Neil Frankel's Main Page
Chicago Loft Residence I
Chicago Loft Residence II
Neil Frankel's Main Page
Chicago Loft Residence I
Chicago Loft Residence II
Neil Frankel, AIA
( Chicago Loft Residence II )
A
Chicago loft serves as family residence, workshop and exhibit
space.
Conversation
Center Kitchen Master Bath Library
 Looking past Mary Walker Sculpture to baby Emanuela's stainless-steel crib with frame for periodically changed MoMA postcards. Leather pad atop files forms bench; lamps on flexible wires supplement track lights. Click
on underlined text to see: |
For most of
the past decade, Neil Frankel's career has run on shuttle
routes. He arrived in Chicago (from Indiana) in 1987 to
join Perkins & Will and, in '91, moved to his
employers' branch office in New York. He and his wife, Cindy Coleman, an independent designer, kept their midwestern living/studio/work center in a bi-level penthouse loft (October '92 Interior Design Windy City's Loft - Chicago Residence 1), even while shifting their primary residence to Manhattan. Thinking of staying put in New York, they sold the Chicago property. Whereupon Skidmore Owings & Merrill/Chicago tendered the irresistible offer to become director of interiors. Once more the odyssey turned to the Windy City, allowing four months' time to find and ready a new residence for themselves and the expected baby. Nine days after father's official debut at SOM, Emanuela Coleman Frankel arrived. Barely missing, as her parents tell it, being born on the plane. The couple's new 3,500-sq.-ft. above,
again jointly designed, evinces some similarities to its
predecessor. Both are in the same downtown printers'
district; both date back to the late 19th century; and
both are designed to serve private living needs while
doubling as off-campus workshop and
experimentation/testing lab for Frankel and his visiting
SOM colleagues. |
Corbusier Seating: Cassina. |
