Tired of Traditional? Buy a 4-Bedroom Contemporary in Lakeview Instead: 3028 N. Southport
This 4-bedroom contemporary single family home at 3028 N. Southport in Lakeview recently came on the market.
Many of you might already know it as the listing says it is an AIA winner and has been featured in publications.
Built in 2009, it’s on an irregular shaped lot but has one car parking (I can’t tell if this is a space or a garage.)
The house has 10 to 12 foot ceilings throughout and contemporary finishes like a euro-style kitchen with stainless steel appliances and heated concrete floors.
3 out of the 4 bedrooms are on the second floor a long with 2 of the 3 1/2 baths. The other bedroom is in the lower level.
The listing says it has “many LEED efficient features” and is in the Burley school district.
Most of the contemporary custom single family homes we chatter about have been priced over $1 million.
Is this a rare opportunity to get a contemporary home in this neighborhood for under $900,000?
Todd Szwajkowski at Dream Town has the listing. See the pictures and floorplan here.
3028 N. Southport: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2629 square feet, 1 car parking
- Prior property sold in December 2006 for $556,000
- Originally listed in May 2012 for $925,000
- Reduced
- Currently listed at $875,000
- Taxes of $14,163
- Central Air
- Bedroom #1: 22×16 (second floor)
- Bedroom #2: 13×12 (second floor)
- Bedroom #3: 10×9 (second floor)
- Bedroom #4: 23×21 (lower level)
- Family room: 16×12 (lower level)
According to Redfin, it is already pending so it must have been priced well.
Not my taste at all though. Also, where do you put your plates in a kitchen like this with no upper cabinets? Do you have to go into the pantry every time you want a plate or cup or bowl?
It also looks to me from Redfin and a satelite picture that the parking is an outside spot in the NW corner of the lot. If I’m buying a house for nearly $900k, it better have a garage!
“If I’m buying a house for nearly $900k, it better have a garage!”
I agree but I’m guessing the designer had the tree huggers in mind and figured it would encourage less use of vehicles and more “green” transportation options.
That would be a very good looking bus station.
This is listed as contingent.
Any surprise this is an architect’s home? This is a nice place.
“Most of the contemporary custom single family homes we chatter about have been priced over $1 million.”
I’m not sure that’s true – there have a been a bunch of places about this size in “emerging” neighborhoods under $500k, although those are mostly built on spec and not really custom in the traditional sense. However, it is accurate that the ones that are in nice neighborhoods on full lots are usually over $1 million. The size of the property and the lot huts this one. It’s not impossible it closes above $800k but I don’t think I would pay that much for it. But maybe it’s perfect for someone who wants all the nice green features, design and layout in what I would consider a small house at that price point.
Also, this is a good one for arguing about modern vs. contemporary. While the materials are contemporary, I would consider the style or architecture more modern, but I’m not really completely up to speed on what people consider to fit into each of those rubrics these days.
Not my taste generally, but I kind of like it. I imagine it closes in the high $700’s to low 800’s. Looks like a fortress. I’d make the lower level bedroom smaller and the family room bigger (having the tv upstairs where it currently is mounted doesn’t look so great). Is it possible to build a garage where the outdoor parking space is located? If so, it seems like a pretty solid value for a family that doesn’t place a big premium on location (other than the good elem attendance area).
I like contemporary / modern architecture, but this place doesn’t do it for me. That fence structure on the outside looks like those concrete barriers office buildings put in front of their entrances after 9/11, and I’m not a fan of the lack of windows and the placement of the ones that are there. The whole thing looks like a closed-off bunker, and not part of the streetscape.
TAXES – OHMYBEGAWK!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the market less than 60 days and under contract. Not too bad.
I guess being alongside an alley isn’t always an External Obsolescence.
I don’t really see what all the fuss is about. If I built a prison and told you guys it was LEED certified would you wanna live there too? That’s basically what this thing looks like.
It’s because of hippies like you that we now allow the inmates of the Metro Correctional Center in the Loop to do yoga on the roof. Yoga?! Are you kidding me?!
