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| Features |
Estates of Grace
Eryn Brown
06/01/2004
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As an architect and interior designer, John Regas loves to talk about
exquisite spaces. He launches easily into rapturous descriptions of his French
Directoire townhouse: its grand galleries, its five-story, glass-roofed
staircase, the ornate plasterwork on its ceilings and walls. But ask Regas to go
beyond the construction and explain why he reveres this dwelling, and he becomes
tongue-tied, even though he has lived in the house for 16 years. “I don’t know
how to describe it,” he says. “This is a wonder, this house. It’s a fabulously
beautiful architectural house. It’s just an incredible space. Impeccable is the
word for it. And it’s home.” He pauses briefly between superlatives and wonders,
“Does any of this make sense?”
 | | THE SINGLETON Home, by Richard Neutra, in Los Angeles, is an architecturally
significant home. |
Perhaps not, but even to a seemingly
dispassionate observer, Regas’ townhouse elicits unadulterated awe. In addition
to its splendor and size (16,000 square feet), it boasts a prestigious address
on Chicago’s Gold Coast; a celebrated architect, the late David Adler, who is
known for his brilliant interpretations of historical styles and his careful
attention to detail and proportion; and a sterling provenance as the former home
of early 20th-century steel magnate Joseph T. Ryerson. Regas’ house is an objet
d’art, many would argue. In our age of tear-downs and McMansions, it is one of a
limited number of architecturally significant homes that savvy buyers across the
world are rushing to buy, restore, enjoy and preserve.
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