Kwong Von Glinow

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Ardmore House is a single-family house located on a typical Chicago block at the intersection of a residential street and an alleyway.

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Project

Ardmore House

What

Single Family Home New Construction

Where

Edgewater, Chicago

Size

3,100 sf

Client

Kwong Von Glinow, Enjoy Architecture Development

Status

Completed September 2020

Team

Kwong Von Glinow: Lap Chi Kwong, Alison Von Glinow, Shichen Eric Li, Adam Botao Sun, Tammy Phan, Junfu Cui, Jimmy Carter, Winee Lau, Raven Nan Xu;
Goodfriend Magruder Structures;
Oslo Builders;
James Florio Photography

Press

Crain's Chicago, “In Edgewater, a house unlike any other,” more...

For this house bordering an alleyway on a traditional Chicago lot, Kwong Von Glinow flips the traditional residential section, arraying bedrooms on the first floor and living spaces on the second. This approach supports contemporary ways of living, emphasizing communal areas, interconnectivity, and flexible live-work spaces that receive ample natural light and engage the surrounding urban context.

A curved double-height atrium runs lengthwise from front to back doors, creating an interior courtyard that vertically connects the common areas on the first and second floors. Defined by a large picture window and a curving wall, the courtyard offers an informal multi-purpose area where residents can relax and their children can play.

The design of the home balances privacy and openness on the urban site. Off the courtyard’s curving inner wall lie all of the home’s bedrooms, pushed away from the alleyway towards the neighboring lot. The two bedrooms nearer the front of the house have windows that look toward the neighbor’s Chicago brick wall, providing privacy from the view of the street and neighbors. The primary bedroom suite is located at the back of the home, overlooking a private garden.

A stair tucked behind the courtyard’s curving wall leads to the second floor. The open plan is organized around four trusses that support the house’s Chicago balloon frame. These trusses distinguish five areas set around the curve of the balustrade: the kitchen, the island, the dining room, the powder room, and the living room. Throughout, a restrained colors and materials palette—white walls and white oak wood floors, trusses, and furnishing—draws attention to the qualities of the spaces themselves. All of the shared and public spaces on the second floor are oriented towards a ribbon window that spans the length of the interior courtyard. The 56-foot-long window floods the home with natural light and opens panoramic views that capture the fullness of the surrounding neighborhood: century-old trees, the back balconies and fire-escapes of neighboring buildings, and street lamps with their meandering cabling.

The exterior of the home engages the neighborhood’s traditional vernacular style while reflecting the organization of the interior spaces. The design shifts the facade hierarchy from the street to the alleyway, the most urban of the contexts. The street-facing facade has a row of half-height ribbon windows along the second floor and a single door on the first level, maintaining privacy for the front bedroom. On the alleyway side, floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor and a large picture window facing out to the alleyway from the interior courtyard open the interiors to the urban surroundings.

The exterior materials approach emphasizes the sectional flip and lends visual rhythm to the monolithic building. The house sits atop a concrete base with a dual-color Accoya wood rain screen system. The bottom half of the first level is clad in grey wood, while black wood lines the top half of the first level and all of the second.

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The design of the home calibrates the relationship between privacy and exposure in this urban site.

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The exterior of the home communicates its interior living patterns. With an expanse of windows spanning the second level along the alleyway, the home unapologetically expresses its openness and internal organization.

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Ardmore House flips the traditional residential section, arraying bedrooms on the first floor and living spaces on the second. A two-tone wood clad façade breaks up the monolithic volume and alludes to the sectional program split.

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All of the shared public areas of the home are on the second level above the alleyway - where residents spend most of the time. The private spaces of the home are tucked away behind a curving interior courtyard on the first level.

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The kitchen, living, and dining spaces are located on the upper level, with the bedrooms and bathrooms on the first floor.

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On Level 1, the curved wall of the interior courtyard leads to each of the bedrooms.

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On Level 2, all of the living spaces are connected together under a single vaulted roof and spatially defined by their location underneath four spanning structural trusses.

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A curved double-height interior courtyard atrium runs lengthwise from front to back doors, creating a vertical connection between the common areas on the first and second floors.

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The second level is reached from a concealed staircase behind the courtyard’s curved wall.

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The second level is organized by four trusses that hold the Chicago balloon frame home together, and designate five areas set around the curve of the balustrade: the kitchen, the island, the dining room, the powder room, and the living room.

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Upon reaching the second floor, the living room overlooks the residential street while the placement of furniture directs views over the alleyway and down the length of the second floor.

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Level 2 is an otherwise fully open plan save for the powder room that serves the level.

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All of the second floor spaces are oriented towards a 56-foot-long ribbon window that spans the length of the western façade and floods the home with natural light. Panoramic views capture the fullness of the surrounding neighborhood.

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The design of the second level responds to human needs of light and air and is fulfilled with ample daylighting , bringing in uninterrupted views out across the alleyway to connect the residents to their urban neighborhood.

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The view from the kitchen's northern façade captures the back balconies and fire-escapes of neighboring buildings, and street lamps with their meandering cabling.

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The view is always transforming with the time of day as residents come and go, and with seasons as the landscape and wildlife play out their seasonal changes.

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Conceived of as more than a hallway, the interior courtyard offers a space of its own, overlooking the active alleyway and serving as a place to have a cup of coffee or a play area for children.

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The back entrance to the home offers access to Level 1 or the Basement Level.

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The kitchen window looks out over the back alley offering a view that captures the fullness of the surrounding neighborhood: back balconies and fire-escapes of neighboring buildings, and street lamps with their meandering cabling.

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The design of the house communicates itself to the neighborhood. Rather than disguising the interior organization of the home, the house proudly enunciates its organization and seeks to share its effect.