Famed Interior Designer's Former Northbrook Home Hits Market

NORTHBROOK, IL — Designed by Chicago interior designer Richard Himmel as his North Shore country retreat, this 1971-built design hit the market last week for the first time in more than 30 years. Himmel was among the most successful designers in the country, as well as a writer and a novelist, who designed home for clients like Muhammad Ali.

Himmel was a Chicago-based interior and furniture designer, critic and novelist. Though he specialized in residential design, Himmel's more than 30-year career also embraced work in hotels, country clubs, corporate aircraft and retail design. Project credits include The Playboy Club and Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the Marbury Place Hotel in Washington, D.C. and several installations for The Limited Stores.

The four-bedroom home mixes modernist interiors with elements of the Beaux Arts style. Sitting beside Somme Woods and the North Branch of the Chicago River, the home is surrounded by lush landscaping, including botanical and perennial trees, a Japanese gardens, a greenhouse, koi pond, as well as a pool and a tennis court.

There are nine rooms, including a large great room for entertaining a "dramatic" family room, a "distinctive" master suite and a true chef's kitchen far ahead of its time, according to the house's listing.

A finished basement rounds out its total of 6,601 finished square feet. There's a fireplace in the living room, updated central air and a three car attached garage. The home offers a "rare opportunity" to update the home to the latest standards, its listing said, while keeping intact the designer's vision – "to test the works from different eras to showcase how they complement and reinforce each other's message."

Himmel, a New Trier High School and University of Chicago graduate who served on Gen. George S. Patton's staff in World War II and died in 2000, is a member of the Interior Designers Hall of Fame, the founder of the Chicago Designers Club and the author of a dozen novels, "mainly dealing with spies or gangsters, and always loaded with a goodly amount of sex," according to his obituary in 2000.

At the University of Chicago, Himmel edited the school newspaper and studied under philosopher Mortimer Adler, with whom he shared a similar quality, Himmel told People Magazine in a 1978 profile.

"Adler has the same problem I do," Himmel said. "He's a scholar, but he wants to live like a rich Jewish entrepreneur."

The home's current owners, who expanded the home's large gardens after buying the home from Himmel in the earlier 1980s, are ready to downsize now that their children have grown, Crain's Chicago Business reported prior to its public listing.

Local school districts include Meadowbrook Elementary School, Northbrook Junior High and Glenbrook North High School. According to the Cook County assessor's office, the home's 2018 estimated market value is $1,271,660. It was listed June 13 for just under $1.4 million.

• Address: 1375 Rosemary Ln, Northbrook, Illinois
• Price: $1,395,000
• Square Feet: 4672
• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 5 Full and 2 Half Baths
• Built: 1971
• Listed: June 13, 2018

This listing originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.

UPDATE: The asking price was reduced to $1.25 million in August 2018