Scoop Up This Sprawling Frank Lloyd Wright–Inspired Midcentury for $370K
Designed by Wisconsin architect John Randall McDonald in the ’50s, the Prairie-style home features an interior of wood cladding, built-ins, and stacked stone.
Designed by Wisconsin architect John Randall McDonald in the ’50s, the Prairie-style home features an interior of wood cladding, built-ins, and stacked stone.
A midcentury residence in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright is now on the market in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. Completed in 1955, the home was designed by local architect John Randall McDonald, whose work often emulated Wright but omitted excessive ornamentation to save on costs. As this home shows, McDonald opted for minimalist finishes, such as simple wood cladding and built-ins, while implementing a generous fenestration plan to integrate the structure with the site.
This recently listed home was designed by Wisconsin-born architect John Randall McDonald and is situated on a wooded 1.2-acre lot about 15 miles outside of Milwaukee. A single horizontal plane extends from the rectangular structure to form a carport and mark the main entrance.
Photo courtesy of Zillow
Inside, the floor plan cleanly splits public and private spaces between two levels, with the living area offering expansive floor-to-ceiling windows and a double-height fireplace that extends upward into an open space. In the corner, stacked stone forms an alcove that features built-ins.
Photo courtesy of Zillow
McDonald—who studied under Louis Kahn, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and other modernist masters at Yale University in the 1940s—designed hundreds of structures throughout his decades-long career, continuing to practice until his death in 2003. At one point, he became well known for delivering the stylings of Frank Lloyd Wright at a comparatively affordable price.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, this particular home is one of five by McDonald that was designed and built in Brookfield, although his body of work stretches from Utah to New York. He also reportedly designed homes for celebrities, such as Mickey Mantle, James Garner, and Maureen O'Hara.
Another view of the living area shows how the space extends into the dining room and kitchen, both of which are sunlit by a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
Photo courtesy of Zillow
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