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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