Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

William and Alice McLennan house, 1101 North Lake Road, Lake Forest, built 1959.

John and Louise Runnells house, 1150 North Lake Road, Lake Forest, built 1959.

Ike W. and Frances Colburn house, 700 North Lake Road, c. 1970.

Ike W. and Frances Colburn house, 700 North Lake Road, 1973.

Ike W. and Frances Colburn house, 700 North Lake Road, late 1970s.

T. Stanton and Jean Armour house, 1144 Hawkweed Lane, built 1980.

Ike Colburn was born in Boston in 1924. He attended Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh and Yale University. Colburn came to the Chicago-area in 1951 at a time of post-war growth. He worked for Schweikher and Elting in Roselle, Illinois, eventually going out on his own in 1955.

The McLennan house on Lake Road was Colburn’s breakout project in 1959, gaining recognition from the AIA and a Life magazine spread titled “The Romantic Swing in Architecture.”

Ike Coburn is remembered for understanding the modern idiom, symmetry and traditional architecture - a modern, yet formal approach. He took the same view of landscaping, which he often directed for his commissions. He completed many thoughtful additions and remodels of many local homes, like the nave at Church of the Holy Spirit and the Walden Estate Tea House for Mr. Daniel Haerther.

The most infamous of his local works was Colburn’s own house on Lake Road, built in 1965. The home, marked by distinctive towers with elongated arches and circular cutouts that gave rise to the moniker “Swiss Cheese House,” was seen as a modern masterpiece by some, and as a neighborhood eyesore by others.This striking work became famous among mid-century modernists and infamous in the local community, where a neighbor described it as a “faux Taj Mahal” in a critical letter to the Lake Forester.

The Colburns weathered the local controversy for nearly a decade, but the house did not stand up quite so well to the elements. In 1973, preparing to sell, Colburn had the towers removed.

The remaining house, much less dramatic, was eventually razed in 2005.Local commissions of Ike Colburn include: 1956: Stacy and Kay Hill, 132 S. Green Bay Road, Lake Forest1959: William and Alice McLennan, 1101 N. Lake Road, Lake Forest1959: John and Louise Runnells, 1150 N. Lake Road, Lake Forest1960: Bath and Tennis Club, Lake Bluff, (Colburn, Glore & Co.)1960: Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Reed, 250 Green Bay Road, Lake Forest1964: Hempstead and Cynthia Washburne, 261 East Westleigh Road1965: I.W. and Francis Colburn, 700 Lake Road, Lake Forest, demolished1980: T. Stanton and Jean Armour, 1144 Hawkweed Lane, Lake Forest

Ike Colburn: Too Modernist for Lake Forest?