Frieda and Henry J. Neils House - Minneapolis, MN
Posted by: 
FSU*Noles
N 44° 57.471 W 093° 19.056
15T E 474949 N 4978317
This is the Frieda and Henry J. Neils House - a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Minneapolis, MN!
Waymark Code: WM3FRQ
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 03/30/2008
Views: 137
The Frieda and Henry J. Neils House is a house in Minneapolis, Minnesota, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The home was designed for Henry J. Neils, a stone and architectural materials distributor, and his wife Frieda. It is unusual for a Wright-designed home both in the type of stone used as well as in its aluminum window framing.
The Neils approached Wright in 1949 to help build a new home on property adjacent to their existing home, overlooking Cedar Lake. It was Wright's only home to use marble walls: the small marble blocks were left over from other marble projects, and Henry Neil, who was a trustee of a marble company, was able to acquire them at a good price and convince Wright to use the material; however, the color of the completed walls did not satisfy either Wright or the Neils, and some of the blocks were later stained. Unlike Wright's normal use of wooden window frames, the home used aluminum frames made by Neils' company.
The house was designed in Wright's post-World War II Usonian architecture, with the goal of "affordable, beautiful housing for a democratic America." The L-shaped, one-story home's floor plan features a dominant living room and social and spatial separation into "active" and "quiet" areas. The short side of the L consists of the "active" portion, centering on a living room with 17-foot-high vaulted ceiling and views of Cedar Lake; the "quiet" portion is the long side ending in a three-car carport and has bedrooms as well as a gallery leading to a hidden main entrance.
Located on 2801 Burnham Boulevard, the home is visible from public streets but remains privately owned by members of the Neils family.
The house is directly adjacent to public park lands, and you can get great views of almost every side of the house from the hiking/biking trails. There is a public trailhead adjacent to the house at N 44° 57.474 W 093° 19.032, with plenty of free and legal street parking.
(Source for all text except last paragraph: Wikipedia)
Year Completed: 1950
Commissioned By: Frieda and Henry J. Neils
Nearest City or Town: Minneapolis, MN
Public/Private: Private
Tours Available?: Not Listed
Website: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
There are no specific visit requirements, however telling about your visit is strongly encouraged. Additional photos of the building or house to add to the gallery are also nice, but not required. Pictures with a GPS or you in them is highly discouraged.