Lauren Buxbaum Gordon revamps Jazz-Age co-op in - Crain's Chicago Business

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All the homes that Michiganders Randi Williams and Dale Watchowski have ever owned have been from the Jazz Age, the 1920s. “It seems to be our era,” Williams told Crain’s. 

So when their daughter was in law school in Chicago and they wanted to buy a place for long-term visits here, they gravitated toward a Gold Coast co-op straight out of the 1920s. It’s a two-story unit within 40-50 W. Schiller Street, a pair of buildings designed by architect Andrew Rebori and built in 1924.

Connected by a walled courtyard, the buildings have a classical brick exterior but interiors that exude 1920s style with their bands of windows, curvaceous interior staircases, Juliet balconies on the inside, looking over the foyer, and other details. 

The couple then brought in interior designer Lauren Buxbaum Gordon, a partner in designer-to-the-stars Nate Berkus’ firm whose designs, including one for her own former Gold Coast home, are stylish and dramatic.

Gordon’s approach to the couple’s two-bedroom unit: paint it black. Window frames, kitchen cabinets, an original skylight and even one whole bathroom are done in black, mostly lacquer, with a gleam suited to the 1920s. 

Williams and Watchowski’s daughter is now working in Charleston, S.C., and the parents have purchased a house there from the 1750s, breaking their long-term preference for the Roaring '20s. Their Schiller Street unit will come on the market sometime next week, represented by Sophia Worden of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago. 

Worden said the asking price, $950,000, is for the home and all its furnishings.  Worden said it could be also be sold without the furnishings at a to-be-negotiated price.

See more homes in our Before It Hits The Market series.

Gordon’s many black accents, including not only big ones like the window trim and lampshades but little ones like the curtain rods and picture frames “draw your eye around the room,” Worden said. 

Everything else is light—oak floors, curtains and other fabrics—in Gordon’s deft take on the black-and-white decorating trend. 

The unit is on the building’s third and fourth floors. This main living space, on the third floor, has a long wall of windows that look at historical homes on Dearborn, and a shorter one with a view of the stately St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church.

The entrance to the building is through this tranquil courtyard, which is separated from Schiller Street by a row of arches and a wrought-iron rail. It makes the experience of coming to the building “feel like going to a charming little hotel in Paris,” Worden said.

Worden has one word for the staircase: “Sexy.” It’s original to Rebori’s design, but Gordon turned up the heat with black paint and, on the steps, berber carpeting. 

Because the sellers were only part-time residents, the home “is lightly used,” Worden said. Fully furnished, “it’s like finding a pied-a-terre in London or Paris.”

The couple bought the unit in early 2016 for $630,000. It’s a two-bedroom, formerly three but with a laundry room where there used to be a small bedroom off the kitchen, which was likely originally used by a maid. 

In the dining room, a chandelier overhead and a classic built-in cabinet redone in black give the space a sophisticated atmosphere.  

With black lacquer cabinets and white tile backsplashes, the kitchen has all the refinement of a 1920s movie star in a trim tuxedo. Everything is new here down to the walls, Worden said. 

As seen in an earlier photo, the staircase alone is alluring. Seen here, it’s part of a composition by Rebori that includes a skylight in the ceiling and an interior window bay, both accentuated by Gordon's detailing. 

The main bedroom has grasscloth on the walls, a modern brass light fixture overhead, and windows onto both Dearborn and the neighboring church. 

At left is an original wall of bedroom cabinetry from the era before big closets, its doors blackened by Gordon. A walk-in closet is off the hallway. 
 

Limestone wall tiles and brass accents give the main bedroom’s bath the atmosphere of  “a nice hotel in the 1920s,” Worden said, though all the plumbing has been updated. 

The walls in the second bedroom aren’t black but “a deep, deep navy blue,” Worden said. 

Along with the exterior windows seen at left, this room also has the Juliet bay that overlooks the foyer. That’s on the right, not seen in this photo.

In the second bathroom, black marble walls pairs with brass accents for a Jazz Age look. Like the kitchen, both bathrooms were gutted and rebuilt, Worden said. 

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