“Also, where do you put your plates in a kitchen like this with no upper cabinets? Do you have to go into the pantry every time you want a plate or cup or bowl?”
I’d like to be the kinda person who could live in a modernish house, but I know I’m not. The lack of cabinets in the kitchen, and what seems generally like lack of storage in the house, would be a problem for me. But I guess there are families that can. I wonder a bit whether the owners started to find the space too small or maybe they’re moving on to a different project.
I’m torn on whether I like it. Don’t love it but it might have been a pretty good use of the existing lot. Would maybe like more eye level windows, without having considered what they would look into.
“Is it possible to build a garage where the outdoor parking space is located?”
I’m guessing that didn’t fit in with the architect’s visions. I dunno if a garage is possible, but a car port would go a long ways.
Look at the cribs and the location etc and it’s not that difficult to figure out why 95% of people living in this house with 2 young children would want to move, especially when this household has the sort of income to pretty much live wherever they want.
The lack of hanging cabinets is a trend that isn’t going away. Hanging cabinets can look really gaudy and too many country style hanging cabinets is what I call ‘clutter’. The base cabinets are sufficient to hold pretty much anything you need. I have only a handful of cabinets, coupled with a small but professionally designed pantry and that is more than sufficient.
However, the lack of storage is an issue.
One of the many sacrifices you had to make to find a SFH that came with mortgage payments equal to the rent on your Uptown studio?
“I have only a handful of cabinets, coupled with a small but professionally designed pantry and that is more than sufficient. “
“The lack of hanging cabinets is a trend that isn’t going away.”
Where exactly is this trend manifesting itself? Other than in architects’ homes and in-towns for people who don’t cook?
“I have only a handful of cabinets, coupled with a small but professionally designed pantry and that is more than sufficient.”
But you subsist on rice and beans.
“The lack of hanging cabinets is a trend that isn’t going away”
Yes it is — because it isn’t actually a “trend”, and if it were, it would be an idiotic one. No room in the house needs to maximize storage more than the kitchen, and the wall space above most kitchen counters is completely wasted otherwise.
“The lack of hanging cabinets is a trend that isn’t going away. Hanging cabinets can look really gaudy and too many country style hanging cabinets is what I call ‘clutter’.”
I don’t need lots and lots of hanging cabinets. Just enough to put my dishes and glasses and things in so they are easily accessible. No one wants to have to bend over to get a plate or go in a pantry. This house doesn’t have a single cabinet that is easily accessible. That is my problem. I only have two normal sized hanging cabinets in my kitchen and one above the microwave and that is satisfactory (although I’d like more space).
Maybe that cabinetless trend is on the coasts. I haven’t seen it here.
Looks like an insane asylum, where are the two-guys-with-white outfits ready to put on your straightjacket?
….also reminiscent of the house in Clockwork Orange, except that it has cribs and not a
herman makkink penis sculpture.
“The lack of hanging cabinets is a trend that isn’t going away.”
Why couldn’t you have hanging cabinets with white doors, instead of just flat white doors? What’s the difference except that white cabinets are more useful than white drywall.
meant: “doors, instead of just white flat walls?”.
The proximity to S&G’s is certainly nice
I remember them building this hideous thing when i was leaving the neighborhood back in 2009 I always wondered what was going up there…
Inside looks ok, but cramped for a SFH and the exterior… ewww
“that is satisfactory”
“although I’d like more space”
??
Satisfactory = It does the job…there is enough space. However, I’d like to have more space than just the minimum amount of space.
“I guess being alongside an alley isn’t always an External Obsolescence.”
I think I’ve recounted many times the problems with living on an alley (many of which most people don’t think about).
1. People drive down at all hours of the night and beep their horns when they come out on the street.
2. Strangers are constantly going down the alley to pick through the garbage cans. Not just men in trucks looking for metal scraps but also homeless people with carts full of junk.
3. Why do people feel the need to throw out garbage at 2 am? Really? Why? (but yes- it happens- sometimes once or twice a week.)
