Kwong Von Glinow

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The roof deck operates as an elevated outdoor room, angled 10 degrees toward Chicago’s eastern skyline.

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Project

Washington Boulevard Rooftop Addition

What

Renovation and Rooftop Addition

Where

Chicago, Illinois

Size

5,300 square feet

Client

Anthony and Caitlin Gonka

Status

Permitted

Team

Kwong Von Glinow: Lap Chi Kwong, Alison Von Glinow, Botao Sun, Nathan Geller, Yue Liang, Jiachen Wang; Goodfriend Magruder Structure, blakeMEP, MAP Strategies

Washington Boulevard Art Outpost is a second project with our clients from House for Art Collectors, extending their support of Chicago artists into a public-facing space. Conceived as both an artist residency and a weekend home, the project is organized around a new elevated platform added atop the existing two-and-a-half-story greystone. This horizontal plane creates a flexible multipurpose space below and an expansive roof deck above, allowing domestic life, artistic production, and public events to coexist within a single adaptable structure.

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The cantilevered platform extends to zoning limits, with the railing inset at a slight angle to emphasize the individual elements that compose the outdoor room.

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Located on a historically significant boulevard, the rooftop access stair is enclosed by a shed roof and is the only visible intervention from the streetfront.

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With rental units on the Garden and Level 1, the project renovates the shared lobby and the owners’ two-level unit, accessed by a private stair off the lobby.

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The entrance sequence begins in a dark, matte-black wood lobby inspired by the inside of an art crate, then ascends three stacked stair flights to the roof deck.

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On the second floor, the former living and dining rooms are reconfigured as a flexible domestic gallery for the clients’ collection.

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The gallery integrates linear LED lighting and a dark-green-stained floor to give the space a subtle institutional character.

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The third floor contains the primary suite, an informal lounge, and the new addition, which functions as a multipurpose space for living, making, and display.

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The rooftop addition is composed of four monolithic elements: a thick platform, a column, an angled wall, and an enclosed storage room. Together, they form a new multipurpose space atop the existing greystone.

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