Chicago Homes: A Portrait of the City's Everyday Architecture
From Agate Publishing, October, 2025.
Available now in a wide number of locations:
“A remarkable and comprehensive exploration.”
—ELEANOR ESSER GORSKI, CEO & President of the Chicago Architecture Center
“Written with more verve than most books on local history—and with charmingly detailed illustrations—Chicago Homes is more than a guide to the domestic architecture of the Windy City. It really offers lessons on how Americans have built homes all over the country across the centuries.”
—SHAX RIEGLER, Executive Editor, Architectural Digest
“If you want to understand how this city became what it is...this book is essential. It reminds us that every home holds a story—and we owe it to ourselves, and to our city, to listen.”
—TONIKA JOHNSON, Social Justice Artist, MacArthur Fellow, and Creator of the Folded Map Project
“A timeless reference that’s truly fun to read. Honestly, everyone who’s ever lived in a building in Chicago should own this book.”
—MARTHA BAYNE, Editor of The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook
“The book is beautifully illustrated and should be in every Chicago lover’s library.”
—DOMINIC A. PACYGA, Author of Chicago: A Biography
“Say goodbye to stuffy history books, with its delightful sense of humor and delicious illustrations, Bruni and Thompson have produced the definitive history of Chicago homes.”
—MIKE JACKSON, FAIA, President, National Building Arts Center
Chicago is famous for its architecture. People move here for it, form cults around particular styles, and fight with New Yorkers about who built it first and best. This forthcoming book by co-authors Carla Bruni and Phil Thompson, and filled with illustrations from Wonder City Studio, takes Chicagoans through the rich variety of residential architecture that they walk past every day in their own neighborhoods.
This book is for the curious Chicagoan or visitor to flip through and finally learn why that Foursquare or Italianate looks the way it does and why it always makes their pupils dilate. Why are our lots so narrow? How many kit homes were built? What kind of stone is “greystone”?
This book is filled with stories, images, and a deep appreciation for those everyday buildings that stitch our lives together. Moving from Chicago’s earliest days to World War II, the book shows and tells the stories of more than forty percent of Chicago’s housing supply and addresses the homes most Chicagoans have lived in, and what is most recognizable as distinctly “Chicago” to visitors. Combining the authors' decades of experience in historic preservation and illustration, this is the evergreen book that every Chicagoans will turn to for well-researched, entertaining, and often surprising answers to their questions about what makes a home a Chicago home.
What's Inside:
- A Style-by-Style Breakdown. Learn the defining features of Chicago’s most iconic home types, from bungalows to two-flats to Victorian mansions.
- Historical Context. Discover how key events like the Great Chicago Fire and the boom of the 1920s influenced home design and construction.
- Detailed Illustrations and Diagrams. Experience each architectural style through meticulously hand-drawn illustrations that bring these homes to life.
- A Neighborhood Lens. See how Chicago’s housing evolution is reflected in its unique and varied communities.
About Phil:
Phil Thompson is the co-founder and illustrator behind WonderCity Studio (wondercitystudio.com), a company dedicated to creating artwork of the places worth preserving, with a special love for Chicago. For ten years, Phil has captured over a thousand homes and buildings with his pen-and-ink illustrations and sold prints of his artwork celebrating history and architecture to customers all over the world. His work has been featured in dozens of media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicagoist, Curbed, Business Insider, and Chicago Magazine. Clients have included University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the Chicago Architecture Center, among others. He and his wife, Katie, who creates ceramics of Chicago architecture, love to walk city streets admiring architecture with their dog, Vincent.
About Carla:
Carla Bruni has spent close to twenty years preserving, studying, and writing about historic architecture across dozens of U.S. cities and four continents. She teaches graduate students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she holds a Master of Science degree in Historic Preservation. Carla has been a recurring guest discussing architecture and environmental issues on WGN and WLS Radio, and her work has been featured on StoryCorps Chicago, Newcity, NBC Nightly News, PRX, NPR, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and various other national and international publications. Carla also works to support the Chicago Bungalow Association, overseeing energy efficiency work, creating history and home maintenance resources, and leading the charge to list thousands of vintage homes in the National Register of Historic Places. Her professional work and involvement in community repair and revitalization has taken her to every corner of Chicago, her native city, where she currently resides with Mr. Nancy, her above-average cat
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