4. Many people walk their dogs down the alley- yes- at all hours of the day and night talking quite loudly right below your windows.
5. Garbage trucks come by and stop right next to your bedroom windows at 6 am once a week.
I’m fine with city noise. I get it. But there is WAY more shenanigans going on in the alleys than anyone realizes. Buyer beware!
“However, I’d like to have more space than just the minimum amount of space.”
It doesn’t sound like you’re satisfied.
“It doesn’t sound like you’re satisfied.”
Satisfied yes, however the current situation is not ideal. In my future home I will seek more, but it is not absolutely necessary. A larger shower than I currently have however is! 😉
From the outside, this place looks like a city home you’d find in Japan. Pretty cool.
Sabrina – right on with the alley comment. Don’t forget the occasional drunk group of friends that start a fight in your alley. I suppose that has something to do with proximity to a few bars.
I like the no upper cabinet look but if that is your choice then you need either:
1. A great pantry in close proximity.
2. Some shelves for basics. Think thin stainless commercial restaurant style shelves as
they can easily provide both form and function.
http://prisonyoga.com/index.php
Here you go Lesko. Now you can buy a prisioner a book to help them practice some of that hipster yoga!
I have limited undstanding what goes on in prisons other than what i see on the prison reality shows like Hard Time however I suspect that anything that keeps an inmate calm and reduces prisioner on prisioner or prisioner on guard violence is a great thing! I suspect that this may be lost on you but we as taxpayrs are pickng up the tab forthe penal system. Reducing costs such as hospitalization of guards due to fights, aka worker comp claims, means less taxes to fund the system! .
A-men. I’d sure rather have inmates practicing yoga than lifting weights, what genius came up with that idea, anyway? Yeah, what we need are more muscle-bound ex-cons on the streets…
“I have limited undstanding what goes on in prisons other than what i see on the prison reality shows like Hard Time however I suspect that anything that keeps an inmate calm and reduces prisioner on prisioner or prisioner on guard violence is a great thing! I suspect that this may be lost on you but we as taxpayrs are pickng up the tab forthe penal system. Reducing costs such as hospitalization of guards due to fights, aka worker comp claims, means less taxes to fund the system! .”
Like the fact that they have huge photographs of themselves hanging on the walls (not a big fan)… and they then left them up to be photographed, this house screams ‘look at us… we are special… we have a something different (and I’d expect they think) cooler and better than you’. Which is why it’s on a main street and why it sold quickly. Look at FB, their are many, many people who are constantly looking for ways to show ‘you’ they’re better than you. I’m sure somewhere in there is a Facebook post that reads…’me and my honey bought an AMAZING NEW HOME TODAY! Soooo different and sooo cool! And we got it for under a $1M. OMG – CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
^FYI the wife runs a photo studio out of the workspace. Carry on, though.
[JB] “Like the fact that they have huge photographs of themselves hanging on the walls (not a big fan)… and they then left them up to be photographed, this house screams ‘look at us… we are special… we have a something different (and I’d expect they think) cooler and better than you’….”
You must live a miserable existence.
[JJJ] “Also, this is a good one for arguing about modern vs. contemporary. While the materials are contemporary, I would consider the style or architecture more modern, but I’m not really completely up to speed on what people consider to fit into each of those rubrics these days”
It is contemporary, through and through.
I like a kitchen with no upper cabinets, it creates a larger feeling of space. Take a look at the kitchen drawers that is where you store the dishes, silverware, etc. I have a drawers in my kitchen it is wonderful no bending or reaching at all. Drawers close magnetically. The larger size drawers provide ample storage, smaller size drawers for dishes, silverware etc., it is a very easy system to work with.
Harice, how do large dishes fit in a drawer and how is there no bending to get them? I have to bend to load my dishwasher and drawers in my kitchen and I am far from a giant.
Prisoners probably have to practice yoga since I bet they spend a lot of time in downward dog, if you know what I mean. They seriously practice yoga on the roof of the correctional center down in the city at Clark and Van Buren.