, rugosa rose, calamagrostis, cotoneaster—call upon a visit to Lake Michigan,” he says.

There is another member of the household who also enjoys the outdoor space: the couple’s pooch. In fact, their beloved dog played an important role in the interiors as well. Performance fabrics were used throughout and a dog shower was installed in the mudroom, a charming touch that reflects the couple’s fresh outlook on life. It’s that open-armed approach that made the project so compelling in the first place. “She wanted it to be very eclectic,” says Lagrange. “I think that definitely reflects her taste.”