For most Oakhurst residents, however, the attraction is more about community pride than schooling—a fact that's evident in the oak-tree-emblazoned neighborhood banners that can be seen waving from just about every front door. By Jennifer Senator
Burling and Orchard streets, Chicago
Zip Code: 60614.
Area: 4 city blocks.
Distance to Downtown: 4.2 miles.
Houses on Market (as of July 2007): 16.
Median Home Price: $2,895,500.
Distinguishing Characteristic: Lapse in landmark protection and zoning that allows 2.2 square feet of structure for every 1 square foot of land—more than double what is permitted elsewhere in the city. The largest houses on these streets run anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 square feet, with equally daunting prices, some of them in excess of $20 million.
This sliver of the city just west of historic, charming Old Town, on the southern edge of elegant Lincoln Park, has been radically transformed in the past fifteen years by the construction of some of Chicago's most extravagant new houses.
The late-19th-century workers' cottages that lined Burling and Orchard streets were never good candidates for the luxurious upgrading that has been the norm in adjacent neighborhoods since the 1970s. But by the 1990s these simple frame buildings looked mighty attractive to a new breed of urbanites, people for whom even the most brilliantly executed remodeling of an existing building would not satisfy the lust for a residence that is state-of-the-art, amenity enriched and really, really big.
The buying spree and tear-down trend started in 1991, when art-collecting philanthropists Lewis and Susan Manilow built a 10,000-square-foot contemporary house on a Howe Street property comprising four city lots (twenty-five feet is the standard lot width in Chicago). They've since moved out of the house, but the craze they inspired just a block away on Orchard, and also on Burling, shows no signs of abating. Among other purchasers were Penny Pritzker and Sara Crown Star, and also less renowned billionaires, such as insurance mogul Richard Parrillo and a batch of hedge funders, real-estate developers and media figures. (Pritzker paid $7 million for five lots; Parrillo's 20,000-square-foot petit palais, designed by Thomas Beeby, will cost $40 million to build.)
Even though this location was relatively undiscovered for a long time, it's practically on top of some of the city's most desirable eateries and cultural attractions: the restaurants Charlie Trotter's (816 West Armitage Street; 773-248-6228) and Alinea (1723 North Halsted Street; 312-867-0110), as well as the Steppenwolf Theatre (1650 North Halsted Street; 312-335-1650), are all within walking distance.
Big money, of course, doesn't necessarily guarantee a high level of taste, and many of the gargantuan palazzos have earned their share of scorn and derision. There are bright spots, though, and a few of the new homes actually enrich the streetscape. The Pritzker and Crown Star houses, which face each other on Orchard, were designed by partners in the same firm, Wheeler Kearns Architects. The former is precise and Minimalist; the latter is more historically referenced and richly faced. As case studies, they offer contrasting but equally valid takes on an altogether new urban experience for Chicago. By Philip Berger
Statistical research for this section by Erik D. Price
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