Midcentury Modern By 'Grandfather Of Prefab' Listed In Winnetka

WINNETKA, IL — A Winnetka home designed by a midcentury modernist architect dubbed the "Grandfather of Prefab" has returned to the market with an asking price about 10 percent lower than when it was last offered for sale more than 15 months ago.

Built in 1957, the 4,250-square-foot, five-bedroom home was first designed as a Techbuilt Home by architect Carl Koch. Much of the interior most recently renovated in 2014, with the master bath updated this year with a new walk-in closet, according to its listing.

Located on two parcels totaling 0.64 acres southwest of the intersection of Hibbard and Tower roads, the home was re-listed Wednesday with an asking price of nearly $1.2 million. According to its listing, the home offers buyers a "one of a kind opportunity" to a potential buyer.

The main level includes a kitchen with access to the deck, 20-foot ceilings, two-story windows and a cathedral ceiling with exposed wood beams in the family room, according to the listing. The second floor contains the master bedroom, an office, lot and fitness room. There is a recreation room with one of the home's fireplaces on the lower level, along with a laundry room and access to the backyard.

Born in 1912 in Milwaukee, Koch, the architect of the home, was a lifelong advocate of affordable and adaptable housing, according to an online biography from the Monuments Men Foundation. He received a master's degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1937, spent a year in Sweden after graduation and became senior housing research technician in the National Housing Agency during the Franklin Roosevelt administration. During World War II, he was recruited to join the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section of the allied military government in Europe, according to the foundation. Upon his return, he began focusing on new innovations in housing construction. Koch developed a prototype of an prefabricated home called the Acorn House, which never caught on.

Koch's invention of a new system in 1953, the Techbuilt House, was a notable success for his Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm. More than 3,000 of the prefabricated homes, which were available in six different designs, were built across the country over the next decade. Their peaked roofs with overhanging eaves and their natural wood materials were more "harmonious with traditional suburban tastes and settings," according to a biography from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In addition to designing homes, Koch spent 20 years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put together master plans for five U.S. Air Force bases, and designed large-scale public housing developments using new components he developed and called "Techcrete."

Techbuilt houses are rare in the Chicago area, according to Crain's Chicago Business, which first reported the home's re-listing after realtor Maggie Beitler recognized its notable architect. Bill Johnson, the editor of a website about Koch's architectural legacy, told Crain's there were at least eight other Technbuilt houses on the North Shore in a cluster in Northfield and the potential for more, with an affiliated builder listed in Skokie.

"The basic idea of the Techbuilt-Excursion house is that a buyer, if he wishes, can purchase as much space as he will ever need in a livable condition for as little as $10,000 [$100,000, adjusted for inflation.] The house itself includes 1,920 square feet of completely usable space. Our basic concept is that a family can grow with this house, can put down its roots, and stay there if they are so inclined," according to the 1954 publication The Techbuilt Idea, published on Johnson's website.

"Thus, if they wish, they can improve their investment themselves, not necessarily, as is the usual practice, looking forward to turning it in for a new model. Our feeling is that while this turn-over idea is fine for most American products, the home is also the neighborhood, one's friends, schools, etc., and that some people at least do not wish to move as their needs and the size of their pocketbooks change."

According to an obituary, Koch was dubbed the "grandfather" of prefabricated home by Progressive Architecture magazine in 1994. He died in 1998 at the age of 86.

The Winnetka Techbuilt home was last purchased for $930,000 in June 2013 by Nelson and Sarah Blengeri, according to Cook County records. It returned to the market in February 2015 with an asking price just short of $1.4 million. Its list price peaked in April 2018 at $1.425 million. The estimated 2019 market value of the home and its backyard, for taxing purposes, was about $1,283,000, and its annual tax bill is more than $30,000.

• Address: 860 Hibbard Road, Winnetka
• Built: 1957
• Square Feet: 4,246
• Lot Size: 0.6 acres
• Bedrooms: 5
• Bathrooms: 3
• Last Sold: $930,000 in June 2013
• First Listed: $1.4 million in February 2015
• List Price: $1.19 million in January 2020

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