Close Associates (Firm)

Elizabeth Scheu was born in Vienna, and studied at the Wiener Technische Hochschule (1930) and at MIT (1934-35), earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture. In 1935-36, she worked for Oskar Stonorov, designing public housing in Philadelphia, and then worked as a designer for Magney and Tusler of Minneapolis from 1936 to 1938. Winston Close was born in Appleton, Wisconsin and graduated from MIT. He worked as a draftsman for several Minneapolis firms from 1927 until 1938 when he and Scheu married and began their partnership.

After five years of practice, the Close partnership halted work from 1943 to 1946 while Winston served in the U.S. Naval Reserve. On their return to Minneapolis, the Closes were employed by the Page and Hill Company for 15 years, designing prefabricated housing. Concurrently, Winston was a professor of architecture and advisory architect at the University of Minnesota through the 1960s. Elizabeth taught interior design at the Minneapolis School of Art. The husband and wife team is most noted for their residential designs which are custom made for the client and created to blend with the environment. In addition to residential architecture, they have designed public and private housing projects, medical facilities, and the Gray Freshwater Biological Institute on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota.