An in-depth account of the life and career of Minnesota's first modern architect Elizabeth "Lisl" Scheu Close (1912-2011) left an indelible mark on Minnesota's built landscape during her six decades as an architect. In 1938, with her husband, Winston Close, she founded the state's first architecture firm dedicated to modernism. In addition to designing the first International Style house in Minneapolis, the firm also created more than 250 handsome and efficiently planned modern residences. One of few women who were practicing architects in the mid-twentieth century, she blazed a trail for future generations of women in the profession. As Jane King Hession shows, the trajectory of Lisl's architectural career was shaped by the political, economic, and aesthetic upheavals of the twentieth century. Raised in a renowned modern house in Vienna, Austria, Lisl was exposed to revolutionary ideas in art and architecture at a young age. Forced to emigrate to the United States as the Nazis rose to power in Europe, she completed her architectural education at MIT. During the Depression, she struggled to find work and encountered challenges as a young woman in the field. In her pursuit of and devotion to a singular and successful career as a modern architect, she proved herself to be talented, determined, and adept at negotiating obstacles. Through documentation of Lisl's projects, this personal and professional biography also explores multiple aspects of modern architecture, including the innovative use of new materials and technologies, the design of prefabricated houses, and the relationship between residential design and changing American lifestyles.

In 1932 nineteen-year-old John H. Howe arrived at Taliesin as a charter member of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship. There he would remain for the next thirty-two years, earning a reputation as "the pencil in Wright's hand" before establishing his own architectural practice in Minnesota. This is the first book to tell Howe's story and also the first full account of his place in the history of modern architecture-as chief draftsman and valued interpreter of Wright's designs and as a prolific architect in his own right. Illustrated throughout with Howe's sublime drawings, this biography is a testament to the underappreciated architect's extraordinary design and rendering skills. Influenced by Wright's principles of organic architecture, Howe operated under the conviction that "the land is the beginning of architecture." Architectural historians Jane King Hession and Tim Quigley show how this belief worked especially well for Howe in Minnesota, where his buildings appear to have grown naturally and organically from the landscape. Also remarkable are the visionary architectural schemes Howe created while serving time in prison during World War II as a conscientious objector-futuristic visions that anticipated Eero Saarinen's later designs for airports and Victor Gruen's for America's first indoor shopping mall. An enlightening look at an exemplary life in architecture, this book finally brings the accomplishment-and significance-of John H. Howe to the fore and at the same time illuminates a fascinating chapter in American architectural history.