“A condo in one of the city’s most distinctive 1940s residential buildings is coming on the market, with original details like streamlined corners, modernist stained glass and milk-white plaster walls all in mint condition.
“‘It’s like living in an art gallery,’ said Jen Koller, who has owned the one-bedroom condo in the Theophil Studios, an art moderne building on West Burton Place, since 1999.
“Koller is asking $315,000 for the roughly 750-square-foot second-story unit, which is represented by Compass agent Julie Latsko. The deeded parking space is offered separately at $30,000.
“Of six units in the building, Koller said, hers is likely ‘the closest to the way it looked originally.’ A few have lost much of their original detail in rehabs over the years.
“The exterior and the in-common staircase retain their original look, with a concrete ‘flying carpet’ canopy and a perforated wall presenting a snappy look out front and an artful combination of slim-line handrail and stone accents giving the staircase a sharp profile straight out of the 1940s.
“In Koller’s condo, original details include a circular ‘porthole’ window, multicolored tile baseboards and wood built-ins, including radiation covers and bookcases inset in the living room walls and dresser drawers next to the bedroom closet.
“‘The main attraction is the windows,’ Koller said. Their horizontal lines of stained glass are in the unique style of Edgar Miller, whose work is on other Burton Place buildings and elsewhere in Old Town and Lincoln Park. They were intact, but rusted and damaged when Koller bought the condo. She had them repaired and rebuilt, along with updating the kitchen and bath.
“Theophil Studios is in the West Burton Place Historic District, a block-long strip in Old Town where, beginning in the 1920s, artists and craftspeople rehabbed 19th century buildings into colorful, sometimes eccentric apartment blocks. While the well-known Carl Street Studios, a few doors west, is exuberant, Theophil is composed and orderly.
“The name Theophil comes from Theophil Reuther, the owner who converted it from an 1892 single-family home in 1940. The handsome design of the rehab, including the brick and stucco exterior and the wood and plaster interiors, was by Frank Lapasso. He went on to become a prolific architect of postwar motels and subdivision houses, according to 1950s Chicago Tribune ads that touted his name and modern style, in Glencoe, Niles and Summit, among others.” (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 5/13/24)
Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business
- Mint-condition condo for sale in 1940s art moderne landmark in Old Town, Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 5/13/24
- Theophil Studios, 143 W. Burton Place Listing #2N Listing
- West Burton Place Historic District Landmark Designation Report April 7, 2016