Ivy Hall
provides luxury urban living in University Village
Model
houses by their very nature are “eye candy.” Many offer beautiful settings
and clever ideas visitors want to rush home and try to duplicate.
Others, such as the 4,300 square foot Prairie-style model at Ivy Hall, are more intriguing, convincing visitors they must live there. That model now is available, fully furnished and elegantly decorated, for $1.9 million.
The centerpiece of a cloister of single- family
houses in University Village in the historic Maxwell Street neighborhood, it
represents the third phase of a $600 million mixed-use community adjacent to
the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ivy Hall offers four- to six-bedroom houses ranging in price from $1,249,900
to $1,999,900.
The South Campus Development Team commissioned the internationally known, award-winning John Robert Wiltgen Design Inc. to create the model based on plans by FitzGerald Associates Architects. It subsequently won two awards for Wiltgen from the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago: a Sammy from the association’s sales and marketing council and a Gold Key for excellence in design.
Wiltgen primarily focuses on upper-end
residential design for houses, penthouses, and luxury condominiums. A member
of the International Interior Design Association, the company is known for
creating model houses with outstanding sales appeal.
“This is no ordinary model at Ivy Hall,” said Kathleen Ryan, sales director
at New West Realty, the development’s sales and marketing agents. “It shows
so well and was done by no ordinary designer.”
Ryan credits the model with contributing to exceptional sales that caused developers to add seven houses to the original 36 planned on the east side of Halsted Street. Priced just below $2 million, the additional houses feature two style plans. Each averages about 5,000 square feet and has four bedrooms, four and one-half baths, and an attached three-car garage. Three overlook a rose garden and can accommodate an elevator; the other four feature 12-foot, six-inch ceilings in the living and dining rooms and a large porch overlooking a spacious playground.
“No one else is doing what we are doing,” said
Ryan.
As for the model, Wiltgen transformed it into a house that can fulfill both
entertaining and day-to-day family needs. It features ebony stained oak
floors, original art consisting of a Hollywood set designer’s framed
storyboards, a fire screen that started life as a French window grate, a
pair of restored empire chairs, a 300-year-old Persian tapestry, and a
Second Empire chandelier.
A flat-screen TV swivels from above the fireplace, and raffia lamps feature
quirky, curvy shades. A stylish, efficient kitchen and butler’s pantry
connect to the dining room and open to the spacious family room. Lighted
upper cabinets can become display space for collectibles.
Full-length curtains emphasize the second floor tray ceiling’s height. A
Sheraton-style poster bed and nightstands and comfortable seating area
balance the huge room. The marble master bath is equipped with a spa-like
Kohler steam shower and body sprays.
The children’s rooms are spacious, and the lower-level nanny’s quarters is
decorated in saffron and pomegranate. The lower level also includes a
kitchenette and juice bar adjacent to the children’s playroom.
A separate exit is accessed through a mudroom, which has a marble and granite floor. For more information, call (312) 421-4300 or go to the sales office at 1440 S. Halsted St.
