“A grand Georgian townhouse designed by David Adler that was mothballed for nearly 20 years will be listed tomorrow, extensively restored and expanded, at $7.2 million.
“Tucked behind a sedate brick façade that gives little hint of what’s inside, the five-bedroom home has a grand central gallery, 29 by 27 feet and two stories high with a skylit ceiling and a fireplace, all trimmed with classical moldings and frames. There’s a stylish new kitchen that opens onto an enclosed terrace, a dramatic oval staircase with a skylight hanging above it and a row of tall windows in the master bedroom that look out onto the lawns and trees of Lincoln Park.
“Bouwman said his goal when he bought the property was “to modernize it while protecting the sanctity” of Adler’s refined design. He attached a formerly detached garage, made the kitchen integral to the living space (when the house was built, only servants would have used the kitchen) and added a theater, a gym and a family room.
“In choosing finishes, Bouwman often echoed Adler. He used bold geometrical black-and-white tile to reflect the tile patterns Adler often used, and in a first-floor sitting room, a forest scene hand-painted onto wallpaper also evokes the style of the home’s original era.
“The townhouse, now more than 10,000 square feet, is one of a string of four attached homes on Lakeview Avenue designed in the 1910s by a trio of young architects: Adler, Henry Dangler and Ambrose Cramer. This one was originally the home of Abram Poole, an artist who may have used its central gallery as his painting studio. One of his works, painted directly onto the wall above the fireplace in the central gallery, is still there and comes with the house.
Next door to this townhouse is the largest home in the row, built for a survivor of the Titanic. That 16,000-square-footer also is undergoing restoration, by Foster Design Build, which bought it for $2.7 million in March 2017.'” (Rodkin, Crain’s, 3/13/21)
Preservation Chicago played an active role with owners, neighbors, community organizations, and 43rd Ward Alderman Michele Smith to landmark these four seminal rowhouses by architects David Adler and Henry Dangler in 2016.