Days of glory

By the early 1900s, Buena Park, in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, was a popular summer destination. Grand homes were built by wealthy families, and the area quickly became synonymous with the glamour of the entertainment industry.

Time passed, and as is so often the case, the area fell out of favor. The once stately homes either fell into disrepair or were turned into boarding houses and the like.

More than a hundred years later, these houses are once again desirable. Now part of the city of Chicago, Buena Park offers owners the benefits of single-dwelling living within an urban environment, says architect Ann Clark, principal of Nicholas Clark Architects.

"What was once a genteel outer suburb of high-end mini mansions is now a tree-lined inner-city area with lot sizes uncommon in Chicago today.

"Being a part of reinstating this home back to its former grandeur has been a really great experience."

Purchased by the current owner in 2006, the home built in 1902 was in a state of almost total disrepair when Clark was employed to bring it into the 21st century.

"It was definitely a case of previous owners not realizing what the house had to offer," says Clark. "Previous attempts at renovation had stripped almost all of the charm from the interior."

"Unfortunately, it didn't end there. Structurally, the front facade had suffered from foundation damage and the brick wall had buckled. Also, a 1980s addition to the rear was ill-suited to the house and found to be badly damaged."

Over a period of two years the home was painstakingly restored, which included rebricking the front facade from the second story up and rebuilding the rear extension.

"We also rebuilt the front porch, installing new columns and balustrades, and reconfigured the western facade to accommodate a new staircase."

In fact, the staircase was the catalyst for an extensive remodeling of the interior, says interior designer Mark Losher.

"The original staircase was perpendicular to the current one and was also the end wall of the entry. This meant in order to get to the rear of the home you had to walk through the living room, dining room and kitchen, which for modern living was totally inappropriate."

"By resiting the staircase and extending it to reach the third floor, a hallway leading to the rear of the home could be accommodated and natural light floods into the space," says Losher.

For the designer, who also acted as landscape designer on the project, devising the interior scheme involved working with a variety of aesthetics from a number of times and places.

"First and foremost, the goal was to make it approachable and comfortable. In order to be faithful to the property, there needed to be a reference to its heritage, so there are classic touches in every room. Also, the client spent several years living in Japan, so it was important to incorporate that influence into each room. And lastly, there was a desire to tie the landscaping to the whole, so that the rear terrace reads as an outdoor living room."

Unlike an actual Victorian home, there was to be no fixed sense of formal and informal spaces, says the homeowner.

"My vision was for rooms that would be used equally, that each would convey an air of public and private rather than have a specific purpose ascribed to them and be both welcoming and nurturing."

In terms of layout, only the living and dining rooms and what is now the library have retained their original configurations. The rest of the house was completely gutted and remodeled to suit.

"When I first went through the house, what's now the library was the master bedroom, but from that first visit, I knew that space was going to be a library," the owner says.

"The third floor, originally just one large space, would have been called the ballroom, in the parlance of the day. It now has three bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom."

The kitchen has the same footprint as in 1902, but at that time the space was divided into a kitchen and a maid's room.

This illustrates the entire project, says the homeowner, which did not aim to restore the home exactly to its original state, but rather to respect its heritage, while updating the functionality.

"This is a home that needs to accommodate a modern lifestyle and compromises and adjustments had to be made. That said, I made some compromises too my own taste runs more to the contemporary, but I knew that wouldn't fit well with this house, so I didn't try to shoehorn that aesthetic into this home."

It's a sentiment that's echoed by the designer. "There is a definite sense of old-world craftsmanship about the place, but it's not a showpiece for a former way of life. There is a hierarchy of design elements, yet in concert they create a cohesive whole," says Losher.

Nowhere is this more apparent than outdoors. The rear terrace was designed to be an extension of the living room. The furniture here closely resembles indoor furniture, and the fireplace is the focal point.

"By comparison, the roof terrace has a much more modern aesthetic, and yet it is not out of touch with the traditional elements around it. It belongs to the whole, while establishing its own sense of order," says Losher.

Story by: Trendsideas