Miracle House

“The Miracle House is unique for its almost all-glass exterior, making it innovative in its openness and connection with its exterior surroundings The Miracle House was the result of a campaign to raise capital funds for the expansion of a Catholic parish complex that resulted in not just the construction of the house itself, but also St.”

“Coincidentally, Belli & Belli's offices were located in the neighborhood. When Edo Belli agreed to volunteer to design the Miracle House, Belli & Belli had already designed the first of what would become a large number of churches, institutions, and hospitals for the Catholic church in general and the Archdiocese of Chicago in particular.”

“The house is also significant as the work of Belli & Belli Architects and Engineers, Inc., a small, family-run architecture firm founded n 1946 in Chicago, which by 1953 was a booming office with 45 employees.”

“A neighborhood architect, Ray Basso, took the job and generally respected Belli's original design, containing his work to the north side of the house, where the unique, original design stands on its own as approached from the south.”

“(Dr. Scheiner had a long-established medical practice in Hyde Park, Chicago, where one of his patients was Barack Obama in the years before he became President.) When it was completed in 1954, the house measured 20' x 56' with the primary elevation facing south onto Armitage Avenue.”

“The Miracle House has excellent integrity retaining its historic site characteristics on its corner lot, overall form, massing, materials and detailing. In 1965 the Marano family commissioned local architect Ray Basso (Belli and Belli were offered but declined the commission) to design an addition on the north side of the house, which did not compromise the original design.”

“In 1927, the golf club and what remained of the farm were subdivided for residential development by G. Whittier Gale, grandson of the original settler. Many of the homes in the neighborhood are bungalows, as well as a variety of revival styles of architecture including Tudor, Georgian, and French eclectic from before World War II, and Cape Cod and Ranch-style homes from the postwar era.”

“Edo J. Belli was born in Chicago in 1918 and began his education in architecture at the architectural program of Lane Technical High School. He graduated from there in 1936 in the middle of the Great Depression and began an architectural apprenticeship with Chicago architects Holsman & Holsman.”

“His focus was on the technical and extensive construction administration of the firm's “turn key" products. By the middle of the 1950s, in an age when many Chicago architectural firms pursued a corporate model, Belli & Belli stayed a family-owned practice, despite its great growth.”