Being ‘Close’ to the Ridge

It all started when…

The owner’s father built the first cabin in 1964 with Winston Close and Elizabeth”Lisl” Scheu Close architects from the Twin Cities. They had quite a career. Lisa close was born and raised in Vienna Austria and at the beginning of the Nazi takeover she left Austria for the United States studied architecture at MIT where she met her husband. While at MIT they met  A. Richard Williams who later was head of the graduate school of architecture at the University of Illinois Champaign.  He became my mentor, making a very unbelievable connection to this project.

When the Closes had finished college, times were difficult and jobs were scarce. For a short period of time they worked for Magney in Minneapolis who at that time was doing important public work. Which again was an interesting connection as we had just finished a cabin up in Cotton, Minnesota for Magney’s  great Nephew. A short time later, the Closes started their own practice. In 1964 they designed the first cabin on our site for our client’s father. The first construction was a three season cabin built on piers.  It is a very unique utilization of materials. All the beams were made of standard dimensional lumber with doubling them of so they were spaced 32 on center, which was exposed in the ceiling and walls. The outside, believe it or not, was clad in hollow core mahogany doors secured to the studs with brass screws. This siding had lasted almost 60 years before the replacement of new windows as part of this project.

Mr. Close became a University of Minnesota school architect while still practicing with his wife. She was the one that probably designed the building on our site. She was the first modern woman registered architect in the state of Minnesota. The house she lived in as a child in Austria was designed by Albert  Loos  who was the Austrian  version of  what Frank Lloyd Wright meant to the United States

Loos’s  architectural comment was' ' ornamentation was sin”. So we took our cues from this extraordinary simple shed roof cabin to build a year-round four season house for the Son and his wife of the original owner. We believe  living in her childhood house in Austria had a major effect on her Architectural  Philosophy. Our new structure mates up to the existing cabin by way of a common deck. Slopes on the roof matched the existing. Updated electrical, sewer and water services were integrated into the old cabin through the new building. The old cabin received a matching standing roof.

One of the more creative rooms in the old cabin was the interlaced bunk bed wall.  (shown in one of our pictures)

We feel  very honored to have been selected to be the architects to add onto such an iconic cabin. The new structure is on three levels. It has a walkout basement .first floor living for the owners, and an office on the partial third floor with its own balcony.

The site is one of the premier sites in all of Bayfield. The view is panoramic, commanding a spectacular view of Chequamegon Bay. This was a project that only  comes around once in a lifetime.