WINNETKA, IL — A minimalist Winnetka house designed by Joseph Fujikawa, a disciple of famed modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe, sold Tuesday for more than its asking price. The sale closed just two months after the property was listed publicly for the first time.

Fujikawa, who died in 2003, built the home in 1971-72 for his own family of four, who moved from Hyde Park to Winnetka. Fujikawa would go on to serve on the village’s Architecture Committee and Zoning Board of Appeals, according to the Winnetka Historical Society and an interview with the Art Institute of Chicago.

The Fairview Avenue home includes an open floor plan and metal floating stairs reminiscent of Van Der Rohe’s Arts Club stairs, according to the , which described the home as a “modernist trophy.”

Listing agent Janet Karabas told Crain’s Chicago Business there were multiple offers for the property, and the house was of hitting the market. The new owners had been shopping around for midcentury modern houses and were ready with an offer on the first day of showings, the buyers’ agent told Crain’s, which first reported the sale.

Born in Los Angeles in 1922, Fujikawa was a junior studying architecture at the University of Southern California when World War II began. He was one of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans forcibly sent to internment camps, spending about three months in a “relocation center” in Colorado until he was admitted to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where he applied after learning that Van Der Rohe was director, according to the conducted for the Art Institute’s Chicago Architects Oral History Project. He went on to serve in the Army, translating Japanese for the final two years of the war.

According to an , Fujikawa received a master’s degree in 1953 and went on to work with Van Der Rohe in a wide range of Chicago projects, including the landmark at 3360 S. State Street on IIT’s Bronzeville campus and at 5530 S. Lake Shore Drive in Hyde Park.

In 1968, Fujikawa became a partner in the Office of Mies van der Rohe, who died the following year. The firm was renamed Fujikawa Conterato Lohan Associates in 1975 before Fujikawa left to form the firm Fujikawa Johnson with Gerald Johnson in 1982, according to the obituary from Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin.

Now known as , the firm would go on to design such notable buildings as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at 20 S. Wacker Drive, Roberto Clemente Community Academy at 1147 N. Western Ave., the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building at 77 W. Jackson Boulevard, Two Illinois Center at 233 N. Michigan Ave. and many more distinctive modern designs.

According to a in the Winnetka Historical Society Gazette, Fujikawa’s daughter recalled her father would catch the 7:08 p.m. train from Chicago, get off at the Indian Hill Station and walk home to join his family for dinner.

Fujikawa’s son told Crain’s there were always architects coming over to visit the Winnetka home. He was not especially impressed with the design until he became older, he said, although his friends at nearby New Trier High School would describe it as the “.”

The kitchen and dining room are on the second level, which also features a continuous balcony overlooking a tiered garden and private backyard, according to its listing. The house has a single fireplace and an attached garage with room for one car. Its new owners have not been identified in public records.

• Address:
• Built: 1972
• Square Feet: 3,429
• Lot Size: 0.22 acres
• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 3
• Listed Price: $725,000 on Oct. 10
• Sale Price: $765,000 on Dec. 10

Listing information originally appeared on . For more information and photos, click

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