Promenade Apartment

This renovation unifies an entire floor within Mies van der Rohe’s Commonwealth Promenade, a pair of landmark residential towers completed in 1957. The design transforms the original layout of small apartments into a single, continuous living space organized along a 150’ long expanse of floor-to-ceiling windows. Mies’s meticulously detailed curtain wall emerges as the primary interior element, framing panoramic views of the cityscape and Lake Michigan, and animating the space with shifting qualities of light and shadow. New design elements engage this Miesian context through a disciplined vocabulary of refined materials, precise detailing, and exacting craftmanship.

The living spaces unfold along the building’s south-facing façade, where varying widths and depths accommodate a range of daily activities and cultivate dynamic relationships to light and view. The kitchen and dining area are repositioned at the window wall, immersing everyday life in the panorama of the lakefront, while the entry hall, media room, and wet bar are nestled deeper within the floor plan to foster a more intimate, atmospheric quality.  Along the north elevation, a private wing organizes the primary suite, guest bedrooms, a fitness room, and a self-contained guest apartment, balancing public and private realms within the expansive midcentury modern home.