The Emil Bach House was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1977 and placed on the U.S. Register of Historic Places in 1979. In 2014, the home began its new life as a vacation getaway and event rental space, after nearly eight years of meticulous work that restored it as close to its original appearance as possible.

In contrast to the expansive, open Prairie houses Wright designed just years earlier, the Bach House is strongly centered and self-contained. A flat roof with cantilevered projections shelters the residence and shades the small balconies off each of the bedrooms, which themselves add to the “outside inside” theme of the house.

The main entrance to the house is on the back of the house, away from the busy road on which the house sits, and obscured from public view. An open porch spans the back of the house and creates a dramatic horizontal projection toward Lake Michigan. When the home was built for the Bach family, they had a clear view of and access directly to the lake.

Albert Vargas Author