Richard S. Davis House (Orono, Minnesota) | estate (manor / mansion land), Modern (architecture)

 estate (manor / mansion land), Modern (architecture)

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The Richard S. Davis House (1952), mid-century modern house by Philip Johnson (1906–2005).

Davis, a senior curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, commissioned Philip Johnson to design a home on Lake Minnetonka. The structure is almost an inverse of Johnson's famous Glass House, in that it is a brick box with a glass insert at the center, for plants. The house was purchased in 1964 by lumber magnate Mike and Penny Winton, who in 1987 added a 2300sf guesthouse designed by architect Frank Gehry. The land was subdivided with each house on a separate parcel. The Johnson-designed house was sold to Robert "Bob" and Carolyn Nelson in 2002 for $2.295,000.

The Winton Guest House (by Gehry) was purchased by real estate developer Kirk Woodhouse in 2001. In 2009 he donated it to the University of St. Thomas; which moved it to a remote university conference center 110 miles south in Owatonna, Minnesota. Frank Gehry himself wryly noted that the movers had gotten the relocated Guest House "93.6% right." The conference center closed and was sold to a mental health institution, the actual Winton Guest House stayed owned by the university which wanted to sell it. It was auctioned off to an anonymous buyer who planned to move it to New York state and restore it.

Sources:
www.walkerart.org/minnesotabydesign/objects/richard-s-d...
www.ncmodernist.org/pjohnson.htm
www.startribune.com/tour-does-the-wright-thing/90750839...
www.fastcodesign.com/3043256/for-sale-a-cartoon-guest-h...
www.startribune.com/frank-gehry-s-winton-guest-house-to...
www.stthomas.edu/news/next-stop-frank-gehrys-winton-gue...

Property Line:
gis.hennepin.us/Property/Map/Default.aspx
PID: 1011723140017

1760 Shoreline Dr
Orono, MN 55391