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Dennis Rodkin
Condo Swaps in Itasca
By Dennis Rodkin
A little over three years after they downsized from a house in Elmhurst to a condo in Itasca, Phil and Connie Mangano are getting ready to move to another new condo—without spending a dollar. With just seven of 70 condos sold at Two Itasca Place, its developer, Don Morris, is converting the building into apartments and moving the Manganos and other buyers there into nearly identical condos next door at One Itasca Place... Read more
On the Waterfront, Four Big Sales
By Dennis Rodkin
In the past month, four multimillion-dollar homes on the North Shore lakefront have been sold—more than were sold in any single month in 2011. The quartet ranged in price from $2.325 million to $7.5 million, and they all shared views out over Lake Michigan... Read more
The Queen of Terra Cotta Row
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $2.495 million
The Property: During its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company made Chicago the capital of architectural ornamentation. The company’s officers weren’t shy about using their products on their homes on Terra Cotta Row, a cluster of four homes on the 1000 block of West Oakdale in Lake View... Read more
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Heller House Hits the Market Today
By Dennis Rodkin
After being on sale informally for a couple of weeks, a treasured Frank Lloyd Wright design in Hyde Park, the Isidore H. Heller House, officially hits the market today. Completed in 1897, the residence signaled Wright’s turn away from the richly ornamented style of his boss, Louis Sullivan... Read more
Naperville Remembers the Alamo
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $898,000
Sale Price: $800,000
The Property: The theatrical façade of this 12-room house in the East Highlands neighborhood of Naperville reminds me of the Alamo—or what that Texas landmark might look like if renovated into a single-family home... Read more
A Passage to India—via Lake Forest
By Dennis Rodkin
List Price: $6.495 million
The Property: On a bitterly cold day, a welcoming home can transport visitors to a better place. At this Lake Forest estate, that place is an idealized version of India in the 1890s. The home’s entire central hallway, about 25 feet long, is papered with a Zuber wallpaper panorama called Hindustan that was installed when the home was owned by the family of William A. P. Pullman, from 1926 to 1992... Read more
The Housing Crisis: The Fix Isn’t In
By Dennis Rodkin
It’s a sign of simmering frustration over the housing crisis—now in its second half-decade—that Jamie Dimon, one of the nation’s top bank executives, complained last Friday that “there is no one really in charge” of fixing the problem. “It is just kind of sitting there,” he said. The Obama administration also signaled this week that it hasn’t done enough to help homeowners... Read more