Dr. Paul and Hellen Olfelt Residence

Just stopped to take a picture from the street of this late Wright work. The roof follows the hill and has a triangular appearance if seen from above. Although the house was designed by Wright, the construction was completed in 1960 by Taliesin Associated Architects after his death in 1959. Not much to see from the street, but even the carport is interesting.... Storrer's book has a floorplan.

Henry J. Neils Residence

According to Storrer, Henry J. Neils was involved in both architectural metals and stone which explains some unusual aspects of this house including aluminum window frames and the stonework that you can see more clearly in a picture at the bottom of this page.

The back of the house overlooks Cedar Lake and is located near the beautiful Lake of the Isles region of Minneapolis. A nice drive if you're in the area some day.

The prow on the edge of the carport reminds me of the prow on the Unitarian Meeting House. A carport in Minnesota winter is not quite as nice as a garage. One wonders whether the owners of the house tried to pursuade Wright to enclose the carport.....

Another example of creative stonework in a Wright building can be found at Taliesin West.

Malcolm E. Willey Residence

Locating this house was tricky. It can be found on the end of a street and it overlooks Interstate I-94. Not at all a typical Wright house location, and in fact, when it was originally built it overlooked the Mississippi river. It would be an interesting research project to review the history of the building of the freeway to see how homeowner protests were handled. The neighborhood where it is located now is modest and this house definitely felt out of place.

According to Storrer, the house presents a bridge from the Prairie house to the Usonian L-plan house.

There is evidently a project underway to restore this house. You can find out more about it atwww.thewilleyhouse.com including a comprehensive restoration journal.

The following photograph shows the view from the street. The carport (more of a garage) is evident with the entryway stairs on the right.

The house certainly feels grounded with all of the brick.

The next photograph shows the large overhangs typical in his prairie houses. Notice that the brickwork does not have the vertical segments filled-in as in most Usonian structures. The roof segment on the left appears to be a second floor, but according to the floor plan it is a single story residence. It appears that the carport steps up to the main house with a basement section below part of the house ("workspace").

The entryway is obscured from the street as with most of his houses.

The wall between the entry steps and the carport is an interesting division of space outside.

Purcell-Cutts House

During my trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin in the summer of 2000 I visited the Purcell-Cutts House. Although this is not a Frank Lloyd Wright designed building, it is an excellent example of the "prairie style" house like the ones FLW designed up until about 1915. This particular house was designed by William Gray Purcell and George Grant Elmslie. Elmslie was Louis Sullivan's chief draftsman for almost 20 years.

The Purcell-Cutts House is near Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis and it provides an excellent opportunity to see a prairie house up close. Highly recommended. You can find out more about visiting the Purcell-Cutts house at: www.artsmia.org/cutts.html.

This is a pool located in front of the living room.
The entrance to the house is off to the right side of this photograph.

This is the view from the street.

The window pattern in the Purcell-Cutts House reminds me of the pattern that Wright used in the Robie House. For one of my first art glass pieces (a hobby) I recreated a small portion of a Robie House window for my father's birthday gift.

If you look closely you'll see why these are called the
"Peek-a-Boo" windows (sidelights actually).

Just one of many windows in the house.

This is the living room. The hearth and entryway are directly to the left and a built-in
desk/study area is off to the right. As you can imagine it looks much better in person.
A photograph is a poor imitation (especially on the web!)

I've previously had questions about bathrooms in Wright houses.
From what I know, Mr. Wright considered bathrooms just functional rooms so I will have
to look and see if he put art glass windows in any of the bathrooms in his prairie homes.
Obviously Purcell and Elmslie did.....

This is the built-in desk/study area that is part of the great space of the living and dining room.
The dining room is off to the right and elevated above the living room.

I don't know the story about this oriental print.
Frank Lloyd Wright was a great collector of Japanese prints.
I wonder what the connection is here?

An interesting lamp in the living room.
I guess it would be classified as an Arts and Crafts style lamp?

Although it is not a glass mosaic as you would find in some of Wright's buildings,
it is a beautiful art piece located over the hearth.

The ornamentation clearly shows Sullivan's influence....