This Crown Molding Beats Yours: A 4-Bedroom at 3400 N. Lake Shore Drive in Lakeview
This 4-bedroom at 3400 N. Lake Shore Drive in Lakeview just came on the market.
Built in 1922, this unit still has the amazing original mahogany millwork and paneling in the living room and library.
It also appears to stretch into the 23×10 foyer.
They just don’t build them like this anymore. There aren’t the craftsmen who can do it.
The apartment has a carved mantle in the living room and 2 fireplaces in total, both with gas starters.
It just so happens we chattered about this unit the last time it was on the market in January 2009.
See our chatter here.
It did not sell in 2009.
The millwork is as beautiful now as it was then.
These are the pictures from the PRIOR listing.
Check out the intricate plaster ceiling in the dining room.
The listing says the master bathroom has been renovated.
It has the other features buyers of THIS era look for, including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and garage parking.
At 4,000 square feet, it is as big as most single family homes in the GreenZone.
Yes, the assessment is $2760 a month, but there are only 46 units in the building.
At $2 million, is this a bargain compared to all the new construction high rise units out there?
Meredith Manni at Berkshire Hathaway KoenigRubloff has the listing. See the pictures here.
Unit #8EF: 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 4000 square feet
- Sold in September 2000 for $852,500
- Sold in April 2002 for $1.05 million
- Sold in June 2005 for $1.425 million
- Was listed in January 2009 for $2.25 million
- Withdrawn
- Currently listed for $2 million
- Assessments now $2760 a month (it was $2300 a month in January 2009)- includes heat and air conditioning
- Taxes now $18,500 (they were $18,000 in January 2009)
- Parking included
- Central Air
- 2 Fireplaces
- Bedroom #1: 21×15
- Bedroom #2: 15×14
- Bedroom #3: 14×22
- Bedroom #4: 13×13
- Foyer: 23×10
How do you only take 14 interior picture on a $2MM property?
Place is awesome and outside of the wall paper in the Master not much I would change
They dont make them like this anymore
This is an amazing property. I would still choose a Gold Coast row home over this place, but for someone who wants the security that fully staffed buildings provide, this place would be great.
Given the size of the unit, age of the building, and the number of units in the building, the assessment is not out of scale. Especially when the assessment includes includes heat and air conditioning, which are going to be a lot per month for such a spacious condo.
“There aren’t the craftsmen who can do it.”
You’ve just insulted a slew of gifted carpenters wasting their talents on mass produced housing.
Fine woodworking is no longer accomplished with the same methods, but the same finished product is most certainly attainable.
“They dont make them like this anymore”
which brings up the question I’ve pondered from time to time. If somehow that fine plaster ceiling and other vintage features got damaged, could they be repaired/restored or are you SOL?
This is what I imagine Donald Trump’s apartment looks like. Frankly I am kinda surprised he doesn’t make his condo developments look more like this. Make condos great again!
“which brings up the question I’ve pondered from time to time. If somehow that fine plaster ceiling and other vintage features got damaged, could they be repaired/restored or are you SOL?”
Of course it can, it’ll cost you, but certainly can be done/repaired. They make molds of the plaster and use the cast to make more (much like they did to make it in the first place).
I think a lot of people have a misconception about Victorian (and anything, really, from about 1850 to 1930) Craftsmanship – most of the ornate ornamentation was ordered from catalogues, even if it was combined in unique ways. It wouldn’t surprise me if the plasterwork here and the woodwork was at least in part comprised of stock parts and ordered out of a catalogue, though obviously, top of the line catalogue.
Beautiful but if I am spending two million and that kind of HOA money each month a terrace is a non-negotiable, understanding that cuts out 98% of similar properties.
“If somehow that fine plaster ceiling and other vintage features got damaged, could they be repaired/restored or are you SOL?”
As FG sez: of course.
Go to the Chicago Athletic Association hotel sometime, and see if you can get into the ballroom (that used to be the main dining room). ALL of the ceiling was remade in fresh plaster, using the original mold (which happened to be sitting around somewhere). Its pretty cool.
