Chicago Homes: A Portrait of the City's Everyday Architecture - Hardcover

by Carla Bruni (Author), Phil Thompson (Author), Wonder City Studio (Illustrator)

An ABA Indie Bestseller

A comprehensive, first-of-its-kind book about Chicago's residential architecture and the stories that shaped it. This is an entertaining and precisely illustrated story of Chicago homes from the city's earliest days through the Second World War, revealing everything about what makes a home a Chicago home.

A city famous for its architecture--and for arguing with New Yorkers about who built it first and best--now has a definitive guide to the unique housing types and styles that have inspired so much devotion. This book is for curious Chicagoans and visitors alike--anyone who's ever wondered how to spot a Foursquare or where to find Italianate homes from before the Great Chicago Fire.

Why are Chicago's lots so narrow? How many Chicagoans built homes from a kit? What exactly is a "greystone"? The authors combine their decades of experience in historic preservation and illustration to create an evergreen resource that Chicagoans and visitors will turn to for answers to these and other questions about the city's neighborhoods and the homes its citizens live in, visit, and admire.

Author Biography

Carla Bruni has spent close to twenty years preserving, studying, and writing about historic architecture across dozens of US cities and four continents. She teaches graduate students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she holds a master of science degree in historic preservation. She has been a recurring guest discussing architecture and environmental issues on WGN Radio, and her work has been featured by StoryCorps Chicago, WLS, NPR, PRX, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Tonight, Chicago magazine, and various national and international publications. She also works to support the 30,000+ members of the Chicago Bungalow Association, overseeing energy efficiency retrofits, creating history and home maintenance resources, and leading the charge to list thousands of vintage homes in the National Register of Historic Places. Her professional involvement in community repair and revitalization has taken her to every corner of Chicago, her native city.
Phil Thompson is the cofounder and illustrator behind Wonder City Studio (wondercitystudio.com), a company dedicated to creating artwork of the places worth preserving, with a special love for Chicago. For ten years, he has captured more than a thousand homes and buildings with his pen-and-ink illustrations. His work has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicagoist, Curbed, Business Insider, and Chicago magazine. Clients have included the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the Chicago Architecture Center, among others, and his prints are sold at seventeen retail locations throughout the city.