Lincoln Park Residence is a single family modern home that has been designed by Joseph Trojanowski Architect, and is situated near Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. The homeowner’s, a management consultant and a physician and their young daughter live here. With their busy lifestyles, they had very little time to house hunt, but they were outgrowing their two bedroom condo. After two years and 140 showings later, they stumbled on an empty lot in Lincoln Park, once home to a CTA bus barn. A local developer had been saving the land to build his own place, but due to the economic downturn, he put it up for sale. The couple scooped up the property in August 2010, “this was the perfect lot because, unlike most Chicago residences, it’s square-shaped as opposed to long and narrow, plus it’s near the lake and everything else we’ll ever need,” states the homeowner.

The three-story structure is comprised of 4,600-square-feet of living space. “I knew from the beginning that we would create a forward-thinking house,” says Trojanowski, “and nothing was designed out of habit or routine.”

Sliding glass doors act as instant, sleek room dividers, while the smart addition of a dumbwaiter allows for the wife to make breakfast in the kitchen and then sent up to her husband’s third-floor office.

To maximize the natural light that floods in from three sides of the home, floor-to-ceiling windows were installed and the walls were painted a crisp white.

Another defining element of the home: the use of green and healthy materials. The homeowner’s considered every component from floors to nails, lighting, carpeting, finishes… even the manufacturing practices used to make the products. When it came to insulation, they borrowed from the practices of Al Gore, who used AirKrete for his personal estate. “Sometimes, we did have to pay more for our choices, but we feel so good about them now.”

Photos: Mike Schwartz Photography