Is This The Best 1960s Retro Kitchen We’ve Ever Seen? A 1-Bedroom At 1300 N. Astor In The Gold Coast
This 1-bedroom in 1300 N. Astor in the Gold Coast has been on and off the market since June of 2012.
The unit has been reduced $10,000 since June to $190,000.
The building was designed by Bertrand Goldberg in 1963.
The unit has a south west corner view.
From the pictures in the listing, it appears the original kitchen, and possibly bath, are still in the unit.
The listing calls the kitchen “retro.” The cabinets appears to be yellow metal and match the yellow stove.
The bathroom has the best hollywood lights mirror I’ve ever seen and a yellow toilet (is the bath tub yellow too?).
The unit has carpeting throughout and 10 foot floor to ceiling windows.
It has central air but there’s no washer/dryer in the unit and parking is leased in the building for $175 to $250 a month.
Would it be worth it to keep this 1960s kitchen and bath?
If retro is just not your style- how much do you think you could sell the kitchen cabinets for to a collector?
Sophia Klopas at Koenig & Strey Real Living has the listing. Check out those kitchen pictures here.
Unit #8D: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 750 square feet
- Sold in August 1989 for $49,000
- Sold in July 1998 for $70,000
- Originally listed in June 2012 for $200,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $190,000
- Assessments of $662 a month (includes cable, a/c, heat, doorman)
- Taxes of $2546
- Central Air
- No washer/dryer in the unit
- Parking is leased for $175 to $250 a month
- Bedroom: 14×12
115% groovetastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that kitchen should not be touched!!!!!
screw all this cherry, marble, granite, stainless, snidaro, bull crap. this is the kitchen i want
Other than updating the stove/micro wave (stainless or maybe see if you can get one color matched to cabinets), I’d definitely leave that kitchen alone. This place has potential. Just needs some minor updating and decorating. Phenomenal location. Wonder if you can have a w/d put in. Maybe one of those small euro style ones.
I agree that this place has a lot of potential. Put some hardwood floors in, paint it, get rid of the yellow toliet (damn I can imagine having the stomach flu and having to look at that) and you have a nice place at a great price. My partner’s mom actually has those cabinets and they are actually quite expensive (or so she says hers is) and they take quite a bit of beating. There is one company that does resurfacing painting on them and they are expensive…so it all depends on their condition.
I’m a pretty small person by today’s standards and that kitchen is making me feel claustrophic just looking at it. The cabinets are gorgeous though and match the feel of the unit, so I’d try to find a way to reconfigure that cabinet wall so the cabinets are actually visible from the living space and the kitchen is opened up – I wish you could just swing the whole thing into an L and extend the entryway.
Wow, after seeing all the same-old color schemes for years here, that yellow is fantastic. Little weasel Nate Berkus will probably steal the idea now. Awesome.
looks sorta yellow-green to me, or are my eyes off
Republic Steel cabinets. They’re all over the buildings that were built in the 50s and 60s in Chicago. Very durable. That yellow was very popular and was also used in Marina Towers.
What a fab pied-a-terre this would be. I’d be all Holly Golightly up in here.
yeah, they are a little greenish. surprised Martha Stewart hasn’t copied the color, more yellowish.
I like this building and love the kitchen of this unit, but I’d have to be on a higher floor, because looking directly into other buildings from every window means no privacy. I realize this is a low price, and maybe that’s why.
Also, the LR/DR combo seems very small, at least from the photos.
It’s avocado green. All it needs is something in harvest gold and it’s perfect.
“Little weasel Nate Berkus will probably steal the idea now. ”
Ah I think poor Nate would be shocked out of his Boarding School Booties at the audacity of that kitchen. Now if only the metal cabinets came in beige that would be another story.
“Republic Steel cabinets.”
Yes!! I couldn’t remember the name. They just can’t be destroyed, its a wonder they haven’t enlisted the company to make tanks and anti-terrorist shields out of them. The asteroid hits us and the only thing left would be cockroaches and those cabinets.
“What a fab pied-a-terre this would be. I’d be all Holly Golightly up in here.”
My thoughts exactly. Make me want to be young and single and turning that place into a Stab-In-Cabin. And the “Pump Room,” is right across the street no less.
If I remember correctly, this building was originally a hotel (or intended to be one) but was converted soon after completion. Also there was a complex louver system on the windows to control light. Amazing that a building of this vintage has 10′ ceilings. By the time this was built 8′ seemed to be the norm.
In the picture of the dining table, to the right of the kitchen pass through, there appears to be a handle in the wall along the horizontal line in the middle? Any guesses what this might be?
what having a top Chicago interior designer and 8 floors up will get you:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1300-N-Astor-St-UNIT-16B-Chicago-IL-60610/65563136_zpid/
or would have 2 years ago
stabbin cabin can also refer to a small apartment as well
Let’s stay away from the anal references as it seems to derail a thread…(go figure.) I was speaking in general terms on this little place..whatever your preference and whatever your favorite position would be…this might be a good little in town place to do it. A nice dinner at the new PR, a few drinks a little swing by your place for a night cap.
