Alfred A. Schiller House
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Alfred A. Schiller House | |
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The Alfred A. Schiller House in 2010. The window is part of a Keck & Keck addition added at a later date. | |
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| Location |
734 Lenox Rd. Glen Ellyn, DuPage County, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 41°53′14″N 88°3′35″W / 41.88722°N 88.05972°WCoordinates: 41°53′14″N 88°3′35″W / 41.88722°N 88.05972°W |
| Built | 1954 |
| Architect | Schweikher & Elting and Keck & Keck |
| Architectural style | International Style |
| NRHP Reference # | 08000326 |
| Added to NRHP | September 3, 2008 |
The Alfred A. Schiller House is a historic residence in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. It was originally designed by Schweikher & Elting for Alfred Schiller, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The house features very few exterior windows, with the only natural light coming in from a central atrium. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
History
Alfred A. Schiller was professor of physiology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. His wife, Elizabeth Schiller, was an artist from Wilmette. The Schillers commissioned the architectural firm of Schweikher & Elting to build a contemporary house in the otherwise traditional Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn. Paul Schweikher was a notable local architect, and the house was among his last works before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Schweikher had previously designed the Donald Berg House in Glen Ellyn in 1947. After moving to Pittsburgh, Schweikher began to primarily design public buildings and strayed away from residential properties. Thus, the Schiller house represents one of his last ventures in this regard. The house was completed in 1954, but Alfred Schiller died only a year later. Elizabeth Schiller then married Charles Wegener, a professor at the University of Chicago, and moved to the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.
The house was sold to Louis and Louisa Kaberon in 1957. Five years later, the Kaberons decided to put an addition on the house and contacted Paul Schweikher about designing it. Schweikher instead recommended the firm of Keck & Keck for the job, which was completed in 1964. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 3, 2008.
Architecturally, the Schiller house is notable for its lack of windows. It faces east and is almost one hundred feet away from the sidewalk. The house forms a square doughnut shape due to a central exterior atrium. The outer walls are forty feet by forty feet and were built with Chicago common brick with California redwood trim. Most interior floors are terrazzo and interior walls feature African mahogany, possibly a gift from Albert's father. Walls facing the atrium provide the only natural light with plate glass windows. The gardens and courtyard were designed by Mary Moulton, a future librarian at the Morton Arboretum.