The homeowner describes her design style as traditional, but not too traditional. "I like elegant and traditional, but simple. I don’t like too frilly or too cutesy," she says. She worked with interior designer Jon Schlagenhaft on this project, as she had on previous homes in Mequon and Elm Grove. "He had a wonderful way never to hurt your feelings," the homeowner says of the late designer, who died in a plane crash in September 2008. "He read the person and could determine what kind of style they liked."

In designing a 23rd floor condo in the University Club Tower, architect Wade Weissmann researched early 20th century apartment houses constructed in Chicago and New York to examine how his predecessors laid out floor plans.

"We looked at a lot of apartment models that articulated the wall surfaces opposite wall windows to break down scale," says Weissmann of Wade Weissmann Architecture, Brown Deer. "We wanted to take advantage of the views and hide service areas."

As in each of the seven other units he has designed inside the exclusive lakefront high-rise, he tailored the design around building elements that were not negotiable, such as the large expanses of windows, the elevator entrance and accommodations for utilities. "With the U-Club Tower building, the building has major arched spaces, so finding ways to resolve that geometric challenge has to be done with a little bit of finesse," Weissmann says.

He collaborated on the project with the late interior designer Jon Schlagenhaft. "We approached the architectural design as a synergistic relationship with the discipline of interior design," Weissmann says of the partnership. It’s not just doorways or windows or architectural features, but how those complement interior design elements. "That couldn’t be more apparent than in how we handled the lighting. We were given the opportunity to align decorative ceiling fixtures or sconces on walls to highlight individual pieces of furniture or artwork. It’s a combination of decorative lighting for function and aesthetics," he says.

The two worked together from the conceptual stage to completion to account for every detail and overcome the geometric challenges the project presented. "That’s where you define the character of the design team," Weissmann says. "When it looks easy, that’s when it’s the hardest."

	The condo features his and her offices. Her office doubles as a guest room. Some of the artwork was inherited from the homeowner’s father and uncle, who were artists in Germany.
One of the challenges for architect Wade Weissmann was creating enough storage in this downtown condo for a couple moving from a large suburban house. In addition to the elegant dressing room, Weissmann incorporated storage spaces along hallways that link the bedrooms to the main living spaces of the home.