October 21, 2015

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Were mixing it up for this weeks Throwback Thursday and going with a rare Daily Double and taking a two-stop trip through the Epstein archives to visit October, 1963 for the opening of not only Chicagos 20-story Brockton Tower Apartments, located at the northeast corner of Sheridan Road & Bryn Mawr, but the Kenilworth Apartments as well, an 11-story mid-rise in Wilmette, Illinois located on the shores of Lake Michigan on Sheridan Road.

Brockton Tower

Brockton Tower was a luxury apartment building, which was built on a site that was home to a collection of mostly vacant retail stores, featured 133 units ranging in size from studio to 3-bedroom apartments. Built for $2M ($15.5 in 2015) this Epstein designed and engineered building was seen as a welcome addition to the neighborhood in the early 60s due to its close proximity to the Lake as well as Loyola University.

Brockton Tower

This simple, modernist high-rise still exists and looks very much like it did back in 63. The modest, but elegant, pedestal that the tower sits on seems to have only had some cosmetic façade work along with the addition of a nice ground level garden. The towers glazing pattern is the same although the façade has been replaced and painted salmon with a new pre-cast concrete skin.

Kenilworth Apartments

By coincidence Brockton was completed in the same month as another Epstein project the Kenilworth Apartments located in Wilmette at 1614 North Sheridan. This 11-story, 82-unit apartment condominium building featured Large 5 and 6 room units including 30 x 18 living rooms, individually controlled air conditioning!, underground parking for 1.5 cars each unit (wed love to see ½ a car, must have been a Mini!), an outdoor swimming pool, high-speed electronic elevators, closed-circuit TV monitoring, a private beach, & a lake view balcony for every tenant.

Kenilworth Apartments

Interestingly, the Kenilworth Apartments was originally going to be a 41-room motel but the citizens of Wilmette reacted very negatively to that proposed use and petitioned the zoning board to shoot down the scheme. It was narrowly defeated in a 4-3 vote, paving the way for the property to be re-imagined as the Kenilworth Apartments.

Kenilworth Apartments

If you are curious, the building still stands, and if you interested, a condo can be had for just under $300K. Although, no guarantee that its still comes furnished with the awesome 60s furniture shown here!