🇺🇸United States·Private home, not open to visitors

Eychaner/Lee House

Chicago, Illinois

Sources checked October 2026

“A concrete house almost blind to the street, opening through large areas of glass onto an inner water garden.”

Year: 1997
Architect: Tadao Ando
Type: Private residence
Access: Private residence, not open to visitors

On a long, narrow plot in a quiet residential district near the centre of Chicago, this concrete and glass house, a project Tadao Ando carried out from 1992 to 1997, offers almost no openings to the street. Two volumes aligned north to south, linked by a terrace and a ramp, instead open through large areas of glass onto the inside of the plot, around a water garden.

A private, lived-in home: it is not open to visitors. It is placed without an address, from a public source, at neighbourhood or city level.

In depth ≈ 1 min read

History

The project ran from 1992 to 1997. The brief, on a long, narrow site on a north-south axis in a quiet residential district close to central Chicago, was to create a comfortable and private home while building a relationship with nature.

The same client later commissioned Ando to turn a residential building on the neighbouring plot into an art gallery, Wrightwood 659.

Architecture

The house is built of concrete and glass. The outer facades have almost no openings; towards the inside of the plot, large areas of glass open up views. Two volumes line up on the north-south axis, joined by an intermediate volume holding a terrace and a ramp.

To the south, a square volume 12 m on each side and three storeys high holds the family's private rooms. To the north, an elongated volume of 12 m by 6 m, two storeys high, groups the entrance, kitchen, dining room and guest rooms. Between the two wings, a terrace runs alongside a rectangular courtyard turned into a water garden; beneath the terrace, facing this garden, lies the living room, the physical and symbolic centre of the house. The total floor area is 835 m2.