The clients resided elsewhere and wanted more permanent roots in Chicago: a pied-à-terre worthy of the city and its lakefront. Two adjoining condominiums spanned the entire west end of the building, roughly 3,000 square feet, both carrying finishes three decades old. Integro gut-renovated both units and delivered a single residence from the combined footprint, anchored by a 180-degree panorama of the skyline and the lake.

Every system was rebuilt: electrical upgraded and centralized, lighting overhauled, radiant heat set beneath the bathroom floors, and an integrated low-voltage platform threading audio and lighting throughout.

The complexity lived in the building itself. Work could begin only after a thirty-minute haul from the loading dock to the unit, inside a single elevator reserved two weeks out, across a workday bounded by an eight o'clock entry and a four o'clock exit — seven productive hours, at most. Structural concrete floors could not be cut, so Integro ground and re-leveled them under building oversight; ceilings that varied unit to unit were brought flush beneath continuous fixtures that would have exposed any error. Imported Italian Scavolini cabinetry was matched in custom millwork across the radiator covers, living-room casework, and breakfast nook; an entry mosaic of water-jetted Italian marble was set loose piece by loose piece to a rendered pattern; and shower tile was laid from rough carpentry forward, so that no piece met a wall or corner cut.

What remains is a seamless residence that betrays none of the effort that produced it.