Mastro & Skylar Architects
1615 West North Avenue
Chicago Illinois 60622
773.489.4883
www.mastroskylararchitects.com
This is our cover letter.
Just because the work of Mastro & Skylar Architects is published frequently
doesn’t necessarily mean that we are great architects--it could just imply that we
have great clients, interesting jobs, and photogenic situations. But it must mean
something that more than 68 articles, books, and TV shows have showcased our
projects, and sometimes even put our work on the cover. We believe our work is
both timeless and timely, accounting for its appeal to so many different people.
The most important decision you’ll ever make about your
house will be the selection of your architect.
Some architects are dreamers. Their clients often end up with double-the-budget masterpieces that don’t function well, and express the architect’s--not the clients’--dreams. Some
architects are more technically inclined or approach the design of a house as a builder.
Their clients can end up with a practical and economical house devoid of any personality.
Some architects are intellectuals. Their clients end up with an expensively published monograph on a house that will never be built.
We combine aesthetics and function in our work. Our combined years of teaching and
building merge the pragmatic with the theoretical. Our approach is very holistic, incorporating interior and landscape design. Mastro & Skylar Architects’ clients end up with special
houses that function well, come in on budget, make a design statement, and fit our clients’
lifestyle like a glove.
Seventy years of experience.
Designing a new home with an architect can be an intense project. When you hire
Mastro & Skylar Architects to design your home, you work only with James Mastro
and Claudia Skylar. We work directly with our clients to assure continuity, quality
control and a consistent product, bringing our many years of experience to the
process. No “middleman”, no employees that may come and go over the life of the
project. You put your heart and soul into your new home, and so do we.
Thinking outside the box.
The phrase, “thinking outside of the box”--although a cliché-- is especially
appropriate in architecture, in a world where there are more and more
cookie-cutter builder homes. (Remember the song “Little boxes, little
boxes, and they’re all made out of ticky-tacky and they’re all made out of
tickey-tacky and they all look just the same”?) Our creative process is
designed to analyze your visions, dissect your desires, define your functional needs, and guide you in the process of making the visions in all of our
heads into built reality. We put a lot of thought into the early design phases
and explore many different options with you on paper, so that the final
product is exactly what you want.
Really thinking outside the box.
The phrase, “thinking outside of the box” could also explain how we
think about the area outside the walls of your home. We consider the
integration of the interior and the exterior one of the most important
considerations in residential design. In addition to winning the Chicago
Tribune Garden Contest and being named Mayor Daley’s Gardener of
the Year, Claudia Skylar has taught classes on the relationship of the
house and its site at the Art Institute and the Chicago Botanic Garden,
and was chair of the Lincoln Park Conservatory Council. From initial site
planning to the door and window details, we are constantly aware that
the exterior is not just leftover space, but a room or a series of rooms in
your overall house plan.
Been there, done that.
James Mastro is the sort of architect who understands the
building process and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He
started out building forts in the prairie at age five, and
hasn’t stopped building since. In addition to his design
talents, he has built six homes for his family and numerous
others for clients. James’ knowledge of construction
methods and costs is invaluable to our clients. We take
our clients’ budgets seriously, without sacrificing good
design.
We know how hard the construction process can be, and
consider it our job to make it as easy for you as possible.
Many of our clients find that it can actually be enjoyable!
Sometimes it takes a LOT of imagination.
A Condo Kitchen Before
After
A Ranch House Before
After
A Landmark House Before
After
Each client and each home is unique. You won’t see your future home as you look through our body of
work. It’s not like going to a builder and telling him that you want “Model B” in a different color. Instead you’ll
see how we solved the problems that other clients, buildings or sites posed, and realize that we can do the
same for you.
Whether remodeling or building from scratch, we approach the design process as an exercise in problemsolving. When we have the wonderfully clean slate of a vacant lot, or are able to design additions or totally
gut an existing structure, we apply the same lessons that we have learned in more restrictive situations. The
more difficult the problem, the more exciting it is to come up with a solution.
We’ve seen it all. So far we’ve always been able to totally transform the homes that we’ve worked on. We’ve
made small places feel bigger, narrow houses feel wider, low ceilings appear higher. We’ve filled dark houses
with light. We’ve taken nondescript places and given them personality. A good architect must be a magician
with space.
