Wright house in Wilmette to get major rehab – Crain’s Chicago Business

The couple who bought a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Wilmette this month plan to rehabilitate it extensively over several years, calling the effort just the kind of project they were looking for.

It doesnt scare us, said Amy Bauer, who with her husband, Eric Bauer, bought the five-bedroom house on Lake Avenue from a family that had owned it since 1957. The 4,800-square-foot house, on about six-tenths of an acre, has exterior stucco damage, utilities that are more than half a century old, a somewhat awkward floorplan in the bedroom sectionsand other deficits, but we have a sense of pride that we can be the ones who bring this house back up to where it should be, she said.

The plans includeoverhauling all dated mechanicals, installing a new kitchen in the style of the houseand possibly re-creating a lost mural in the dining room.

I love the way you can tell the time of day from the way the light moves through the house, Amy Bauer said. The original house, builtin 1909 for the family of Frank J. Baker, has a run of diamond-patterned leaded-glass windows spanning roughly 75 feet across the front. The house was expanded around 1919 with a rear addition that Wright also designed.

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Wright house in Wilmette to get major rehab - Crain's Chicago Business