home >> at home
A warehouse-inspired
home keeps things real.
Lynne Konstantin
W
I Design Writer
hen Mike Kahan studied at Loyola University in
Chicago, he lived in a studio apartment in Lincoln
Park.
"And I fell in love with the loft, warehouse feel;' he says.
After graduation, he returned to his native Michigan to
take his place as a partner in the family's real estate develop-
ment company, Premier Realty in Troy, created by his father, a
Hungarian survivor of Auschwitz. And he decided to bring a bit
of the Chicago aesthetic he loved to Bloomfield Hills.
Tapping architect Kevin Akey, co-owner of AZD Associates in
Bloomfield Hills, Kahan and Akey created a 6,500-square-foot
space full of exposed steel beams, brick and ductwork.
"Kevin took the industrial look that I wanted and just ran
with it," says Kahan. "I loved it."
Both rugged yet warm in its colors and materials, the home,
10 years later, plays a happy backdrop to Kahan's life with his
wife, Shira (whose father was the rabbi at Oak Park's Temple
Emanu-El for many years), their two young daughters and four
free-spirited dogs. And it still thrills him.
"I see new things every day:' he says. "Every nook and cranny
has cool details. Shira and I will sit in an area we haven't visited
in a while and just look around and say, 'Wow. This is cool:" I I
Above: A 15-foot
covered entrance is
punctuated by inverted
columns. The home's
exterior, an adaptation of
the low roof-lined Prairie
style, is almost completely
maintenance-free due
to the materials used:
masonry, steel, glass,
stucco. "There's no painting
involved. Just a bit of
caulking," says architect
Kevin Akey.
Right: The house is built on
a quarter-circle radius, with
the center point right in
the middle of the pool. "We
literally designed the house
around the pool," which was
existing on the property,
says Akey. "The entire
house wraps around it, in
three hipped-roof sections
connected to a flat roof."
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November 10 2011