Lake Shore Drive penthouse with revolving turntable living room lists for $13.5M

Overlooking downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan, a massive and highly customized Lake Shore Drive penthouse recently hit the market with an eye-watering asking price of $13.5 million. Its best party trick? A revolving corner rotunda that allows you and your guests to take in every view the room has to offer, regardless of seating arrangement.

“It rotates very slowly, approximately one rotation every 30 or 40 minutes, so no one really feels that it’s happening,” listing agent Tim Salm of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty told Curbed. “But you get a bit of a surprise whenever you look up as you’re not quite sure what you’ll see outside the windows.”

Beyond its slick turntable seating, the sprawling property features six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and all the bells and whistles you’d expect for the price, including a designer kitchen, home automation system, twelve-foot ceilings throughout, and an enormous walk-in glass wine cellar. The 8,800 square feet of interior living space is bolstered by a 1,135-square-foot terrace.

The Streeterville home’s current owners, White Lodging chairman and CEO Bruce White and his wife, Beth, purchased the property as raw unfinished space in the Lucien Lagrange-designed building at 840 N. Lake Shore Drive after its completion in 2005. They completed an extensive custom build-out overseen by Simeone Deary Design Group in 2007.

“The owners were planning on buying a large single-family home in Lincoln Park, but city houses tend to be more narrow and vertical,” explained Salm. “They saw that there was a chance to have the same amount of space on a single floor versus a luxury four-level home in one of the neighborhoods.”

The Whites are looking to sell the condo and relocate to their ranch in Wyoming, according to Salm.

While the home is undoubtedly impressive, it remains to be seen if the property will fetch the $13.5 million its owners are seeking. According to Crain’s, fewer than 10 Chicago condos have ever sold for more than $12 million, and most have been brand new construction instead of 12 years old.

The newly-listed penthouse is among the city’s most expensive residential properties for sale right now. It is eclipsed only by Burling Street’s $45 million Parrillo Mansion, the Gold Coast’s $22 million Thompson House, and a pair of undeveloped, extra-wide Lincoln Park lots priced at $18 million and $15 million.