In the bathroom, perforated-metal screens create a pointillist perspective on the landscape.

Public, Chicago Ian Schrager’s Public Chicago, designed by Yabu Pushelburg, achieves its aim of being both sophisticated and affordable. A muted color palette allows accents to emerge. The array of planetary lights in the hotel’s bar, Pump Room, is a prime example.

As the only handicap-accessible building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent House (so named for the couple that lived there from 1952 until 2012) was completed in 1952 as one of the so-called Usonian homes. The couple married shortly before World War II, and Ken Laurent underwent surgery during his service in the Navy that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Wright listened closely to his clients' needs to create an accessible design that was decades ahead of his time, including thresholds and floors that are level with the exterior ground for easy transitions between inside and outside. Wright designed much of the furniture in the house.

As the only handicap-accessible building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent House (so named for the couple that lived there from 1952 until 2012) was completed in 1952 as one of the so-called Usonian homes. The couple married shortly before World War II, and Ken Laurent underwent surgery during his service in the Navy that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Wright listened closely to his clients' needs, featuring accessible design that were decades ahead of his time, including a lack of thresholds and floors that are level with the exterior ground for easy transitions between inside and outside. Wright designed much of the furniture in the house, including the built-in seating shown here.

The Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, features a solar hemicycle footprint. Image courtesy of Wright Auction House.

Zoe and Jake horse around in their parents’ new master bedroom. Issa says he vaulted the ceiling to fit under the addition’s angular roofline for “spatial impact.” Paint is Extra White by Sherwin-Williams.

Robie House, Chicago, Illinois (1910)"Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance." It should come as no surprise who uttered those words—the architect of the famed Robie House, Frank Lloyd Wright. The residence, with its tight recessed entry leading to dramatic light-filled openness, seamless space unencumbered by needless partitions, continuous bands of windows, its horizontal, low-slung form, and overhanging eaves, is what the architect called "a cornerstone of American architecture."

Starbucks Drive-Thru (Chicago, Illinois) This demi-sized, 700-square-foot coffee shop in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood is one of a growing number of modular experiments from the big chain. This LEED-certified structure is hopefully a play towards better building practices as opposed to a means to plop a store on any available space.

Our last stop is at a private retreat in Illinois that features four bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths, and a four-car heated garage. The distinctly dark style of marble lining the walls of the bathroom helps forge a space that reflects its natural surroundings.

Spread over ten city blocks in Chicago’s Douglas neighborhood, IIT’s main campus contains the world’s largest concentration of buildings designed by Modernist pioneer Mies van der Rohe, who served as director of the university’s architectural school for nearly two decades. More recent additions include the Rem Koolhaas-designed McCormick Tribune Campus Center, a slinky, futuristic structure built under and around the elevated train tracks. The campus is easily accessible by public transportation via the Green Line’s Bronzeville stop. Photo by: Bo Mackison

Five young Chicago creatives prove why “five brains are better than one” as they work together to maximize their design potential as independent freelancers through studio Quite Strong.

Architect: John Replinger Location: Urbana, Illinois Price: $296,000 Replinger may not be as hallowed a name as Kahn or Meier, but the 1960s-era one-story home he designed in Illinois a worthy descendant of Glass House-style American modernism. Bonus? It's already been meticulously renovated. [via Curbed]

Curry Residence Section A Living-Dining Room B Kitchen C Stairwell D Master Bedroom E Master Bathroom

A bookshelf in Quite Strong’s studio holds a tongue-in-cheek motivational motto.

The collaborative’s printed projects include letterpressed collateral for a local leather company, a MoxieCon program, and illustrations used by CB2 for a set of plates.

The kitchen sports blue-gray cabinets and Azulej tiles by Patricia Urquiola for Mutina. The Currys keep an eye on the backyard through a large Pella window, situated above a sink with a Sensate faucet from Kohler. The range is by BlueStar.

A couple in Evanston, Illinois, asked John Issa of Perimeter Architects to add on a two-story, 650-square-foot addition to their traditional farmhouse. The new volume is clad in composite slate siding by Inspire Roofing Products; the windows are Pella.

The house is one of about 60 so-called Usonian houses that Wright designed for middle-income clients starting in 1936. Image courtesy of Wright Auction House.

The Laurent House Foundation Inc. paid $578,000 to purchase the at auction and has since secured a loan for $400,000 to finance a restoration effort, including the replacement of a section of the master bedroom ceiling that collapsed during a winter storm in March 2013. Photo courtesy of Wright Auction House.

The Laurent House opens to the public for the first time on June 7 and will be open the first and last weekend of each month. Admission is $15. Photo courtesy of Wright Auction House.

This was a typical ward at Kanakee State Hospital in Kanakee, Illinois.

The house was built with Chicago Common Brick and Tidewater red cypress, with much of the materials sourced locally in Rockford. Photo courtesy of Wright Auction House.

He Designed the Mile High Illinois, Which Would Still be the World’s Tallest Building Any Chicagoan would be lying if he or she said losing the title of city with the tallest building didn’t make their broad shoulders droop a bit. Well, if the city had built the Illinois, Frank Lloyd Wright’s theoretical skyscraper concept, the Burj Khalifa would just be second best. Make that second by a long shot, since the proposed mile-high skyscraper, meant to have room for more than 100 helicopters, 100,000 people, and atomic-powered elevators, would have dwarfed anything since constructed or conceived. Not a man for small gestures, Wright presented his idea for the tripod-shaped beauty in 1956 with a 26-foot-tall rendering done up in gold ink. When he spoke about the plan with Mike Wallace, he said, “Everybody would have room, peace, comfort, and every establishment would be appropriate to every man. It's an ideal that I think that goes with democracy, isn't it?” Photo courtesy Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

The existing house is a turn-of-the-century structure with a front bay window.

The Second City Chicago, Illinois Josh Parker

"Z3" Skyscraper, by Illinois Institute of Technology student Aaron Teefey.

One of the most significant of Mies' works, the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, was built between 1945 and 1951 for Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a weekend retreat. The home embraces his concept of a strong connection between structure and nature, and may be the fullest expression of his modernist ideals.

Built in 1957, this home was saved and dismantled at its original location in Illinois and relocated to its current location in Acme, Pennsylvania—only 30 minutes from the iconic Fallingwater. The Duncan House shares the 100-acre Polymath Park with three other homes for rent, designed by Wright’s apprentices.

In the warm interior of the X House in Hennepin, Illinois, Diane Pascal and Thomas Richie enjoy the view from their boiled-wool Ligne Roset couch in the main living area, where wood paneling on the ceiling and walls mirrors the topography of the landscape. A gauzy green curtain adds a moment of color to the scheme.

Chicago, Illinois Dwell Magazine : September / October 2017

The Unitarian Universalist Church, designed by Pietro Belluschi, in Rockford, Illinois. Image courtesy Jim Frazier.

The Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as a retreat for client Dr. Edith Farnsworth.

Balogh, who died in 2006, was a celebrated local architect. He was also credited for designing an estimated 150 structures throughout Michigan, Illinois, and Arizona.

Located in Park Ridge, Illinois, this kitchen renovation gives new life to a midcentury that has been passed down through generations.