Fremont Street Apartment

Chicago’s typical long narrow building sites dictate the layouts of urban row houses, with living spaces typically occupying two-thirds of the width of a dwelling, and bedrooms occupying the remaining third. This layout results in narrow bedrooms and static rectangular room shapes.

For this renovation of an 1890's-vinatge row house, David Zeunert & Associates relocated a bearing wall to open up and enliven a cramped space. By supplementing the bearing wall with an undulating curve wall, the resulting additional space for circulation permitted the bedrooms to have comfortable sizes. The curved undulating wall also visually separated the living area from the kitchen view without the need for doors.

A mechanical upgrade to forced-air HVAC with duct work is usually accomplished with a drop soffit along one wall. To avoid the use of soffits, the ceiling was lowered throughout the dwelling to accommodate ductwork, with certain areas of the ceiling raised the original height to enhance the spaciousness of each room. Additionally, these geometric reliefs were enhanced with indirect lighting.

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