Save This House

We we're given the heads-up that the William Schwefer House in Hawthorn Woods (1948) designed by Prairie School architect John Van Bergen, is still very much in danger of being a tear down victim. One of our readers wrote in to provide an in-depth look at why it should be saved...

John Van Bergen expert, Marty Hackl, offers this insight into this endangered PrairieMod home:

I’m guessing that you're all pretty tired of hearing from me about this, but I'm making some final pleas to try to save the John Van Van Bergen designed Schwefer house in Lake County. As you know, the house is without doubt an important and unique example of residential architecture. There is no doubt that it merits status as a historic architectural landmark. Yet it is not landmarked, and has absolutely no protection. But it is for sale, and it could be purchased, protected, and then resold if necessary.

I often enjoy the comparison of architecture with music and dance. This house can easily be described that way.  The building is an ingenious but subtle dance of the three basis geometric forms; rectangles triangles and circles.  Like a Bach fugue, Van Bergen played with these shapes with skilled counterpoint.  It is so skillfully done and subtle, that I didn‚t even begin to notice the counterpoint until after several visits.

And this great fugue has an interplay of other elements as well.

Coming almost dead-center in the middle of the 20th Century (1948), the house is at once "Mid-century modern," and the apotheosis of the ideals of the Prairie School. And, it has the distinction of being the final Prairie School structure ever designed by one of the original architects of that School, and the most prolific practitioner of that School.

And while, at the time of its construction, it reflected the past and the present, it also reflected the future. There were techniques of construction used that were experimental, some very forward thinking, including the use of double-glazed insulating windows (1948!) — and all concrete block and slab construction, the whole building a thermal mass, able to moderate changes in temperature, and thereby reduce the costs heating and cooling.  It was a "green" building in 1948!

The interior plan is outstanding. The original owners were richly rewarded by Van Bergen's years of experience in good planning and creating dramatic yet very usable space (except for the outdated kitchen).  The are some surprising and fine, period, custom architectural elements, including some unique light fixtures, and both bathroom walls and shower lined with 2-foot square slabs of Carrera glass. The bathrooms have all original Crane fixtures. All the cabinetry, doors, and windows in the house are custom and original.

Finally, and most notably, the element that is most outstanding about this property, is how the building is sited within the landscape. The property is in the midst of the rolling terrain of Hawthorn Woods and Lake Zurich in western Lake County Illinois. The original property was a 100 plus acre tract of farmland, mostly grazing, Oak Savannah, and a large undisturbed wetland. The wetland of about 40 or 50 acres is now protected.

Although it is difficult to say what is exactly the front or the back of the house, when you approach the house from the long curving driveway, you come at it, sited partway down the hill, essentially from the rear, or west, side. You don‚t see the main façade, the east-facing, which is lined with windows and overlooks the vast wetland. That wetland is also the source of the well-known Flint Creek, which begins on this property and runs through areas of Lake County such as Barrington Hills. The shape, plan and siting of this house foreshadowed almost all of Van Bergen's later work in the mountains of Santa Barbara, all of which are now destroyed.

This house cannot be seen from any roads or streets, and though the original property has been subdivided, the house still sits on almost three of its own acres, and further subdivision is no longer possible by covenant. Buffers, woods and wetland are also protected by conservation easements.

To learn more about saving this house, contact us and we'll be happy to put you in touch with the right people.

Image copyright Marty Hackl

Comments

[Marty Hackl]

This time it's my image. The Reader "borrowed" it.

Thanks for the post!

[The Reader]

The Reader borrowed it with permission, of course.

[Tanya]

How much are they asking for it? I probably can't afford but who knows? This would be helpful info to have in the post.

[PrairieMod Admin]

Here is the listing:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/Illinois/Lake_Zurich/Homes_for_sale/3c836e56f22e66ed9a1577b4725cf71?cc=realestate&p=Lake%20Zurich,%20IL&priceHigh=&priceLow=&nodeId=750007014&sortBy=price%202&radius=&bedrooms=&bathrooms=&type=&b=41&ltype=0