About This Property
Rarely does a home come to market that was never renovated by
committee, but composed over more than two decades by a single
visionary owner: a master carpenter, builder, and artist who
transformed this West Town residence into a true architectural
statement. Every material, window, and detail throughout the home
was chosen with intention, not trend, to create harmony between
light, craftsmanship, art, and nature. Rather than being remodeled
room by room, the home was reimagined as one complete work. The
rear staircase was fully reconstructed to flood the interior with
light and open the home to the garden, resulting in an oversized
architectural window that's as striking from outside as it is
within. The original siding was replaced with custom-cut James
Hardie fiber cement, detailed to honor the proportions of
traditional wood clapboard. The front entrance itself is a
discovery: antique Victorian pressed-metal panels, once used on the
ceilings of classic Chicago bars, were applied to the original oak
doors; most visitors assume the ornamentation is hand-carved wood.
It is not. Upstairs, the second-floor studio was built around a
single goal: capturing perfect north light. The roofline was
re-engineered with a soaring cathedral ceiling, skylights, enlarged
windows, and arched openings, creating a true working painter's
studio. The adjoining library features ornate column capitals and
intricately detailed plaster architectural reproductions, while the
nearby bathroom carries the same poetic sensibility blue cabinetry
chosen to mirror the sky through the skylight, and silvery white
and gold tile accents that catch the moonlight. The kitchen began
with a large antique cabinet found at a garage sale years before
the renovation began, and grew from there. A bay window overlooks
the garden. The countertop is Brazilian Green Piranha stone,
selected after weeks of searching stone yards for something that
evoked a riverbed. The backsplash is composed of ornamental antique
tiles, salvaged from an old tile stove and discovered in a Hubbard
Street antique gallery, arranged to form a second "window" onto an
imagined garden. Outside, a custom wrought iron fence inspired by
ornamental ironwork the owner encountered in Santa Fe replaced the
original chain link. Built on 42-inch concrete foundations with
custom rounded molding, it is believed to be the only fence of its
kind in Chicago. The rear garden functions as another room of the
home, anchored by a bird bath that draws songbirds through every
season. Even the garage received the same care: its bay window was
built from rare salvaged windows, originally rejected from another
project over a single inch of code, held onto for years until the
right home was found for them. The garage comfortably fits two
cars. The location complements the home in every way. Situated in a
West Town block that continues to grow more desirable, the home
offers direct Blue Line access to downtown, O'Hare, and Midway.
Orchestra Hall, City Hall, and Fulton Market are all within twelve
minutes; the United Center, the emerging 1901 Project, and the
coming casino are close by, while the street itself remains quiet
and residential. Neighborhood bakeries, a diverse range of
restaurants, ethnic and health food markets, the Eckhart Park
farmer's market, and the Chicago and Ashland library branch are all
within walking distance. The lakefront and Michigan Avenue are
reachable in ten minutes via the No. 66 bus. This is not simply a
renovated home; it is a thoughtfully crafted artist's residence
where architecture, construction, landscape, and art come together
as a single, cohesive vision. It cannot be replicated, because it
was never built from a plan. It evolved over decades from passion,
patience, and thousands of hours of hand craftsmanship, a true
one-of-a-kind property.
Phone: 425-283-2930
Address: 335 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017