Design Within Beach: Custom Rugs for a Lake Point Tower Home

Published: August 31st, 2015

Whenever I design a room, I strive to bring every element of that design into harmony with its setting and architecture. This is particularly true when those characteristics are as strong as they are in a client’s home in Chicago’s magnificent Lake Point Tower. The landmark building’s curvaceous form inspires a soft geometry of circles, bends and swirls. Like Chicago architect’s Bertrand Goldberg’s observation that “there are no right angles in nature,” so none exist at Lake Point Tower! The curves repeat in the dramatic circular opening in the roof over the driveway as well as the kidney-shaped pool and gently curving pond in the building’s rooftop park.

My client’s view of these features, along with her spectacular panorama of the lakefront, inspired our choice for one of the grounding elements for the room — the rugs. Rugs often pull all the elements of a design together. So I decided to pay particular attention to them here.

Working with the design team at Angela Adams, we designed the perfect pair of rugs.  By virtue of the building’s architecture, they needed to be round, of course. In addition, we wanted the color palette to reflect the ever-changing blues and grays of lake and sky, with a nod to the more urban black and grey tones of the architecture. The rendering below captures these, along with a kinetic pattern that suggests the power of Lake Michigan’s waves sweeping onto the shore.

Here they are installed in my client’s home.  With special thanks to the design team at Angela Adams, my client now relishes this abstract representation of where she lives that lies literally at her feet.