Lower Barn

Aldebaran is a beautiful place, with main house and adjacent barns.  The Lower Barn, built around 1900 with sawn timbers, is a small (20'x40') 3-bay hung barn typical of the area. The farm was once part of a vast holding of the Lloyd-Jones family, who emigrated to Southwestern Wisconsin from Wales in the 1860's. Their grandson became the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. From here, the view takes in his masterwork, Taliesin, and adjoining architectural gems: Hillside School, Midway Barn, Romeo & Juliet, and Unity Chapel.

Rebuilt on the bones of a hasty remodel in the 1970's when first converted from a working barn into housing for apprentices at the School of Architecture, this new incarnation employs a tight thermal envelope, passive solar features, and efficient mechanicals. Ship lap pine siding painted traditional red, and a porch skip-sheathed to look like the old corncrib that once stood there, help keep the place looking more like a barn, and less like a house.  Dappled light shades the entry porch from the hot afternoon sun, and provides protection from blowing snow come winter.  Inside, the orginal trusses frame a 12' high ceiling, and salvage materials, in the hands of skilled local craftsmen, lend character at every turn.

Lew Lama of Wood & Stone in Spring Green took on the modest-of-footprint but intensive-of-process project of coaxing walls to plumb & level and superinsulating the shell. Fine craftsmanship shows in the smallest details, with custom cabinets, stairways, and railings by Mike Larson of Ridgeway.