Winnteka Residence

1992, Winnetka Illinois

Tom Bader as Project Architect with Wheeler Kearns Architects

Located in Winnteka, a village on the north shore of Lake Michigan near Chicago, this single family residence was an early career project. The owners desired a warm pallet of natural materials with a modern sense of space on a 100’ x 300’ lot. After multiple schemes, the design became focused around a series of clearly distinct landscape spaces. The anchor spaces become the entry court, dining courtyard, and an expansive rear yard with the sequence of interior spaces arranged to carefully reveal each according to need. A related series of corner bays were introduced to provide glancing views and hint at the environments around the corner, out of view.

The first floor ceilings are clad in cedar, floors are handscraped white oak and walls are integrally colored plaster to provide a natural material presence. The rooms are loosely defined with space flowing around corners to adjacent rooms.

The exterior is clad is dark stained vertical cedar siding to visually recede and accent the landscape of white birch bark trees and native plantings. An indoor pool pavilion at the rear yard is attached with a wall that curves, sweeping into the interior volume that both unites it with the overall composition but also bends away and minimizes it’s presence from the interior view of the rear yard.

Interior Design: Leslie Jones & Associates
General Contractor: The Meyne Company
Photography: Barbara Karant and William Kildow Photography