Chicago, IL - 15B The Powhatan Luxury Cooperative

Why Buy This Property

The Powhattan is a landmark designated building and considered the best example of Art Deco architecture in Chicago. The white glove service of this building with only forty homes in total and two per floor, with each tier having a separate attended elevator is beyond comparison.

The Powhatan was designed by Robert DeGolyer and Charles L. Morgan in 1929. It is considered among the most exuberantly-detailed of Chicago's Art Deco apartment houses. The landmark 22-story building stands out for Charles Morgan's deccorative details, including the colorful mosaics that decorate the facade, lobbies and swimming pool, where they suggest the mural abstractions of Frank Lloyd Wright's Midway Gardens. The building retains its original elevator cabs, decorated in burled wood, aluminum panels and etched mirrors. The electic Art Deco elements include references to Lake Michigan and Chief Powhatan on the exterior, scenes from around the world in the outer lobby and exuberant flowers and birds decorating the inner lobby. "All of the luxuries of an ocean liner" marveled a Chicago journalist at the time of its opening.

The Powhatan has been designated with Landmark status by the City of Chicago Landmark Commission. Below are excerpts from the City of Chicago Landmark Designation Reports:

Few buildings in Chicago are as distinct in their architectural form and detailing as the Powhatan Apartments. Located on the lakefront at 50th Street, the Powhatan literally andfiguratively stands apart from others in the grace and dignity of its design. The building is one of the last of the apartments built in the halcyon days of expensive, high-rise apartment construction from the end of World War I through the Depression. Unlike the derivative architecture of the apartments built during this period, the Powhatan is striking in its expressionism, a design that adheres to the precepts of modern architecture first enunciated by Louis Sullivan almost a half century before.