I have never lived in a house. Been in many, of course, spent nights in a few, but never lived in one. I’m an apartment guy, proudly, and can remember the 14 places I have lived in Chicago, from the time my parents brought me from being born to where I happily live now, a view of the lake out the window.
So, I was intrigued when I came across a new book, “Chicago’s Luxury Apartment Buildings,” one of the latest from Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series. It is the collaborative effort of real estate developer and historian Perry Casalino, who is passionate about photos, as exemplified by his work with photographer Allan Lee Koss for the book “Fares: Chicago Taxicab Portraits,” and lawyer and historian John Graf, who has written books about Chicago’s monuments, parks and mansions.
In this new book’s introduction, they write that their aim is to “shine new light on these extraordinary residences and restore them to their rightful place in the story of Chicago’s architectural history.”
They tell us that the city’s “first true luxury building” was completed in 1876, six brick-and-stone stories at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street. It was designed by architect James Rowland Willett and was named the Beaurivage, which is French for “beautiful shore.”
It was demolished in 1908, but the book features it and more than 120 others that were built in the nearly three decades that followed. (The oldest surviving luxury apartment building is the Mentone, built in 1883 at 650 N. Dearborn St., now housing businesses and offices.)
The South Side dominates across 75-some pages of the 128-page book, with the North Side having 40-some pages and the West Side but two, showing us the Ashland, a handsome five-story triangular building at 36 S. Ashland Ave., and a no-name massive building at 301-315 S. Halsted St.
Surprisingly, they still stand, as do more than a dozen others, and you can have a look at the Brewster, a nine-story spot at 2800 N. Pine Grove Ave., which began life as the Lincoln Park Palace Apartments when finished in 1896 with, I am told, a “stunning atrium.” It also was home for a couple of years to Charlie Chaplin.
Nearby, at the corner of Broadway and Surf Street, is a building first called the Lessing, in honor of, of all the “who-dat?” people, a German philosopher named Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Later renamed the Commodore and all condominiums now, it once housed a ballroom. Many of the other places in the book contained billiard rooms, bowling lanes, stores, gardens and other diversions and amenities.
More Top Picks Ego Power Plus Powerload With Line Iq St1623t
Unfortunately, there exist few, if any, photos of the buildings’ interiors, not allowing us to pry into the private lives of residents. But the authors are correct when they write that these buildings “laid the groundwork for the city’s ongoing fascination with tall and elegant residential buildings … (and) helped redefine what it meant to live well in an urban environment.”
There has always been an energetic curiosity about how the “other half” lives, so I asked the authors why.
“People have always been fascinated by the Gilded Age,” Casalino said. “I think people admire the considered architecture of these buildings, the use of stone, the classical design not seen in the new offerings of dwellings by developers these days. The Gilded Age also conjures images of capitalism and decadence that readers may love to hate.”
Graf offers this: “Why people enjoy seeing how ‘the rich’ live is intriguing. It is likely a combination of escapism, a desire for upward mobility, and a belief that wealth is a solution to life’s problems. Viewing luxury apartments with commanding views of parks and/or Lake Michigan allows many people to imagine what it must be like to possess such wealth.”
I also asked the opinion of Bob Goldsborough, the Tribune contributing writer who covers real estate, among other things.
“We live in an aspirational and upwardly mobile society, but I think it’s also fair to say that we live in a society that loves to gawk,” he told me. “And one of the things that people love to gawk at the most, positively and negatively, is real estate. What the Tribune’s ‘Elite Street’ column and the Los Angeles Times’ sadly vanished ‘Hot Properties’ column have shown is that readers love to escape into images and accounts of how the other half lives. Through the internet and various real estate sites, people with smartphones can lose themselves in such escapism. It’s a very popular and low-cost, or no-cost, way to spend a few moments imagining life in an expensive home’s kitchen, living room, home theater or pool area.”
The city’s skyline has long offered a striking scene, and it remains so, peppered with luxury apartment buildings. At One Bennett Park at 451 E. Grand Ave., for instance, you can score a 1-bedroom, 1-bath place, now available. The rent is $4,300 a month.