Betzler-Pearce House

The Betzler-Pearce home in Delafield was a delight to visit. Steve Betzler and Robyn Pearce live in the home and graciously allowed me to visit and photograph it last month. Lantz built this home for a Middle Eastern couple in the 80's, and it's a testament to his growth as an architect. This home is a true gem of organic architecture; it is perfectly married to its wooded surroundings with a visual aesthetic that enhances rather than takes away from its natural environment. But the home also goes beyond its neat showcase of organic architecture by playfully defying the box-filled subdivisions of the 80's with its curves upon curves upon curves. Sweeping curvilinear lines draw your eye constantly forward and around. Walking into the home is like opening a visual gift; the circular lines mean each room reveals itself to you almost musically. There are no straight lines in the flow of nature, and this is perfectly exemplified in the flow of this Lantz gem,

The entryway pictured above, is the first hint of the masterpiece to come. Steve said that his favorite thing about the house is, "I think that it helps set a mood of delight. Upon arrival home, whether gone for an hour or a week, I experience a joy to return. Serene, comfortable. We also enjoy sharing the home as we entertain. Even though we try not to take it for granted, it is a reminder of its uniqueness when others visit and experience the joy that design and architecture can offer."

 I'm afraid my photographs won't do justice to the flow of this home, but I tried to capture the sweeping lines and bands of windows and organic materials. Looking to the right in the foyer, the circular theme is repeated in the closets lining the hall to the bedrooms.

Walking straight through the foyer, the striking living room opens up to you. An stunning expanse of windows makes up the entire outer wall of the living room, showcasing the incredible beauty of the land and large kettle that dips below the back of the house. The three pictures below feature the living room and it's curved band of large windows that frame the treed kettle in the back of the property.

Large doors lead to the patio overlooking the kettle.

The image above shows the large patio doors from just beyond the patio. Notice how the home is unassuming yet spectacular in its environment. It really is a masterful work of architecture.

The kitchen above wraps around to the dining room. Note the red tile; a signature of Frank Lloyd Wright that Lantz used in much of his work.

Here you can see just how committed Lantz was to an idea and its output. Even the kitchen cabinets  follow the same curvature as the rest of the home. Seamlessly. He did not take shortcuts. 

The den sits slightly above the living room. The levels of the floor follow the grade of the landscape the home was built on.

Continuing past the den and down the hallway are three bedrooms (one is used as an office) and a bright bathroom with the same sunken tub he used in other properties.

The master bedroom features a kind of atrium and the same tall patio doors displayed in the dining room.

The bubble windows were a token of Lantz's work. He had them specially manufactured out of plexiglass by a small factory in Colorado. He used them, always, on the street-facing walls of his homes. This way, he believed, home owners benefited from the light but retained their privacy from the public world.

Steve told me, "Our home creates a sense of both relaxation and joy. That coupled with the comfort and practicality of the home prevents even a thought of moving somewhere else. I’ve never considered it as I think it would be difficult to duplicate or improve on the overall experience." Visiting this house really was quite an experience in what modern architecture can mean. This was one of my favorite properties I've seen for its sheer visual delight. The confidence of its architect is clearly evident and makes it an exciting find for this project. 

LaVerne and Mollie's Second Home on Moraine End Drive

Lantz built his first home on Moraine End Drive in the early 60's; a rectangular building with spans of symmetrical windows and signature large overhangs. A few years later, he sold the home and built a second one next door. Mollie Lantz still lives in this early masterpiece today. 

The thing that is most striking about this home is the play of light from the walls and walls (and sometimes ceilings) of glass. As you can see in the photograph above in the atrium. Also, note the signature Frank Lloyd Wright red tile. This was a timeless feature Lantz continued to use in many of his homes in kitchens, atriums, foyers and hallways.

Different layers of windows add to the drama of the play of light in the living room.

The windows and light also seamlessly tie the natural world outside of the home to the flowing interior as you can see in the photograph above of the dining room.

The use of living organic elements speaks to the architectural aesthetic Frank Lloyd Wright was known for and which Lantz understood and implemented so well. In the photograph on the left, one tree grows toward the skylight in the den. In the photograph on the right, another tree grows toward the same skylight in the living room. Both rooms also share a massive, yet warm stone fireplace.

