A Newly Built Lake Forest Estate Rises From the Remnants of a Rockefeller-Era Mansion. It’s Asking $21,999,900.

The 2019 Lake Forest residence occupies 5.27 acres of the former Rockefeller-McCormick estate, preserving landmarked garden remnants and more than 570 feet of Lake Michigan frontage while adding a 22-car garage, resort pool and contemporary wellness wing.

The house at 595 Circle Lane in Lake Forest, Illinois, is only seven years old. The landscape around it has been more than a century in the making.

Known today as Villa Turicum, the 5.27-acre property occupies part of the former country estate created for Harold Fowler McCormick and Edith Rockefeller McCormick, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. Beginning around 1908, architect Charles A. Platt transformed a much larger Lake Michigan property into an Italianate estate with formal gardens, terraces and monumental stairs descending the bluff. The original mansion was demolished in 1956, but significant pieces of Platt’s landscape survived.

Those remnants now coexist with a roughly 20,000-square-foot residence completed in 2019. The property returned to the market in September asking $21,999,900, after previous marketing campaigns had reached as high as $27,500,000. Current MLS information confirms 5.27 acres and more than 570 feet of Lake Michigan frontage, along with garage capacity for 22 cars.

Listing agent Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate calls the property “a rare marriage of history, architectural artistry, and modern 2026 luxury.” In this case, the historical connection is more than marketing language: the surviving Villa Turicum garden features at 595 Circle Lane were designated a Lake Forest landmark in 2000.

The Original Villa Turicum Was a Rockefeller-Era Showplace

The first Villa Turicum belonged to Harold and Edith Rockefeller McCormick, members of two families closely associated with America’s Gilded Age industrial fortunes.

The couple acquired the original property in 1907, and Platt ultimately designed an Italianate country estate overlooking Lake Michigan. Historical accounts describe a 44-room mansion completed in 1912, surrounded by formal gardens, a reflecting pool, tea house and an elaborate system of terraces and stairs descending the bluff.

The original estate was vastly larger than the property offered today. Historical sources put it at roughly 260 to 300 acres, depending on the account, and the grounds extended well beyond the present 5.27-acre parcel.

After Edith Rockefeller McCormick’s death and decades of decline, the original house was eventually demolished in 1956 and the estate subdivided. The current residence therefore should not be confused with the Rockefeller-era mansion: it is a modern house constructed near the site of the original residence and integrated with surviving portions of its historic landscape.

Among those remnants are the Italian-inspired terraced stairs descending toward Lake Michigan, restored garden elements and the property’s shell-basin fountain. The current listing also highlights an alligator sculpture associated with Edith Rockefeller McCormick, flanked by carved pelicans.

The Approach Begins From Lake Michigan

Villa Turicum’s most dramatic arrival may be from the water rather than the driveway.

More than 570 feet of private Lake Michigan frontage extends along the property, according to the current listing. A protected cove beach incorporates two boat launches and a boathouse, creating a waterfront environment substantially more elaborate than a conventional private beach.

From there, the original curved terraced stairways climb the bluff toward the historic grounds. Their survival provides a physical connection between the present estate and Platt’s early-20th-century landscape, whose original design similarly used formal stairways, fountains and water features to make the descent toward Lake Michigan part of the estate experience.

At the top, however, the architecture changes eras completely.

The current house was completed in 2019 after approximately four years of construction, according to earlier marketing material for the property. Rather than attempting to pass as the lost Rockefeller mansion, it functions as a modern continuation of the site, surrounded by restored historical elements.

That distinction is important. Villa Turicum’s historical significance resides substantially in the land and surviving landscape architecture; the current 20,000-square-foot house is a 21st-century addition to that story.

Jerusalem Limestone Meets Walnut and Wrought Iron

Inside, the new residence uses materials intended to bridge old-world architecture and contemporary living.

The foyer is paneled in walnut, with limestone flooring incorporating golden-hued stones imported from Jerusalem, according to the listing. Custom arched double doors and a curved wrought-iron staircase reinforce the house’s more traditional architectural vocabulary.

The library takes its inspiration from a Ralph Lauren Polo-style private club and opens directly onto a bluestone loggia with an outdoor fireplace and access toward the spa area.

Across the lake-facing side of the house, French doors maintain views toward Lake Michigan. The living room flows into the formal dining area, giving the principal entertaining spaces a continuous relationship with the water rather than reserving the lake view for a handful of rooms.

That east-facing orientation is fundamental to the design. On a property where the shoreline and surviving historical landscape are the irreplaceable assets, the new house effectively uses Lake Michigan as its principal piece of scenery.

The Christopher Peacock Kitchen Has a La Cornue Range

The kitchen shifts toward a lighter palette.

White cabinetry by Christopher Peacock surrounds a large blue-gray quartzite island, while reclaimed wood ceiling beams introduce texture overhead. The appliance and fixture package includes La Cornue, Miele, Sub-Zero and Waterworks, according to the listing.

A breakfast room connects the kitchen with a step-down family room, where a coffered ceiling, fireplace and wet bar create a more informal gathering area than the lake-facing living and dining rooms.

The contrast is deliberate. Formal rooms engage with the historical character and Lake Michigan setting, while the kitchen and family room are organized around contemporary daily life.

For all the estate’s scale, the current listing emphasizes an open-plan approach rather than attempting to reproduce the compartmentalized arrangement of an early-20th-century country house.

The Primary Suite Looks Directly Over Lake Michigan

An elevator connects the home’s three principal levels.

Upstairs, the primary suite occupies a privileged lakefront position. French doors open onto a private bluestone balcony overlooking Lake Michigan, while two separate custom closets and a spa bathroom form the private interior program.

Four additional bedroom suites on the level have marble bathrooms and outdoor access, according to the listing, allowing the lake and grounds to remain part of the experience beyond the primary bedroom.

The upstairs service infrastructure is unusually substantial as well. A second laundry room contains three washers and three dryers and sits near a secondary staircase leading toward an auxiliary mudroom.

Those details are less visually dramatic than the lakefront balcony, but in a 20,000-square-foot residence they illustrate the difference between designing for occasional spectacle and designing for the daily operation of an estate.

Below Ground Is a 16-Car Garage You Can See From the Wine Room

The lower level contains one of the property’s more unexpected architectural relationships.

A wine room has glass views into an underground garage capable of holding 16 cars. The garage is accessed by a separate drive leading to a snowmelt-equipped stone motor court, while two additional three-car garages bring the property’s stated total garage capacity to 22 vehicles. Current MLS data confirms 22 garage spaces.

The arrangement effectively turns part of an automotive collection into scenery for the entertainment level.

Nearby is a 16-seat theater, billiards room and club-style lounge with a wet bar. Rather than hiding the garage entirely behind service corridors, the design makes the cars part of the visual experience of the lower floor.

An earlier 2024 marketing piece described approximately 6,000 square feet of finished garage space for the 16-car underground component alone.

For a collector, that makes Villa Turicum substantially different from a house that simply has an unusually wide garage. Automotive storage was integrated into the architecture and circulation of the estate from the beginning.

A Wellness Wing Functions Like a Private Spa

The lower level also contains a dedicated wellness program.

A gym is joined by a custom spa suite with a RIVA jetted tub, overhead rain shower, fireplace, steam shower and sauna. Taken together, those elements create something closer to a private spa than a conventional home gym with an adjacent bathroom.

The wellness rooms sit within the same lower-level environment as the theater, billiards room, lounge and wine storage, giving the floor several distinct functions without forcing them into one generalized recreation room.

Outside, the recreational program expands again. A resort-style swimming pool is accompanied by an outdoor kitchen and a separate stone spa accented by a sculptural lion’s-head fountain.

The bluestone loggia and outdoor fireplace provide covered gathering space closer to the house, while the historic landscape and bluff eventually lead back toward the beach below.

Readers can explore the complete photography, current availability and additional property details through the current Villa Turicum listing.

The Asking Price Has Moved From $27,500,000 to $21,999,900

Villa Turicum’s recent market history has been nearly as substantial as its architecture.

The property was marketed at $27,500,000 in 2024 and again in 2025. The asking price was reduced to $25,000,000 in January 2026 and then to $17,000,000 in May before that listing was removed in July.

The estate returned to the market in September at $21,999,900, meaning the current ask is $5,500,100, or approximately 20%, below the $27,500,000 price at which it had previously been marketed. It is also $4,999,900 above the final $17,000,000 ask from the prior listing campaign.

Those movements are changes in asking strategy, not changes in the property’s demonstrated market value. The current $21,999,900 price works out to roughly $1,100 per square foot based on the stated 20,000 square feet, consistent with current MLS-derived listings.

The historical $4,500,000 transaction recorded in April 2010 is even less useful as a direct value comparison. It predates construction of the current residence by years; the house now standing on the property wasn’t completed until 2019.

The listing states that reproducing the house alone today would cost more than $17,000,000, citing the project’s commercial-level civil engineering. That figure comes from the seller’s marketing material and has not been independently substantiated with construction contracts or a replacement-cost appraisal, so it is best understood as the listing’s estimate rather than an independently established valuation.

The Rarest Part of Villa Turicum Can’t Be Newly Built

The current listing calls Villa Turicum the largest lakefront estate ever offered publicly in Lake Forest, a claim that is difficult to establish conclusively across the city’s entire transaction history and should therefore be treated as the listing’s characterization rather than an independently verified record.

What can be established is unusual enough.

The property combines 5.27 acres with more than 570 feet of Lake Michigan frontage, a modern 20,000-square-foot residence, 22-car garage capacity and surviving landscape elements from one of Lake Forest’s best-known historic country estates. The city’s own preservation records recognize the garden features at 595 Circle Lane as a landmark.

The house itself could theoretically be replicated somewhere else. Its Christopher Peacock cabinetry, La Cornue range, theater, underground garage and private spa are expensive, but ultimately reproducible.

The more difficult part is the land beneath it: a stretch of Lake Michigan bluff where Edith Rockefeller McCormick once commissioned Charles Platt to create an estate, where portions of his terraces survived the destruction of the original mansion, and where those remnants now frame a house built more than a century later.

That tension between preservation and reinvention is what distinguishes the $21,999,900 property. The present Villa Turicum isn’t the Rockefeller mansion restored. It is a new estate built into what remains of its landscape—and a rare instance in which the grounds tell a story much older than the house.

Property Overview

Villa Turicum at 595 Circle Lane in Lake Forest, Illinois, is offered at $21,999,900. The current residence was completed in 2019 and spans approximately 20,000 square feet with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms on 5.27 acres, according to the current listing. It has more than 570 feet of private Lake Michigan frontage.

The lakefront includes a protected cove beach, two boat launches and a boathouse. Surviving elements from the original Rockefeller-McCormick estate include restored Italian-inspired terraces and other historic garden features, portions of which are locally landmarked.

The current house includes a Christopher Peacock kitchen with La Cornue, Miele and Sub-Zero appliances; a lakefront primary suite; elevator; wellness wing; 16-seat theater; billiards room; wine room; pool; outdoor kitchen; stone spa and a 16-car underground garage supplemented by two three-car garages.

Listing Representation

Jena Radnay of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate represents Villa Turicum. Current MLS information lists the estate as active at $21,999,900.

Radnay’s listing characterizes the estate as “a rare marriage of history, architectural artistry, and modern 2026 luxury,” highlighting the relationship between the newly built residence, restored historic landscape and extensive Lake Michigan frontage.

Jena Radnay
@properties Christie’s International Real Estate
Phone: 312-925-9899