A curated chapter of architecturally significant homes across Wisconsin and the upper Midwest.
Architecture at its most resolved doesn't announce itself. It simply changes how a room feels — how light arrives, how a window frames a tree the way a painting frames a subject, how the floor plan and the land outside it seem to have been drawn by the same hand. Frank Lloyd Wright called this organic architecture, nature is not the backdrop but the collaborator, that inside and outside are not two conditions but one.
The Modern Collection exists for homes that are works of art — and for the stewards who have always treated them that way.
A curated chapter of mid-century modern, Prairie, Usonian-lineage, and architecturally significant homes across Wisconsin and the upper Midwest — each one marketed as the work of architecture it is, and entrusted to the steward it deserves. Through the @properties Christie's International Real Estate network, that reach extends well beyond Wisconsin.
For only the second time in 107 years — sold to the steward it deserved.
When the Elsner family decided to sell after nearly seventy years of stewardship, the challenge wasn't finding a buyer. It was honoring what the home represented. Wright's only townhouse in Wisconsin. A furniture collection valued at nearly $900,000. A National Register property with a preservation easement that required a broker who understood the framework — and the relationships to navigate it. Melissa LeGrand structured the first-ever collaboration between Christie's auction house and Christie's International Real Estate, keeping house and furnishings together as Wright intended.
Period-correct. Under contract in a week.
4338 Upland Drive arrived largely as it was built — original redwood paneling, terrazzo entry, sandstone brick fireplace, and windows designed to dissolve the boundary between inside and out. The bones had never been compromised. The house had been empty. The challenge was showing what it could become. The Modern Collection staged it from scratch — curated books, pottery, and artwork placed to draw the eye up and toward the windows. Every decision in the room in conversation with the house as a whole. Directed photography, press outreach to Dwell, and a buyer who wasn't searching on Zillow. Under contract in a week.
The house Wright almost built — now finding its steward.
Carl Meadows had an appointment at Taliesin — Wright turned him away, and Fritz Jr. took the commission instead. What he built on this hillside carries the Taliesin tradition in every decision: the vaulted ceiling, the concrete block chimney, the band windows opening east, the original double doors that let the bedrooms step directly into the air under the cantilever. The Meadow House is being offered for the first time in a generation. It was recognized on the 2018 Wright and Like Tour. This is a home for a buyer who knows what Taliesin means. The Modern Collection is how we find them.
Architecturally significant homes carry obligations that standard transactions don't. Preservation easements administered through the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. National Register restrictions. Buyers who need to be vetted not just for financial qualification but for preservation commitment. Press relationships that require a broker who speaks the language of design, not just real estate.
Melissa LeGrand has navigated all of it. The Bogk House required coordinating a Christie's auction process alongside a real estate transaction — simultaneously, for the first time in the network's history. The Tree House required reaching a national buyer community that doesn't read the MLS. The Meadow House requires telling a story most brokers wouldn't know how to find.
Frank Lloyd Wright Home in Milwaukee Lists for the First Time in 70 Years
Designed by famed architect, the house is hitting the market for $1.5 million.
Read More →A $1.5 Million Frank Lloyd Wright Home Lists for the First Time in 70 Years
The property is the only FLW single-family design in Milwaukee.
Read More →A Period-Correct Mid-Century Modern in Madison, Wisconsin
The Tree House, a rare mid-century modern restored to how it was meant to be.
Read More →If you own an architecturally significant home and you're considering what comes next — a conversation with Melissa LeGrand costs nothing and changes how you think about the process. There is no obligation and no pressure. Just an honest conversation about what your home means, who the right buyer is, and what it takes to find them.