However, if you threw Paulie in (please..) it would have to include something more higher end then the Pump Room (he can afford it) and definitely would have to be at his (I am sure) muliti million dollar pad.
Good timing on this one. I just got a West Elm Market catalogue in the mail yesterday and couldn’t believe that West Elm is now selling retro-appliances. The SMEG refrigerator looks a little like an iPhone (the older less square one) if you lean back and squint.
http://www.westelm.com/shop/market-general-store/retro-refrigerators/?cm_type=gnav#?N=2133
What do you think a 2 bedroom in this building is worth?
It’s missing pink and/or light blue bathrooms!
I hate electric ranges though. I don’t know if that’s even fixable in this building.
When we lived in Europe like 3 friends of ours had Smeg refrigerators (and they were HUGE by their standards, ha). I’ve wanted one ever since.
“I hate electric ranges though. I don’t know if that’s even fixable in this building.”
WE ARE GOING INDUCTION NEXT TURN AROUND
never realized there were so many Kitchen-o-philes among the chatarati
I don’t care about kitchens, but if my stove ever breaks, I will replace it with an induction stove since they are awesome.
A Smeg fridge would have to be filled with vindaloo and lager.
hopefully not smegma
This indeed was once a hotel. It was on the top floor that the Beatles had their famous 1966 press conference in which John Lennon apologized for saying the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.”
Here’s a link to that press conference, with Spanish subtitles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ6NL3iNNMs
I managed to find someone willing to repaint the steel cabinets in my 1966 apartment in situ — many people didn’t want to touch the original lead-based paint — and I much prefer everything about them to wooden cabinets. They’re bombproof, pest-proof, and I can stick magnets just about anywhere except the fridge. My cabinets are from Geneva; St. Charles is another big brand, and yes, both were made in the west ‘burbs.
Speaking of magnets, Groove has the right idea: now that I have induction, I can’t go back to gas. First heard about them from the architect of Xoco, where Rick specifically asked for induction to keep the kitchen’s cooling loads down.
I have to admit, this is a really cool looking building In a good location and the price isn’t too ridiculous. The unit is a little small but this midcentury design is tugging on heart.
I guess I’m too “view” oriented. No one else here seems to care that other buildings block the light and limit your privacy in this unit.
I’d immediately replace this kitchen with a modern kitchen with an induction cooktop. Induction is the fastest, cleanest, safest, and most energy-conserving way to cook there is. I’m totally sold on it after trying it on a small, portable induction burner.
If there’s any room in the world that I want to be “state of the art”, it’s a working room like a kitchen. The rest of the house can be a medieval castle, but the kitchen should be science fiction…maybe I’ll live to see one that can clean itself.
Problem with this specific unit is its close proximity to the building next door. All those windows, and the owner will feel like the “goldfish in the bowl”.
Regarding the refrigerator, I missed seeing the frig in the photos. Also note that the stove/oven looks to be an obsolete model of “half-stove”, overhead oven paired with a cooktop.
Regarding the metal cabinets, a high-quality painting contractor can electro-statically paint cabinets for a smooth finish. Did this years ago, using mercedes-benz car paint on st charles cabinets.
No one is going to mention the $662 assessment for 750sqft? I think that’s a little rich for a 1br.
Per square foot, that’s a lot more than the $2,000 for 2850sqft.
“No one is going to mention the $662 assessment for 750sqft? I think that’s a little rich for a 1br.
Per square foot, that’s a lot more than the $2,000 for 2850sqft.”
Mid-$600 for a one bedroom in the Gold Coast is typical. That’s also why Sabrina said, “$2100 for 2850 square feet? That is CHEAP!”
I wouldn’t want to have to buy all new pots and pans with an induction cooktop, but damn if that technology isn’t cool
“I wouldn’t want to have to buy all new pots and pans with an induction cooktop”
Calphalon?
It’s so nice for a change to see a listing that everyone isn’t hating on. I too am glad to see a kitchen that is different from all the typically designed ones we see these days. But am wondering where the fridge is. Maybe hidden in one of the cabinets on the right? I think that handle on the other side by the dining area is to pull down the covering to the pass-through window.
“But am wondering where the fridge is.”
Pam Kueber from retrorenovation.com says a GE wall cabinet fridge is in there.
“I wouldn’t want to have to buy all new pots and pans with an induction cooktop, but damn if that technology isn’t cool”
doesnt any cast iron work also with induction?
i dont know if the cast iron would scratch the glass though? that would be my only worry