“Decades of shifting from a single-family home to a 19-room boarding house to a three-flat hadn’t changed the stately exterior of this Cleveland Avenue building, but inside, “There was nothing redeeming left,” says Leslie Glazier, who bought it in 2007 with her husband, Josh Glazier.
“They knew they would do a complete gut rehab, but what they didn’t know was that the guts they’d get down to, historical brick walls, would captivate them and drive the course of the interior they built out.
“‘The most important thing for this house was not to screw it up,’ Josh Glazier says. ‘We had uncovered all this beautiful brick, so the less we did to it, the better.’
“The interior became ‘like a loft inside an old home,’ Leslie says, with the brick walls, open living spaces and minimal casements on doors and windows familiar from lofts in Chicago’s countless converted warehouses.
“‘You’d never know when you look at the outside what you’re going to see inside,’ Leslie says. The loft look gives way at times to pop accents: keyhole-shaped doorways in the basement and vivid tile patterns in bathrooms.
“The house, on an oversized lot on Cleveland Avenue, is six bedrooms and 6,200 square feet, with a backyard and a three-car garage topped by a large deck. It’s in the core historical section of Lincoln Park, the blocks between Lincoln Park Zoo and Oz Park.
“The family of six is shrinking as the kids age out of their family home, so downsizing is imminent. Leslie Glazier, an @properties agent, has the home as a pocket listing, not on the multiple listing service. The asking price is $5.4 million.
“Brick walls, wood floors and tall windows give the open living spaces on the main floor an airy attitude that is likely the opposite of the long-lost original floor plan from 1885, when homes were typically cut up into series of rooms.
“Leslie Glazier grew up with parents who were habitual renovators, and with husband Josh, a real estate developer, had renovated past homes. This project became organic, he said, evolving as they discovered what was there.
“Because of its extra-wide lot, 40 feet as compared with the city norm of 25, the house originally had a portion that projected off to the side. In the rehab, the Glaziers pushed it out about 6 feet and lined the new walls with brick salvaged from the old garage they demolished.
To maintain the openness of the space, the Glaziers swore off upper cabinets and any ‘big clunky things’ suspended above the 14-foot island, Leslie says. Wood veneer cabinets and stainless-steel appliances continue the ‘don’t screw it up’ theme, providing a low-key contemporary look. The countertops are stainless steel, except on the island, where it’s granite.” (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 11/18/21)
Read the full story with many photos at Crain’s Chicago Business