Historic Townhome Renovation

The Ryerson Townhome is one of David Adler’s earlier urban mansions located on Astor Street in the heart of Chicago’s Gold coast. Having not yet switched to his typical Georgian style, the house is in a bold, yet simplified Beaux Arts style. It stands a gracious 40’ wide and is full 5 stories tall.

Our job was to undo some of the unfortunate work of a previous renovation and restore it to its quiet exquisite taste. There are not the traditional decorative moldings one would expect. Instead, the plaster walls are panelized by indentations, where a panel mold might normally be. Elaborate shallow plaster musical themes surround the major rooms of the second floor.

The center of the home contains a grand oval staircase rising 4 of the 5 stories. There is an oval dining room and then an addition over the garage to which we inserted a completely new kitchen.

The next floor is the master suite with a bleached walnut master bedroom at the front and a sitting room at the rear, which we panelized in stitched leather, reminiscent of the Jean Michel Frank library created for Adler in Paris. The next floor above contains three en suite bedrooms. Lastly, the 5th floor was built years later by Mr. Ryerson as his retreat.

The current Owner is the principal of her own interior design firm and was equally responsible for the interior design, and especially all of the art and art objects throughout the house. We were as motivated by her vision of the house as that of Mr. Adlers.