Distinguished home gets temporary reprieve

A distinct example of a renowned architect's early work will get a temporary reprieve, but the Lake County Forest Preserve District will only wait so long to see if anyone else is willing to save it.

Though it will continue to spend about $8,000 a year for utilities, including running sump pumps 24 hours a day, the district doesn't want to invest a substantial amount on a house it owns along the Des Plaines River near Mettawa.

"It's a very interesting home," Mike Tully, director of operations and public safety, told members of the district's facilities committee during an update Friday. "I'm sure in it's prime it was a wonderful facility but it's got a number of issues."

Those issues include a roof that needs to be replaced, mold, rotting wood and a need to divert water, as the home was built in a flood plain and requires four sump pumps running continuously to keep it dry.

But committee members and other commissioners, who toured the site a few weeks ago, balked at the estimated $625,000 needed to do that.

"The monies are not there," Commissioner Ann Maine said.

Yet Maine and others agreed it should be determined whether there were other avenues that wouldn't involve a substantial district expense.

"That's the only way we can rationally look at that," said committee member Aaron Lawlor.

The Glen A. Lloyd house was built in 1936 and designed by Nathaniel Owings, a founder of what became Skidmore Owings & Merrill. The noted Chicago firm has designed thousands of buildings world wide, including the Willis Tower and John Hancock in Chicago.

The country estate of Chicago socialites Glen and Marion Lloyd, along with 168 acres, was purchased by the district in 2004 as an addition to Wright Woods.

Marion Lloyd was given a life estate and when she died a year later, the home come under district control.

Simply keeping it in its deteriorating state has cost the district about $24,000 over the past few years.

"We have a building that is falling apart, is a liability out there and no matter how many hundreds of thousands you spend, will still be sitting in a bad situation," said board president Bonnie Thomson Carter.

Susan Benjamin, an architectural historian from Highland Park, said the home was "well ahead of its time" in terms of design.

She advocated a strategy suggested by Landmarks Illinois to find someone who could take advantage of federal tax credits and rehab the house into an income-producing property, such as a bed and breakfast, preschool, art/architectural center or other use appropriate for the area.

Executive Director Tom Hahn said he will speak with those in historic preservation circles to get ideas concerning possible courses of action, including hiring a consultant to direct the effort.

"The bottom line is it isn't open ended," Maine said.