Students design lakefront house in Wilmette
By Kimberly Reishus, triblocal.com reporter

Over the spring semester, students in New Trier’s architectural building and design class had the chance to create a home for a lot in Wilmette, located at 1330 Sheridan Road. They were tasked with figuring out how to incorporate green design elements, following specifics of Wilmette codes and creating a livable space, all with enough room for a family.

The project is part of an effort from Joshua Wood, architecture teacher at the high school, to partner with the community in providing real-world experience for the students. Another goal that Wood had through the project is to help students learn how green building practices are part of the industry today.

“The way the future is going, people are interested in saving energy and saving money,” Wood said.

The 32 students in Wood’s class went through the entire architectural process for their homes. They figured out how to orient space and make use of light, drew floor plans and elevations, and created renderings and professional plans, Wood said.

The lot the students were given to work with was 24,000 square feet, includes a view of the lakefront and is next to Langdon Park.

In the end, the student designs went head-to-head in a competition to see whose design would win over a panel of judges that included the property owners, Peter and Robin Baugher, as well as contractors and interior designers. Prior to that, New Trier faculty narrowed the designs down to the top 10.

Taking first place in the competition was Becky Greenberg, who will attend Washington University in the fall to study architecture.

Greenberg said what made her design for the lot unique was the different shapes she incorporated.

“I didn’t have a single corner in my house,” Greenberg said. “It was all very organic and curvy.”

That, she said, is offset by a flat roof, which enabled her to provide solar panels and a rooftop garden for the structure.

In second was Brad Miller, a sophomore, whose home included an angled roof as well as ample allowance for natural light through windows.

Placing third wass Eric Zuckerman, whose project was dubbed the bow-tie house because it featured walls that came out toward the lake as well as up at an angle, out from the middle. He included four different roof slopes.

“I tried to maximize light by having lot of glass walls facing the lake and maximize the lake view,” he said. “As a result, the walls go out and up.”

Zuckerman, who will also attend Washington University in the fall to study architecture, said he was inspired by images of falling water, and he incorporated two different styles into his design: limestone and wood clapboard, mixing traditional with modern.

“It was kind of a cool, modern look,” Zuckerman said.

Greenberg said the biggest challenge for her during the project was figuring out how to make the best use of the lot, which was pie-shaped and had a small opening toward Lake Michigan.

“You can design anything you want if you have as much land as you need,” Greenberg said. “I wanted the house to flow very nicely from the front door to the back, with French doors and windows."

Because Greenberg had the winning design, she’ll be able to be involved with the actual building process when the Baughers begin to plan. Wood said the couple won’t use her design in its entirety, but some of her initial ideas would likely be incorporated.

Both Greenberg and Zuckerman said they appreciated the opportunity to create such a realistic project.

"What's also special is that most kids wouldn't start doing this until their junior year of college," Greenberg said. "I feel like I'm going to be so prepared."

She also spent time getting some advice from an architect and one of the judges for the project, John Myefski, who also sits on the New Trier Board of Education. Greenberg said she will spend a day or two shadowing Myefski August.

For Zuckerman, the benefit from the experience came in the way of opportunity. He is interning this summer with a Chicago architecture firm, thanks, in part, to the part of his portfolio that came straight from his architecture class.

“It helped me demonstrate that I knew (the design program) and I knew how to put together a project,” he said.

Zuckerman is confident that the class helped ready him for a career in architecture.

“This project was really, by far, the best in terms of preparation for what we can expect if we pursue architecture,” he said. “It was really cool — we got to create a house and follow all the way to a design board, with finished projects. Usually teachers don’t want to commit that much time to a project.”

Wood said he hopes that more opportunities such as this one will come together for his students. Such a project helps the students as much as it does the client, he said.

"Everybody was really impressed," Wood said. "(The designs were) more of an upper-level presentation."