“Chicago is famous for its architecture. People move here for it, form cults around particular styles, and fight with New Yorkers about who built it first and best. This forthcoming book, co-authored with Carla Bruni and filled with Phil Thompson’s illustrations, takes Chicagoans through the rich variety of residential architecture that they walk past every day in their own neighborhoods.

“This is the book for the curious Chicagoan or visitor to flip through and finally learn why that Foursquare or Italianate looks the way it does and why it always makes their pupils dilate. Why are our lots so narrow? How many kit homes were built? What kind of stone is “greystone”?

“This book is filled with stories, images, and a deep appreciation for those everyday buildings that stitch our lives together. Moving from Chicago’s earliest days to World War II show and tell the stories of more than forty percent of Chicago’s housing supply and addresses the homes most Chicagoans have lived in, and what is most recognizable as distinctly “Chicago” to visitors. Combining decades of experience in historic preservation and illustration, this is the evergreen book that every Chicagoans will turn to for well-researched, entertaining, and often surprising answers to their questions about what makes a home a Chicago home.”

“A remarkable and comprehensive exploration.”
—ELEANOR ESSER GORSKI, CEO & President of the Chicago Architecture Center

“If you want to understand how this city became what it is…this book is essential. It reminds us that every home holds a story—and we owe it to ourselves, and to our city, to listen.”
—TONIKA JOHNSON, social justice artist and creator of the Folded Map Project

“A timeless reference that’s truly fun to read. Honestly, everyone who’s ever lived in a building in Chicago should own this book.”
—MARTHA BAYNE, editor of The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook

“The book is beautifully illustrated and should be in every Chicago lover’s library.”
—DOMINIC A. PACYGA, author of Chicago: A Biography

“Say goodbye to stuffy history books, with its delightful sense of humor and delicious illustrations, Bruni and Thompson have produced the definitive history of Chicago homes.”
—MIKE JACKSON, FAIA, president, National Building Arts Center

• Chicago Homes: A Portrait of the City’s Everyday Architecture
  by Carla Bruni and Phil Thompson
  Illustrations by Wonder City Studio
  Published by Agate Publishing
• New ‘Chicago Homes’ Book Details History Of Living In Chicago, From Bungalows To Greystones; Authors and researchers Carla Bruni and Phil Thompson left no greystone — or terracotta — unturned in their 352-page book detailing and illustrating Chicago homes in the order they cropped up throughout the city’s history, Mack Liederman,Block Club Chicago, Block Club Chicago, 10/27/25