Downers Grove Magazine | Home & Design
THE GLASS HOUSE-DESIGNED AND BUILT BY RICHARD MARKER
No place like home Architect Richard Marker reflects on designing and building his family home—the Glass House—in Downers Grove.
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BY EMMA WOLF PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK GUTIERREZ WITH VHT
s Dorothy Gale famously declared in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” Cliché or not, this saying has proven to be true for architect Richard Marker, as he reflected on his experience of creating the Downers Grove home that is known as the “Glass House.” Boasting floor-to-ceiling glass walls and windows, bright skylights and newlyrefinished white-oak hardwood floors, this hidden gem is nestled among a heavily-forested piece of land on a familyfriendly street. Marker, a Downers Grove native, designed and built the modernist steel and glass house in 1973 as his family home. He resided in it with his wife and
three children from 1973 to 1988, before moving to Naperville. “It was a fun place to live, and it was special to us,” Marker said. “We truly enjoyed everything about the house.” Marker’s goal when designing and building the house was to create a sleek, modernist home that was inspired by the elements of nature that surround it. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Marker became a licensed architect at age 25. In 1972, he started his own architectural and building firm, Marker, Inc., which originally began in Downers Grove, then moved to Naperville, and is now based in Yorkville. The firm specializes in all areas, ranging from land acquisition to home 56
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construction. It also manages construction projects for outside sources. After building its first house in October 1972, Marker, Inc. went on to build the subdivision Woodland Estates in Downers Grove the next year, before building the Glass House. The firm has built other subdivisions in Downers Grove, Naperville, Westmont, Woodridge and Yorkville, and it has built ten custom homes in Oak Brook. Marker, Inc. has been in business for 49 years, and has built more than 200 houses in the western suburbs, ranging in price from $200,000 to $2,000,000. However, the Glass House is by far Marker’s most distinctive Modernist-style work. The eye-catching house sits far back from the street, making it difficult to spot,
