LINCOLN SQUARE — You could lease a piece of Chicago's architectural history. Gas and electricity aren't included in the rent, but the apartment has been scrubbed of "evil spirits."
The second-floor apartment in the former Krause Music Store, 4611 N. Lincoln Ave., notable for being famed architect Louis Sullivan's last commission, is available for rent.
Architectural history for rent in Lincoln Square. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
The two-bedroom (three if you convert the dining room), one-bathroom, 1,700-square-foot flat comes with its own washer/dryer, a $2,275 monthly price tag (utilities not included) and a certain amount of emotional baggage.
To be clear, the apartment wasn't designed by Sullivan, which is why the ad reads "Louis Sullivan building apartment."
To be even clearer, the building wasn't really designed by Sullivan either, just the terra cotta facade.
Still, the Sullivan name carries enough cachet that the architectural drawings of the building fetched $13,000 in 2002 at auction by Christie's.
Back in the early 1920s, William Krause hired architect William Presto, a one-time draftsman in Sullivan's firm, to draw up plans for the apartment and music store.
Presto, in turn, did Sullivan a solid, asking his by then down-on-his-luck former employer to collaborate on the exterior.
Louis Sullivan designed the distinctive terra cotta facade of the Krause Music Store. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
The music store, which cost $22,000 to build, opened in 1922, the first retail shop on the street. Krause succesfully traded in pianos and sheet music and was an early dealer in radios until the Great Depression hit. He committed suicide in the upstairs apartment in 1929.
For the next 60 years, the building operated as a funeral parlor.
New owners Peter and Pooja Vukosavich, the husband-and-wife team who run Studio V Design out of the ground floor, undertook a major restoration of the property in 2007, including rituals of spiritual cleansing.
Floor plan for the Sullivan building apartment. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
Writing about the building's transformation in the Tribune, architecture critic Blair Kamin noted that the couple, after consulting with a feng shui master, held a number of ceremonies to drive out "evil spirits."
Pooja Vukosavich explained to Kamin, "I just felt an unhappiness here that had to be take away."
Now if only they had added a second bathroom.
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