Frieda and Henry J. Neils House

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.^[3]

The Neils approached Wright in 1949 to help build a new home on property adjacent to their existing home, overlooking Cedar Lake.^[2] The home was designed through close collaboration between the architect and the Neils who were knowledgeable about architecture.^[2] 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.^[2] Unlike Wright's normal use of wooden window frames, the home used aluminum frames made by Neils' company.^[2]

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.^[4] The short side of the L consists of the "active" portion, centering on a living room with 17-foot (5.2 m)-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.^[2]

Located on 2801 Burnham Boulevard, the home is visible from public streets but remains privately owned by members of the Neils family.^[2]

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