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6720 Frank Lloyd Wright Avenue, Middleton, Wisconsin


When Marshall Erdman along with internationally known New Urbanist town planners Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk created Middleton Hills, a retail center was an important part of the long-term concept. By 2004, with the newly planned development a resounding success, it was time to make this commercial component a reality.

Linville Architects and developer Dan Erdman started with a "downtown" plan based in the historic scale of neighborhood-based commercial centers originally conceived as small shops, live-work studios and second floor apartments lining Middleton Hills' main thoroughfare, Frank Lloyd Wright Avenue. An addition to this challenge was integrating a 44,000 square foot supermarket that had always been envisioned by the residents as a small boutique grocery store.

Although it had not been attempted before (in a downtown streetscape), a prairie design visually suited this project. Once this design philosophy was embraced, an innovative planning solution led to a supermarket building necklaced by attached retail and residential units sharing a common rear wall with the grocery. This brought a pedestrian scale and variety to the street effectively screening the bulk of the grocery store behind it. A neighborhood-friendly pedestrian store entry balanced with an adjacent building consisting of six retail spaces and residential above defines the gateway into the parking and main grocery entry beyond.

Seeking common threads throughout historic commercial centers, we found three factors stood foremost in their success. The first was a sense of individualism and permanence - something timeless, something that could be counted on to remain. Once this fact was discovered, it naturally led to a second observation, that this sense of individualism and permanence was achieved by permanent materials - predominantly masonry. The third element was a human pedestrian scale enhanced by the composition and color of these predominantly masonry storefronts.

With these facts in hand, we designed our project painting with a masonry palette of color and texture. Starting with a consistent strong base course of ground-faced block we integrated decorative masonry and clay brick with cast stone sills and detailing to weave design elements together. This rich palette of masonry and brick emphasizes the horizontal lines of the Prairie School architectural vocabulary seen throughout this thriving new community.

Working with the strong light and shadow advantages available with masonry (i.e. texture, color, recesses/projections), we further painted the building with the sun creating an exterior that is both strong and warm while signifying the strength, individuality, and permanence that have made neighborhood commercial centers a core of our past, present and future.


Architect: Linville Architects, LLC
Contractor: Vogel Brothers Building Company
Photographer: korom.com