When the five kids they raised in Oak Brook all moved into the city, Mary and Steve Gitelis followed them in, buying a condo with an expansive view of Lake Michigan and enough space for the whole family to gather.

The couple bought a 15th-floor condo still in its basic "vanilla box" as delivered from the developer a few years earlier and created a family-style layout. A large great room combines the formal living, dining and music areas, and next door is the family room, in the building’s window-lined turret.

It's the family's multigenerational lake house, but on the 15th floor.

“There’s space for everyone,” says Steve Gitelis, an orthopedic surgeon and director of orthopedic oncology at Rush University Medical Center. Mary Gitelis is a former nurse.

The couple’s five kids are now responsible for 10 grandkids and have shifted to the north suburbs. Planning to follow them again, Steve and Mary Gitelis are putting their condominium, four bedrooms and 4,400 square feet, on the market later this week. It’s priced at $4.25 million and represented by Marlene Rubenstein of Baird & Warner. The 15th-floor condo comes with two deeded indoor parking spaces.

In the early 2000s, architect Lucien Lagrange and LR Development took advantage of a prime lakefront site where Lake Shore Park is on one side, the left in this photo, and the lake is on another, the right. Running a tall, slender turret up the corner of the building made it into a promontory of sorts.

Steve Gitelis said having both the park and an underpass beneath Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive to the lakefront path just outside the building “has been a bonus,” both for dog-walking and for entertaining grandchildren. Also within a few blocks are the Museum of Contemporary Art, Michigan Avenue shops and restaurants.

The foyer’s side walls have niches for displaying art, but when guests enter, “the first thing that catches their eye is the lake” at the far end of the view, Steve Gitelis said.

With only the ribbon of DuSable Lake Shore Drive separating the building from the lake, “it feels like you’re hanging right over the lake.”

The design for the interior, by Steven Wendell, third generation in the Downers Grove architecture firm, A.W. Wendell & Sons, includes a curving wall in the great room, as balance for the circular room next door.

Combining several functions, the great room has black granite floors, a fireplace wall of flame-colored granite and a chandelier that drifts overhead like the clouds outside.

A bar and pantry area between the great room and the family room can serve either or both, and function as a bridge between the two during big gatherings.

The circular room in the turret was originally set up to be a formal dining room, “but our architect said, ‘that’s your feature room, so why not make it the room you’re going to be in the most,’ ” Steve Gitelis said.

The seating faces a media wall, but it’s just as likely that family members wind up lining the windows to look at fireworks, storms or other outdoor entertainment.

“There’s the lights of Navy Pier, the boats, the architecture,” Gitelis said.

“The kitchen is contemporary and very user-friendly,” Steve Gitelis said, particularly when multiple users are all trying to prep food for the big family.

“We wanted the look where all the appliances are covered with wood (so) you’re not looking at appliances,” Gitelis said.

There‘s abundant storage in the cabinets seen here, and more in a large pantry.

The kitchen’s view across Lake Shore Park to Northwestern University’s downtown campus is even better out on the grilling balcony. Although Steve Gitelis works for a different university, he said he’s a fan of “the classic architecture at Northwestern.”

The view from here also encompasses Navy Pier, Ohio Street Beach, Lake Point Tower and other highlights of Streeterville.

“Being able to wake up every day . . . to the sunrise over Lake Michigan was such a huge attraction for me,” Gitelis said. “The lake changes daily. One morning it’s clear and shimmering, and other mornings you see the big waves when the wind is coming from the north. It’s amazing, visually.”

The bedroom and the adjoining bath gained space when Wendell eliminated a secondary hallway that “didn’t do anything,” Gitelis said. “It ran parallel to the main hallway, and was totally useless.”

Expanding the bathroom meant there was room for a soaking tub, which the homeowners considered an essential.

Living in so close to the water has been pleasant, Steve Gitelis said. “We like to walk along the lake,” he said. “I love the visuals. I love the smell of the water.”

If there’s one thing they love more, it’s grandchildren, and because the 10 grandkids are mostly north of the city, that’s where this couple are headed.

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