Evanston Lakefront Build Finally Sticks for Over $7 Million

Eric Ruderman and Stacey Empson helped a long-empty lakefront parcel in Evanston’s Lakeshore Historic District find its footing after a decade sitting empty through a previous failed plan.

The longtime residents of the suburb just north of Chicago paid $2.35 million for the site in 2020 and embarked on a $7.5 million effort to build a custom home nearby Northwestern University’s main campus.

The lot on Lake Michigan’s shoreline sat vacant for more than a decade in the Chicago suburb prior to their purchase, the Wall Street Journal reported. Three years after they bought the land, the couple moved into a 9,500-square-foot, five-bedroom house with lake views, an indoor swimming pool and space for an impressive art collection at 917 Edgemere Court.

The project required careful architectural maneuvering to fit a large building onto a narrow lot — roughly 50 feet wide and 330 feet deep — along with specialized construction to manage a high water table and shoreline erosion.

The earliest hurdle, however, was local politics. Previous owners tried and failed to develop the roughly half-acre site after proposing a modern design that ran afoul of neighbors and Evanston’s preservation commission. The newspaper reported that rather than repeat that mistake, Ruderman and Empson started by calling nearby homeowners before closing on the property to understand what had sunk earlier plans.

Neighbors made clear they wanted a home that blended with the surrounding 1920s-era houses and respected informal setback norms along the lake and street. With that guidance, the couple moved forward and hired Morgante Wilson Architects, a Chicago-area firm already familiar with the site’s constraints.

The resulting design struck a compromise: a traditional front façade with gables and a dormer to satisfy historic sensibilities, paired with a more contemporary, light-filled rear facing the lake. The plan sailed through the preservation commission.

Construction brought its own complexities, though. High lake levels had battered the backyard, prompting the team to design curving seawall-like features to deflect waves and protect the property. An indoor pool — a priority for the owners — required effectively building a sealed structure within the high water table.

The finished home also highlights a growing trend among affluent homeowners of designing for aging in place, according to the outlet. The house includes an elevator, gym, spa and sauna, features that, along with the pool, proved especially meaningful after Empson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a year after moving in.

She told the Journal she feels “so much peace and calm” with the assumption she’ll be able to remain in the home through her golden years.

— Eric Weilbacher