The deal hasn’t gone down yet, but it looks like architect Paul Schweikher’s home and studio won’t be bulldozed to make way for an expanded water treatment plant after all. The village of Schaumburg is about to fork over a half million dollars to buy this little-known treasure, rescuing it from the clutches of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which has held it hostage since 1988. That’s when the MWRD condemned and acquired the property, apparently unfazed by its listing on the National Register of Historic Places and the testimonials of architects and historians.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Schweikher worked in the Chicago area for nearly three decades and then went on to head the architecture departments at Yale and Carnegie Mellon universities. An American modernist, he’s important in part because his work links the Prairie and Bauhaus schools of design. The house and studio he built for himself on seven acres near Roselle in 1938 is the best remaining example of that work–a long, low, redwood-and-brick blend of the two styles, with a generous dose of Japanese influence. (Schweikher traveled to Japan in 1937 and stayed at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel.) Schweikher lived in the house until he left for Yale in 1953; a number of Chicago’s future architectural stars–Bertrand Goldberg, Edward Dart, Gertrude Kerbis–apprenticed in the studio.
When Schweikher left for Yale, he sold the house to friends of a friend: nuclear physicist Alexander Langsdorf and his wife, Martyl, a painter. (Langsdorf developed the plutonium used in the Manhattan Project, then petitioned Truman not to use the atomic bomb; Martyl’s work is included in the collections of major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian.) When they moved in, the house was still surrounded by farms; Martyl remembers moonlight glowing on neighboring cabbage fields. But before long it was annexed to the burgeoning village of Schaumburg, and the farms were replaced by housing developments. The Langsdorfs raised two daughters at South Willow, using the office as a master bedroom and the drafting room as Martyl’s studio. They believed they were living in a work of art and were scrupulous about keeping the buildings (including a garage and model shop) and grounds as they found it. When the MWRD acquired the compound, the Langsdorfs got a lease that allowed them to stay for life.