The Inside Story
East Lakeshore Drive Co-op
North Shore Residence
DePaul Residence
Urban House
West Side Loft
Santa Fe Residence
It’s a fine line between the outside and inside of a house. We
may be architects, but we consider the interiors of your home
just as important as the exteriors. Claudia Skylar taught interior
architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago for ten years, and
brings this experience to our projects.
Throughout the design process, we are aware of functional
needs and furniture placement. Whether or not our clients also
have an interior designer, Mastro & Skylar Architects is often
asked to design the kitchen, baths, built-ins, color and material
selections, and lighting. The success of our work is a result of
this integration.
River North Condo
Details. Details. Details.
It all eventually comes down to the details, those parts of your house that you see, touch,
and use on a daily basis. Mastro & Skylar Architects believe that the essence of your home
is expressed in the details, both exterior and interior. We believe that the overall concept
should be evident in the smallest element--that the philosophy behind the house can be
discerned in a cabinet knob or a piece of trim.
Kitchen Architecture
We love to design kitchens! Not only do we personally cook and entertain a lot, but kitchens are
one of the main places that the style of the house and the personality of the client is defined.
There is more thought per cubic inch in a kitchen than in any other room in the house.
As architects we tend to look at kitchens differently than kitchen designers because we are
considering the whole space. We are also free to design cabinetry and other details to custom
fit to our clients’ functional and aesthetic needs. As in all levels of our design process, the
design of a kitchen is extremely interactive. We explore every option possible with our clients
before committing to a concept.
Beyond the basic bath.
We never imagined we would be designing bathrooms when
we were in architecture school. But just like kitchens, baths
offer a chance for us to create special compositions of
materials and space. As problem-solving artists, we enjoy
solving functional issues in special and creative ways.
Our House
People always ask if it is difficult for us to design our own places. Absolutely not! We have done a number of
houses for ourselves over twenty years: a restored Greek Revival farmhouse, a modern-on-the-inside workman’s
cottage, a renovated and enlarged Victorian mansion, a casual new beach house. Like the mother who tells each
of her children that she loves him the most, we have adored each house that we have created for our family.
We have chosen to integrate our life and our work because we believe that in order to create homes for others, it
is important that one knows how to live. We use our houses to the max: working, playing, gardening, cooking,
building, lounging, exercising, entertaining, learning. Our houses have always been a place for us to experiment
(we don’t like to use our clients as guinea pigs), whether it be with a new way of ordering space, a formula for
mixing a concrete floor, playing with tile or paint. The process of building or remodeling a house may be horrifying
to most people, but we would rather “play house” than do just about anything.
This is our house: filled with light and space and our favorite stuff. Airy but cozy. Colorful but neutral. Sometimes
playful, sometimes elegant. Radical ways of organizing space that make perfect sense. Understand our house
and you’ll know everything there is to know about us.
After all, it’s your home.
Our clients come to us with pretty strong ideas. We enjoy the challenge of integrating our
design philosophy and expertise with their requests. The clients of the above home collected
country antiques, loved to garden, and needed another bedroom. We suggested creating the
cottage pictured above, complete with a cottage garden, on the roof of their brownstone situated
among high rises. The home on the right was created for a couple who collected modern art and
wanted a zen garden. We suggested removing part of the building to create a private courtyard.
We’ve had clients who wanted to live in a church, and have mixed old ceiling frescos with
modern steel handrails and jagged forms. Another asked us to turn a large factory into his
home, giving us the movie “Blade Runner” to inspire us. The stair details in that job relate to the
El that zooms by a few feet outside his living room windows. We’ve designed spaces that
remind a family of a wonderful Caribbean vacation. We’ve created cabinetry to house a cookie
jar collection in the context of the remodeling of the entire suburban home, reorienting it on a
difficult lot. We’ve designed a number of homes for clients who collect Art and Craft Pottery or
Mission furniture. We’ve done a home that recalls a house in Charleston for a Southern family,
while solving circulation problems and enlarging a small dining area.
All of the above projects, as different as they may seem, do have something in common:
Mastro & Skylar Architects. Those familiar with our work know it when they see it. We are
modernists at heart, constantly striving for simplicity, rationality, and consistency in our work.
We respect the existing context, but never blantantly imitate it. It is your house, but for a short
time we share the creation of it with you.