…while walking to the grocer’s, that I hadn’t kept you informed of the progress in the renovation of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Emil Bach House here on Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.
The west and south facades
Lots of building supplies clutter the front yard, and the scaffolding remains while the fascias are being strip-sanded and repainted, and the walls are being prepared for the application of a new layer of stucco.
The west facade
A pile of rubble next to an already-full Dumpster is all that remains of the old roof–I don’t know if this was the original.
Mr. Wright did have a reputation for creating leaky roofs, such as those at the Johnson Wax Center in Racine, Wisconsin, and at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The front Tulip Garden
I’m not certain if the fabulous Tulip Garden will be brought back, but the garden will be smaller with the addition of about six feet of sod laid as a buffer between bushes and the rich-looking soil.
The deck and rear entryway
The former sunroom walls have been removed to expose the original deck, which at the time of construction (1915) overlooked the shore of Lake Michigan.
Sadly, the lake was filled in, and the rear of the Bach House is now a half-block west of the shoreline.
The backyard
This was a complete and beautiful surprise!
A curving hand-laid stone pathway now surrounds a short retaining wall and flower beds.
This area was originally several feet high and quite ‘wild-looking’.
The structure on the right (a guest house?) is not original to the property–it was built, if I correctly recall, in 2008 and is attached to the two-car garage, which I also think is not original.
The building permit
It’s posted on the temporary cyclone fence at the alleyway, and gives you a pretty good idea of what is being added/renovated By Tawani Enterprises, Inc., which is headed by billionaire J. N. Pritzker.
Beginning October 1st, this building will be demolished–I don’t look forward to the noise and dust right outside my living area window!
The corner will supposedly look something like this after construction of the four-story Sheridan-Sherwin Parking Structure…except that this rendering is in very forced perspective–the length of the Sheridan Road footage is only about 160 feet +/-!
That’s my building sticking up behind the structure–I hope I don’t lose my view !
Another Thousand Words 