An incredible luxury penthouse in Chicago with the best views of Lake Michigan

The house in question, which looks like a single family mansion from another time, it is pure luxury in itself, as we are going to show you in this piece, but what makes it a unique home is its concept, its location: few penthouses in the world can boast of having an outdoor garden with best views of a city the size of Chicago. Judge for yourself by seeing the image that its owners have when they leave the interior of the house to the aforementioned garden. It seems unreal.

The house in question has become in recent years one of the most iconic in the entire United States, not just in Chicago. The reason is that it is a house that was unknown for many years. And that is not common in the luxury real estate sector. Even though It dates back to 1929, the year in which this beautiful building was built on the edge of Lake Michigan.it was not until 2020 when it went viral, both its landscaped exterior and its baroque interior, when it went on sale for the third time since it debuted almost a century ago.

As The Wall Street Journal reported then, The penthouse went on sale for around 20 million eurosalthough in later years its price was updated downwards. In any case, a million euros up or a million euros down, there is no doubt that this is one of the most unique luxury houses in the world. In line, although its design is completely different, to the most expensive penthouse in the world, located in Monte Carlo, which has a large swimming pool with a slide outside.

Nothing is alike, except that both are super-luxury penthouses, the home located at the top of 1500 Lake Shore Drivea tower that houses another 56 luxury apartments that was built by the architecture studio McNally & Quinn in collaboration with Rosario Candela. Candela, by the way, is one of the architects with the most impact on the conception of Manhattan at the time, and this one in Chicago is one of the few buildings in whose design he participated outside the city of skyscrapers. The terraces on high floors are one of the hallmarks of his work.

For the jewel of the building, the attic, Candela and the aforementioned architecture studio designed a Italian style apartment with six bedrooms and as many bathrooms. All of this, along with a large living room with a fireplace and other equipment, such as the kitchen, distributed over an area of ​​743 square meters that embraces a rectangular garden terrace of around 400 square meters.

The space on the cornice of the building has a loggia (balcony) and is decorated with stone benches and even an ornamental fountain.

An elevator goes directly to the entrance gallery of the luxury home, which It has vaulted ceilings painted with frescoeshence one of the few owners that the penthouse has had in its almost 100 years of life – another was the financier George Woodruff – the businessman Michael Wilkie, who acquired it in 1975, said, perhaps exaggerating a little, that ” You feel like you’re in the Sistine Chapel…

The high ceilings are also protagonists in common spaces of the house such as the library, located on the second level of the house, which has a duplex layout to which is added a partial third level with another living room.

To reach this part of the house, from the entrance hall, you have to walk through a twelve-meter-long hallway finished with walnut paneling, which leads to the impressive main living room, dominated by the house’s fireplace.

That’s how this is unique architectural gem which for years was hidden on the roof of a limestone-clad Chicago building that has exclusive services. Some are typical of the year in which it was built, such as its private garage or the interior English garden, and others are typical of the current times, as is the case of a fully equipped fitness room in perfect condition thanks to the fact that it has staff 24 hours a day.

The latter is known because the building, as is the case with other neighborhood communities that inhabit emblematic spaces such as the Torres Blancas building in Madrid, has its own Web page official.

It is through this direct source that we can affirm that The building is almost as luxurious as the penthouse that crowns itsince its lobbies have original carpentry, and the marble floors and bronze on the thresholds and elevator doors are also preserved. Furthermore, although they have been mechanically updated, they retain the original manual controls.

For all this, it is, as the owners themselves presume, “one of the most prestigious buildings in Chicago». A building about which you now know what was its best-kept secret, the incredible luxury penthouse built on its roof and the garden terrace on a cornice with dream views.