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Iconic downtown riverfront cottage lists for $2.3M

Written by
Clayton Guse
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You know those weird buildings adjacent to the Kinzie Street bridge with the triangular slates on their roofs? Well, a home inside one of them went up for sale this week—and it isn't cheap.

The Harry Weese River Cottage at 365 N Canal St hit the market on Thursday at a hefty $2.3 million. The three-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom place doesn't boast the space (it's 4,100 square feet) that a lot of listings in that price range offer, but its stunning postmodern interior design goes a long way in making up for that. It also has a 45-foot private riverfront boat dock, which makes it a pretty ideal pad for a seafaring Chicagoan.

Weese, an architect born and raised in the Chicago area, designed the cottages in the late 1980s. The one for sale was built in 1988 and is one of four townhouses within the pair of attached buildings. The sloped exterior on the eastern side of the building aligns with the angle of the defunct and perpetually-raised Kinzie Street railroad bridge on the other side of the river. According to a 1990 article in the TribuneWeese got the idea for their design while traveling through Budapest in the late 1950s. While there, he came across a development on the Danube River where the communist government "apparently had allowed architects to do whatever they wanted."

Chicago architecture aficionados are certainly glad he took that trip, as the cottages have one of the most distinct building designs along the downtown riverfront. The cottages look most striking when viewed from a boat on the river, which most river architecture tours in the city are quick to point out. 

Weese is also known for designing the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop (which could very well be the prettiest prison in America), the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee and the first group of stations in Washington, D.C.'s Metrorail system.

Photographs by Jeff Bara/Courtey Redfin

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