“which brings up the question I’ve pondered from time to time. If somehow that fine plaster ceiling and other vintage features got damaged, could they be repaired/restored or are you SOL?”
no… people still do that stuff, just not as many… my friend has a neighbor that does that kind of plaster work, so yes, they exist
There are guys that plaster and then there are guys that plaster
The folks that have the skill to do this is a pretty small pool. Even with something simpler like Venetian Plaster, there are a whole lot of guys that can do it well
Another issue with mill work isn’t as much craftsmanship as much as it is getting the old growth wood. There isn’t very much of it left! In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s they would chop down some trees up north, put it on a boat on lake michigan, and build with it in Chicago. The old growth wood has a certain look and hardness to it that you can’t replicate with today’s wood. now in this particular house the millwork is mahogany and not some locally produced wood but considering the age and the look it’s probably old growth wood, and it’s extraordinarily difficult to replicate taht today.
Could you use reclaimed wood?
Labor was cheap when this place was built.
We needed some minor plaster repair and started researching contractors. Finding a quality craftsman to do it takes some legwork and research. Definitely not a pickup truck contractor job, nor is it inexpensive.
“Could you use reclaimed wood?”
Depends – a lot of reclaimed wood has been recovered from the bottom of rivers which gives it a different look than wood direct from the tree, as it were, would.
Much of San Francisco was built out of redwood studs and you’ll get the whif of it when you work on the house from time to time.
I have a Russian Oak reclaimed wood table and I love it. (Make fun of me all you want to shopping at Restoration Hardware. I love my table.)
I toured Decorators Supply Corporation at 3610 S. Morgan during Open House Chicago last October. It was fascinating to see how they ar still making ornamentation, whether wood, plaster or composite materials. They would be the place to start to find replacements.
http://www.decoratorssupply.com/store/main.aspx
Stately Wayne manor.
Absolutely stunning and appears worth every dime, but realistically it will probably sell closer to $1.8. My hesitancy would be the lack of views (not withstanding the lack of money).
MRSM- thanks for the link
FG- do you have any personal experience with plaster repairs? Any recs?
They don’t make them like this anymore, and even when they did, they didn’t make many.
This is an even more beautiful apartment than 2430 N Lakeview, and some other prestigious buildings on the north lake front. Much more beautiful than that, really, and it’s also a much more manageable size, with a reasonable HOA for the size and type of building. While many HOA fees in fine old vintage buildings are over $1 a square foot, this one is $0.69 a square foot. That is not bad for an old high rise with a small association.
Things like the wallpaper and kitchen flooring are minor quibbles. Those things are easily and cheaply altered, and usually are when a new buyer moves in.
It is an incredible deal compared to new construction at the same price. This will still be a desirable building when the new and “efficient” construction starts to age and the costs of maintaining it mount to the same level, just like the MCM buildings built in the 50s and 60s whose lack of charm and embellishment was supposed to make them more efficient, but are maintenance nightmares now that they are aging.
What a beautiful property! Simply lovely. A bit of wallpaper change and it’d be perfect. A fine property should evoke at least a little wonder, and this one does that, and more.
The decorative plaster work in many old homes can be restored if there are enough fragments of the original to work with and use to make molds to cast more plaster. I knew a couple of people in St Louis who restored extremely ornate ceilings in old, abused houses there, and did it with their own two hands. It took one owner, a retired schoolteacher, five years to do it in his house, but his results were beautiful.
Some buildings, though, have been so remorselessly clean-walled, that you’d have to start from scratch. 5555 S Everett in Hyde Park comes to mind- the duplexes in that building are still splendid and have much of their original detailing and architecture, but you can’t look at them now and imagine how ornate the ceilings were when the building was newly built in the 20s. Saw some original B&W photos of those units, in a book on Chicago apartments, and was flabbergasted by the intricate ceilings, that no longer exist. There ARE people out here who could reconstruct them, but at a cost you would expect and that most people will never spend.
“This is an even more beautiful apartment than 2430 N Lakeview, and some other prestigious buildings on the north lake front. Much more beautiful than that, really…”
That may be true (I think it is). It may also be true that the location of 2430 is much more desirable than 3400.
Trivia time: I believe Jack Brickhouse and wife Pat lived in this building.
anonny, having lived in Lakeview, I really don’t see any real diff between it and Lincoln Park, except that LP is closer to the downtown business district by a few blocks, and I never could see why people thought that the LP premium was worth it when Lakeview has so much really beautiful upper-bracket housing stock.
I think Jack and Pat lived at 3470 N Lakeshore; but who knows, maybe they had a view inside this beauty – with a telescope of course.