In keeping with the strict continuity I've started to recognize in his work, Lantz built much of the furniture in the house, like this coffee table which can cleverly be changed into a full dining table through hidden wings and legs underneath.

A buffet in the dining room built by Lantz.

Floor cushions and cabinet built by Lantz.

Much of the art in the home, such as the long red painting behind the piano, was done by renowned local artist Charles Dix.

The kitchen was able to be hidden in a way from the rest of the living spaces, a common practice before the open-concept homes of the 90's. But despite it's slight closing off, Lantz still made playful opening elements such as the skylight and the surprising "window" that opened above the kitchen cabinets to reveal the stained glass sky light in the front foyer (below).

Stained glass detail from the entryway and front door.

Stained glass played an important part in this home's aesthetic. Adding visual interest and the essentially important geometry of Wright-like architecture.

 All of the paneling in the home is a richly stained redwood, a coveted, beautiful wood rarely seen today. Opposite the paneling in this hallway was another key element that he repeated in many of his homes: intelligent storage solutions that didn't block natural light. These wall closets on the right only rise to chest height and are capped by a span of windows. Another interesting thing to note is the subtle rising of the hallway. Lantz was committed to marrying his buildings to the land they were built on. So the floors follow the pitch of the land they are built on.

Bedrooms with built-in furniture, lannon stone walls and redwood paneling.

A room with a view. It was so interesting to see how the land outside sort of wrapped around the windows and rose up along the right side, pitching even higher. It's hard to see in this photograph.

Mollie in her beautiful home.

The architect at his craft. Lantz is shown here with a wooden angle he made to measure the angles of the Karrer residence as it was being built in the 90's. 

The Great American Ideal

 Presentation drawing by LaVerne Lantz

Nothing speaks to the Great American Ideal as beautifully as the art it has inspired.  Artists and musicians have absorbed America, the Beautiful and reimagined it in paintings, sculpture, and music throughout our storied history.  But the way architects have reimagined and reproduced our America is particularly meaningful.  With their craft, architects have shaped the very spaces we exist in.  The feeling of walking into a room that was created out of a vision anchored in the natural world surrounding it is special and particularly American.

That a building should be integrated into, and shaped by its natural environment was central to the principles set out by perhaps the greatest architect of all time, Frank Lloyd Wright.  Inspired by the prairies of his boyhood in Western Wisconsin, his designs featured long horizontal lines and a muted pallet of golds, reds and browns.  His placement of windows was deliberate to lead the eye from the inside to the outside, connecting the two and expanding space outside instead of constraining it into boxes.  Wright's vision changed the way future generations of architects approached their craft, not only through the schools he started, but by architects who understood this philosophy and adopted it as their own.  These students of Wright, whether official or not, contributed to the growth of organic architecture; architecture that is one with the natural world.

If you travel through the Midwest on any winding, sunbaked country road you will likely drive past a house that speaks to this aesthetic.  There were probably dozens of quiet architects who worked designing and building these organic homes in the 20th century in the Midwest.  No other place in the world exhibits such a concentrated growth of an architectural aesthetic that was not designed for mass production.  We should cherish and recognize these unheralded original organic architects who worked to bring their craft into the American consciousness.  So who were they and what stories do their buildings tell?

Presentation drawing by LaVerne Lantz

A particularly brilliant architect that belonged to this assorted group of quiet organic architects was LaVerne Lantz.  Lantz practiced his principled, inspiring and surprising talents from the 1960s into the late 90's.  He practiced his craft mainly in Wisconsin, the warm heart of America's Midwest.  It was this land of dynamic, dramatic weather; rolling hills; densely green forests and those wide stretches of prairie grass that so inspired Frank Lloyd Wright.  Lantz was a Wright enthusiast who amassed a library of every book ever written on Wright and visited every Wright building he could.  But in his art, Lantz was no Wright copyist; he channeled his inspiration, taking off from the principles he learned through a careful study of Wright and producing 150 commissions that bore his own unique signature in the Midwest.

LaVerne Lantz, client handbook

The intent of this blog is to explore Lantz's architecture, one building at a time, to take a visual journey across the career of an American architect.  Through this exploration we will discover an untapped history of architecture in the Midwest.  And beyond an historical exploration, we will see an artist at his craft; and it is my belief that Lantz pursued a passion of architecture in a way that can inspire us all.