Chicago Architecture and Design

Wintertime may be keeping you indoors, but there’s plenty to do before all the best designers and contractors book up. Get started with these tips.

The John O. Carr House, built in 1950, has been expanded by its architect resident, who took painstaking care to preserve its original character.

Located near Chicago, the 1950s-era house was designed by Erickson shortly after he left a fellowship with Wright at Taliesin East.

The Chicago-based designer is using his Japanese heritage to reimagine hammers and mallets.

Once a designer-in-residence for Japanese furniture manufacturer Idée, the Chicago-based designer now uses craft and industrial techniques to produce thoughtfully proportioned...

Maya Bird-Murphy, founder of Chicago Mobile Makers, converted a Postal Service truck into a pop-up design classroom for neighborhood children.

The home’s interiors echo the dense forest outside its massive windows.

Artist couple Nick Cave and Bob Faust work with Carlo Parente Architecture to craft a creative space in a 1920s industrial building in Chicago.

Back on the market, the 1896 Heller House marked a turning point in Wright’s career.

Originally a private school and now a single-family residence, the 1912 design showcases Wright’s iconic “kinder-symphony” windows.

Chicago Mobile Makers converts a USPS van into a roving “makerspace” for young people to learn new design skills.

A talented team balances historic and modern elements in an 1885 Queen Anne that had been sabotaged in the ’60s.

Carefully placed windows steep this crisp Chicago apartment in the texture of the city.

The Japanese-influenced S. A. Foster House and Stable was designed during the architect’s experimental period in the late 1800s.

A quirky multilevel home in Chicago’s Old Town by pioneering architect Walter Netsch has been sympathetically restored by its new owners.

Vladimir Radutny Architects refines an industrial loft in Chicago, introducing a restrained palette with sculptural accents.

A new book explores how the 1915 Bach House distilled the tenets of Wright’s work into a single, affordable home.

Ideas like urban acupuncture and biofeedback belie the simplicity behind Sweet Water Foundation’s mission—to help folks in blighted neighborhoods reclaim their humanity.

You can choose from a riverfront studio in the famous "Corn Cob Towers" and the former home of Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.

The couple behind Threadless eschew boring neutrals for more natural light, plants, and vibrant color in their kitchen remodel.

As one of the few remaining Wright designs with a two-story living room, this century-old residence is ready for new owners to reinstate its former glory.

Hot dog heaven is closer than we thought—it's in a Chicago parking lot.

Artistic director of this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, Yesomi Umolu is at the center of an energized design capital.

Chicago–based Eifler & Associates Architects leads a painstaking renovation of the rarely published home located in Barrington Hills, Illinois—overseeing everything from a sagging...

In the village of Oak Park next to Chicago’s West Side, Seven Point fights the stigma surrounding cannabis usage with high-end design.

Chicago’s Frederick C. Robie House underwent an expansive $11 million restoration helmed by its preservation steward, the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.

Built in 1892, this newly listed Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in a Chicago suburb has a remarkable history.

Equal parts cafe, bottle shop, and market, this laid-back hangout brightens Chicago’s Ukrainian Village.

Simplicity drives the transformation of a cluttered Chicago loft into a clean and calm home.

Noted Chicago architect Dennis Blair declared this masterful, modernist Schell House his favorite residential work.