Last year I stumbled upon a massive home under construction in Lincoln Park. Ever since I’ve been meaning to write a post on the biggest homes in Lincoln Park. So where are they and who do they belong to?
Interestingly, the top 3 all fall within a block of each other – with 2 of them almost directly across the street from each other. This area, on Burling and Orchard between Willow and Armitage, made Forbe’s list of the most expensive blocks in the US. The aerial views provide the best perspectives on these homes.
On Orchard street you have the Sara Crown Star home on the west side of the street (white arrow in photo below) and Penny Pritzker’s home on the east side (gold arrow). In this photo it looks like Penny’s home was still under construction.
Then, one block west on Burling you have the Parrillo home seen in the center of the shot below. This home is by far the largest of the 3 homes and it’s this one that I caught under construction last year.
Here are some stats on these homes and the photo gallery below provides the ground level view of these icons of conspicuous consumption.
Pritzker Home – 1875 N Orchard
Despite being worth over $2 B Penny decided to actually build the “smallest” of the 3 homes and use the extra land for creating an urban oasis.
- Built 2003
- 4 separate lots were purchased (but one was a double lot) to create a 125 x 125 foot parcel at a cost of more than $7 MM. They must have bought some really nice homes and torn them down.
- Each parcel has it’s own taxes. Together they total a whopping $87,086! Can that be right?
- 8422 Square Feet
- 7 1/2 bathrooms
- 1 fireplace
Ironically, the tax bill is sent to a guy named John Poorman (hardly), who works for Penny at both Hyatt and their family foundation. I guess they are trying to hide the fact that they own the property. How do you think that’s working for them?
Personally I find the architecture to look too commercial from the outside but you can be sure that the Pritzker’s thought long and hard about the design – the Pritzker Prize is the highest honor in architecture. They picked Dan Wheeler as their architect and at least one of his colleagues praised the design in a Chicago Magazine article about 10 innovative new buildings in Chicago.
Sara Crown Star Home – 1860 N Orchard (approximately)
This is the home of the daughter of industrialist Lester Crown.
- Built 2003
- 3 lots were purchased at a cost of $4.3 MM to create a parcel 83.5 x 132 feet – the size of 3 1/2 lots. The lots appear to owned by a trust with Lester as the sole beneficiary.
- Annual property taxes of $52,252 – I think she needs to appeal them in light of Parrillo’s taxes – or maybe his are about to go up.
- 15715 Square Feet
- 7 full baths and 3 half baths
- 5 fireplaces (can’t they afford central heat?)
- 4 car garage
Interestingly, the house was architected by Lawrence Kearns, who is Dan Wheeler’s partner.
Parrillo Home – 1932 N Burling
When I asked people in the neighborhood who this house belongs to they said “some insurance guy”. That insurance guy is Richard Parrillo, Chairman and CEO of United Automobile Insurance Group. His home is the biggest of the three.
- Only recently completed
- 7 lots were purchased at one time from a developer for a total of $8.3 MM (listed at $10.5 MM).
- The parcel is 177 feet wide by 147 feet deep.
- Annual property taxes of $66,113
- 18,177 Square Feet (some sources say 15,533 but it looks bigger than Sara’s house)
- 10 full baths and 2 half baths
- 3 fireplaces
- 3 car garage
As you can see from the photos below this thing is a total monstrosity. I’m really curious as to what he is going to be looking out at from the back of his house because something is being built there on Halsted street.
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