Built in the mid eighties when the post modern architectural style was winding down, this home's design was influenced by the prairie style. Like a ship on the crest of a wave it sits perched on a small knoll, its covered deck and prow open to the fields to the south. Windows all around the perimeter as well as ridge skylights flood the interior with natural light and cross-ventilation which filter through tandem living spaces down the length of the house. One can promenade the deck around most of the house. The master bedroom on the top floor of the tower incorporates a six by six foot skylight over the bed.
This is a house for a young family of four. Approximately 2,400 square feet of living space was required along with many associated outdoor spaces. The owners wished the house to be full of natural light with a very open plan for the main living areas and a secluded master bedroom. The site is a one acre rural estate lot, triangular shaped and with a 35 foot abandoned grain silo near the center. The silo and its simple geometric form provided an iconic link with the agrarian past and had a kind of silent power and beauty of its own. This house embraces the silo form making it a central focus in a configuration of building elements; garage, peristyle, main house and bedroom tower. The silo is left in its pure form providing a counterpoint to the horizontality of the main house.