Home Designed by Renowned Architects Hits Market

May 04, 2023

Across the street from Frank Lloyd Wright's Willey House in Minneapolis is the first combined work of Win and Elizabeth Close, which was listed in early June for $699,900.

by Rebecca Mennecke

June 8, 2023

6:47 AM

Photo by Seth Hannula

The home at 252 Bedford Street Southeast, which was listed last week, represents one groundbreaking architect's journey bringing modernist-style homes to the Twin Cities.

When Elizabeth "Lisl" Close first studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, her professors were allegedly "sexist" and "unpleasant," according to Dwell. She was the sole woman in her graduate program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Many architectural firms refused to hire women: Swiss American architect William Lescaze reportedly felt she would be too distracting in the drafting room, Austrian American architect Richard Neutra would hire her if Lisl paid him $20 a month for the opportunity (you read that right), and—finally—Lisl was hired by German American architect Oskar Stonorov.

In 1936, former MIT classmate and Appleton native Win Close invited Lisl to apply for an opening at Minneapolis-based Magney and Tusler, where he worked. Two years later, the pair opened their own firm Close and Scheu (later Close Associates) and got hitched that April during their lunch hour.

Of the 300-plus custom, affordable residences that Close Associates designed, their first was 252 Bedford Street Southeast, which hit the real estate market this June via Lynden Realty, Ltd. for $699,900.

The home was built in 1938 for bachelors Ray Faulkner, Edwin Ziegfeld, and Gerald Hill (two of whom authored Art Today: An Introduction to the Visual Arts in 1941, exploring visual arts in the realms of everyday life) for $7,643, or about $165,000 adjusted for inflation. The home was later sold to Benjamin and Gertrude Lippincott—Gertrude founded Minneapolis's Modern Dance Group in 1937—giving the home its moniker as the "Lippincott House."

The four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,504-square-foot home features south-facing windows, allowing for natural light to flood through the charming natural-inspired interior, which features Douglas-fir flooring, masonite closet doors, a brick fireplace with built-in shelves, beamed ceilings, and natural gumwood veneer—reminiscent of much of the Closes's early work, according to its listing. The galley kitchen was updated by current owners to include a sub-zero refrigerator, Thermador range, and Asko dishwasher.

The warm-wood interior is unusual in the International style—precursor to the mid-century modern movement of the ‘40s to ‘60s—but it harkens back to Austrian architect Adolf Loos's use of wood floors and walls in Lisl's childhood home in Vienna. (Lisl comes from a family of esteemed figures: Lisl's grandfather, the classically trained musician Josef Scheu, co-founded the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Her father, Gustav Scheu, was a lawyer and city council member who advocated for the garden-city movement and housing reform following World War I. Her mother Helene Scheu–Riesz founded Sesam–Verlad (Sesame Books), a children's book publishing company.)

Photo by Matt Schmitt Photography via The Malcolm Willey House

Frank Lloyd Wright's Malcolm Willey House, built in 1934, offered "breakthroughs in space, in materials, [and] in simplicity."

The home, purportedly the first home in the Twin Cities that was inspired by the International style, isn't the only notable abode in the neighborhood, as the Willey House—designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built only four years prior—is located right across the street.

Lisl, who died in 2011 at the age of 99, achieved a slew of "firsts" in Minnesota architecture. She's credited as the first modern architect in Minnesota; her firm was the first to specialize in the once-unknown modernist approach; she was the first female president of the American Institute of Architects; and she was the first woman to receive the AIA's gold medal. Despite her groundbreaking work, she resisted the label "female architect" favoring "an architect who happens to be a woman." (And a "huzzah" to that!)

She taught interior design at the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), while Win served as a professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota.

Lisl's work went on to have national and international acclaim. More than 10,000 homes were mass produced based on her design of prefab homes, according to the U of M. In 1950, one of her designs served as the "Model American Home" during the inaugural German International Industrial Exhibition in Berlin.

Today, her first designed home (turning 85 this year) with Close Associates stands as a tribute to the firm's lasting architectural legacy, and the impact of pre-mid-century-modern design in Twin Cities homes.

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Photo by Seth Hannula

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Photo by Seth Hannula

Learn more about Elizabeth Scheu Close with this neat digital archive from the University of Minnesota, and take a peek at the property.

Rebecca Mennecke is an award-winning journalist who tells meaningful stories of the Twin Cities community as the Assistant Editor of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.

June 8, 2023

6:47 AM