The call came late on a Friday. “This is one of the Family secretaries (there turned out to be four), Dr. and Ms would like you to meet at the house tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7:30. I was still young and eager enough to say “Yes, I’ll be there”. The property was part of the old Cedarhurst Estate on the South side of Lake Minnetonka. You entered the grounds through two huge masonry gateposts, wound around a number of large homes, and finally arrived by the lake and a large house set on a small knoll.

 

The clients could not have been more different. He was a World renowned surgeon. She was the driving force behind the project, looking to transform the home into her Hollywood childhood dream, “a house on a hill with columns”!

 

Designed by our firm in the ’50s, the original house was a Summer residence for a mining engineer, his artist wife, and children. Complete with a pool, generator, elevator, and Children’s wing, it was a spawning, gracious house of pinkish brick, one of Lisl’s favorites. The wood window frames were clear, all heart, cypress - gorgeous.

 

After my Saturday meeting, I asked Lisl if she wanted to take over the project she had first designed. Hearing the new client’s instructions, she suggested I carry on. Lisl did describe how she and the wife had worked together on the original design. All Close houses had a “dump” by the front door to put down gloves, keys, mail and packages as one came or went. In the early Close houses, the Dump was just a shelf or small cabinet. For this house, the client requested a twelve by twelve foot room with perimeter desks! Directly off the front entry and back hall, and Kitchen I would love to have seen its original use for that busy family. Needless to say, for these new clients as well, it was perfect.

 

From the start, the challenge was to give the house the requested pizzazz without destroying its original quiet, relaxed character. This was compounded by the wife’s insistence that all natural earth tones and materials were out, only monotones were acceptable. To meet this challenge, we suggested two additions. First the existing fixed glass windows on the North facade of the Entry were fitted with Art Glass panels whose design crescendoed with a water theme to an expanded foyer with Paladium clad iron grilles. We repeated this decorative device on the East Side of the Garage by moving its doors to the South side and installing windows and Art Glass to match that on the North. We hired Macula Mahadi and her husband John to design and create the Art Glass. They built a beautiful model/mockup about two foot on a side that helped sell our client.

 

 

 

Our second “device” to give the entrance the columns and penuche the client wanted was to crown the arrival space with a giant 60” diameter Trellis. The ten foot high metal structure was supported by a series of columns. At their midpoint were slotted lights with shields, each with a pattern of a different Korean Hexagram, sixty four faces in all. This part of the design and the complicated body of the Trellis itself was the work of Close Associate Richard Wayment. Wisteria soon climbed the trellises and added color and complexity to the design.

 

At the Courtyard’s center was a large flat stone with jagged sides pointing to the Trellis columns. Other jagged stones connected the center “Lighting Bolt” to the “energized” columns. Landscape Architect Bob Close contributed to the overall site design. The Trellis column design continued down the driveway to greet you at the entrance.  With the Columns and Trellis lit and the Art Glass glowing from within, the House was quite a sight at night, a glowing “house on the hill with columns”just what the client ordered.

 

One unfortunate incident occurred after the stone was installed in the Courtyard. Someone called to say that the precious Paladium was peeling off the iron grilles. A quick test showed that it had been “attacked” by muriatic acid often used by concrete workers to clean. Sure enough, muratic acid spry had drifted from the stone/concrete circle to the grilles. The concrete subcontractor had quite a bill to have the grilles recoated.

 

 

There were many other improvements to the property. The swimming pool was removed and replaced. The Master Bath wing was entirely removed and redesigned in marble. The Dinning Room was enlarged with a 28’ steel beam slid in to the existing construction to support the extra few feet. A year round glass Pavilion was added off the Living Room which required a robust HVAC system to keep it comfortable throughout the year. All this work was a massive effort that took several years and required quite a bit of shuffling to allow the clients to continue to live in the house.

 

With so much going on, there were quite a few “dramatic moments”. One came the afternoon of the final art glass installation. John Malady called almost in tears to say that the client announced that she hated what he and Malala had created. I asked him to hand the phone to the client who was still standing nearby. “Let John finish his work!”, I said. “We never judge a project until it’s complete”. I did not hear from my clients again until 10:30 Sunday night. The husband called to discuss some minor detail (which was typical of him). When we finished that, I asked how he liked the art glass. “Oh, it’s wonderful” he said. “Just like we planned”. I asked if his wife agreed. “Oh yes”, he said, “she invited all her special friends from around the Lake in Saturday morning to show it off!”

 

On another occasion, I was entering the property when Richard, my Associate who had come the site early was coming out and flagged me down. “She just yelled at me!” he blurted out, very distressed. When I reached the house, I found the wife and said “You may have a problem with some aspect of the work, but you must take it up with me and never berate my staff!” She apologized and it turned out the complaint went away.

 

This was another major project that initially turned out well and was nicely covered by the architectural press. Unfortunately, the couple divorced and the wife began to undo some of the major features. The Wisteria which had climbed the columns of the trellis and formed a wonderful crown was inexplicably removed and then the trellis sections themselves, leaving only the columns. Then they were gone and the center stones paved over. Finally, Lisl Close’s favorite  pink brick was covered over with random stone and a two story open portico was erected over the front door like many of the “tract mansions” that had become common around the Lake. Only a few of the lighted columns at the bottom remained the last time I visited the house. The wife died and I have never heard from her new husband. But, our beautiful creation lives on in our memories and photographs.