| Frieda and Henry J. Neils House | |
| Location: | 2801 Burnham Boulevard, Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Coordinates: | 44.9581°N -93.3178°W |
| Built: | 1951[1] |
| Architect: | Frank Lloyd Wright, Lyle Halverson |
| Architecture: | Usonian |
| Added: | May 26, 2004 |
| Refnum: | 04000531 |
The Frieda and Henry J. Neils House is a house in Minneapolis 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.[2]
The Neils approached Wright in 1949 to help build a new home on property adjacent to their existing home, overlooking Cedar Lake.[1] The home was designed through close collaboration between the architect and the Neils who were knowledgeable about architecture.[1] 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.[1] Unlike Wright's normal use of wooden window frames, the home used aluminum frames made by Neils' company.[1]
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.[3] The short side of the L consists of the "active" portion, centering on a living room with 17feet-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.[1]
Located on 2801 Burnham Boulevard, the home is visible from public streets but remains privately owned by members of the Neils family.[1]