Interesting Design

Located at 744 Keystone Ave, just a few blocks away from Dominican University, is an interesting design. At first glance, the house seems to be just another one of the extravagant River Forest homes, with a wrap around porch, porch swing, turrets, and large rambling grounds.

However when you look closer, one of the trees near the wrap around porch seems to be out of place.

That is when you notice that instead of cutting the tree down, the architect decided to include the tree within the wrap around porch!

I am not sure why the architect decided to keep the tree, maybe it was special to the family who had the home built, perhaps they wanted their house to be different, I don't know. I am not sure whether this is good design or bad design, it could fall under either category. It could be good design in the sense that the tree was kept for perhaps structural support, protection from some of the elements, or for sentimental or aesthetic reasons. Leaving the tree in the porch could be bad design, because the tree could fall on top of the house causing more damage than it would otherwise, or the tree could outgrow its confinements and cause serious structural damage to the house. Whatever the case, it certainly is an interesting design and clearly sets 744 Keystone Ave. apart from the other homes.