Property Record
824 WRIGHT WAY
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | Bruce Barrett and Edith Tuxford House |
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| Reference Number: | 122086 |
| Location (Address): | 824 WRIGHT WAY |
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| County: | Richland |
| City: | Richland Center |
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| Year Built: | 1985 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2002 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Usonian |
| Structural System: | Balloon Frame |
| Wall Material: | Board |
| Architect: | Dyson, Arthur (california) |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. Elipse-shaped, open plan Wrightian house, that won an architectural gold medal from the California AIA. This is Arthur Dyson's only Wisconsin commission. When Dyson agreed to build a vacation home for Bruce Barrett and Edith Tuxford in 1984, he faced a challenge: how to integrate the house with a rock outcropping. His solution was a cave-like dwelling opening onto a pine forest. A former dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Dyson had apprenticed with Wright, Bruce Goff, and William Gray Purcell, and their influence shows in this organic design, with interlocking ellipses forming the rear walls and roof. Locally quarried limestone walls shape the curved rear retaining wall and the massive stone hearth, which heats water and warms the tile floor. Along the main living areas, a glazed wall offers a full view of the surrounding forest. The house has an open plan, with a stone wall dividing the private living space from the kitchen and living room. Two non-supporting beams extend from the retaining wall through the house and through the glazed wall, emerging as abstract ornaments above a terrace. A sheltered walkway connects the house to a two-car garage imbedded in an adjacent cliff face and capped by an elliptical roof, matching that of the house. |
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| Bibliographic References: | The Architecture of Arthur Dyson. Chicago: Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |