If I remember correctly that might be unincorporated Northbrook so that explains the mess at that house. My sister in laws parents live over there.
Overall just a strange vibe to that whole area IMO.
I get wanting that location - convenient to everything. But putting up what appear to be $850k houses next to little shacks? And then having the entire street littered with them? I don't get it. Downers Grove is the same way.
If I ever bought in an area like that and wanted a "tear down" - I'd challenge my architect to build me a home that, on the exterior, FIT with the rest of the neighborhood. Make the interior spectacular but the outside should be in keeping with the rest of the hood. If stuff was built in the 50s, then it should look like it.
In my old hood where I grew up in Hoffman Estates... somebody did the McMansion thing. The trend didn't seem to stick though, because it's the ONLY house in the entire neighborhood like that. It looks ridiculous. Who would want to be the guy/family that lives in "that house" (which you know is what EVERYBODY else in the neighborhood refers to it as...)