Ellington, Wis.
Wendell Burnette Architects

Taking cues from Wisconsin dairy barns, Wendell Burnette shapes the field House’s simple, silvery form

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	Photo © Bill Timmerman
	Wendell Burnette, AIA
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Siting his house amid the large dairy barns, grain silos, and humble homesteads that speckle the rural landscape of tiny Ellerton, Wisconsin, Dr. Robert Geller did not want the neighbors viewing him as intrusive, building a colossal mansion. But, as he told his architect, Wendell Burnette, AIA, he definitely wanted a Modernist home. The result: a 5,000-square-foot, zinc-galvanized-aluminum box, inspired by the farm structures on the surrounding fields, which extend like checkerboards across the vast, predominantly flat landscape. The spare, elongated exterior of this building, called Field House, reinterprets the utilitarian aesthetic of the agrarian terrain, complementing rather than overshadowing its neighbors. Beyond the house’s apparent simplicity, however, a refinement in detail and overall composition gradually reveal themselves.

From afar, the structure appears as a simple, silvery rectangle. More closely examined, its long south facade reveals 16-inch-wide panels of metal cladding in parallel bands, reinforced by an aquamarine-tinted panoramic window that extends horizontally across this entire front elevation on the second floor. Geller says low clouds reflect so perfectly in this window that he sometimes feels as if he is driving into the sky when approaching from the access road. The banding continues at grade, where, at this elevation’s west end, oversize sliding doors of laminated glass provide access to the garage and a pottery studio and where, at the main entrance to the east, a sliding plane of cedar panels continues the barn-door theme.

Inside, the long entry hall is dark and cavelike, its walls clad in raw steel, with doors that open inconspicuously to guest quarters, as well as laundry and media rooms, all at grade. Upstairs, in the living/dining/kitchen area, 16-foot-high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glazing, and a loftlike open plan welcome abundant light and the imposing presence of the field outside.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our April 2006 issue.
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