Cool Front Design Of House images

Charnley-Persky House (1892), balcony, 1365 North Astor Street, Gold Coast, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Image by lumierefl
designed for friend and Chicago lumberman James Charnley (1843-1905) by Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) assisted by draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) • Wright declared it first modern house in US • in autobiography FLR made disputed claim design was his:

Adler and Sullivan refused to build residences during all the time I was with them. The few that were imperative, owning to social obligations to important clients, fell to my lot out of office hours. They would, of course, check up on them in good time. Sullivan's own home on Lake Avenue was one of these, as was his southern house in Ocean Springs and the house next door for the Charnleys.

The city house on Astor Street for the Charnleys, like the others, I did at home evenings and Sundays in the nice studio draughting rooms upstairs at the front of the little Forest Avenue home.... In this Charnley city-house on Astor Street I first sensed the definitely decorative value of the plain surface, that is to say, of the flat plane as such.

developer, preservationist & philanthropist Seymour Persky (b. 1922) purchased house, 1995, donated to Society of Architectural Historians • designated Chicago Landmark, 1972 • designated National Historic Landmark, 1998 • National Register #70000232, 1970 • Charnley-Persky House Museum • Waymarking

Shotgun House Porch

Image by pug freak
The front section of the house is original.

House of the Day #14: 4002 W. Waveland

Image by reallyboring
This two-flat at 4002 W. Waveland, at the corner with Pulaski, was built in 1910. It's a fairly simple red brick box, with a single common entrance and a spacious porch. Perhaps the most interesting detail about the building is the band of ornaments in the brick near the parapet wall.

The design was apparently used three times in a row on this block, with all three built the same year. They share a façade layout, with the door and porch in the same location, the same stone lintel over the front-facing window on the first floor, and quoins (the patterns at the corners). And though it's hard to see, they also bear the same brick design along the roof line. The only difference? Each was executed in a different color of brick - yellow, brown, and red.

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