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E.L. Powers House, 1910
Purcell, Feick, and Elmslie
1635 West 26th Street, Minneapolis
Purcell received the commission for the E.L. Powers House shortly after Elmslie joined the firm, bringing with him a skill in spatial arrangement and organic design. The architects radically rearranged the typical house plan to fit the site, situating the living areas in the back to take advantage of a view, now obscured, of the lake. The hexagonal tower between the screen porch and the entry is the defining feature of the front façade. Like the Catherine Gray House, the Powers House featured a brick-clad lower level and an earthen-colored stucco upper level (since painted white). Powers, a vice-president of the Butler Brothers mail-merchandising company, asked Purcell and Elmslie to cut costs on the original scheme. The team complied with Powers's request, but Elmslie still managed to devise a system of ornament matching Sullivan's best efforts and setting a precedent for Purcell's own house. He designed terra-cotta decorations with stylized plant motifs for the entrance and the interior fireplace wall, art-glass panels with geometric plant forms for the porch doors and bookcase doors, built-in and freestanding furniture for the dining room, all with organic sawed-wood designs, and custom stencils throughout the house. next stop > |
