Minneapolis skyscraper architect’s lakefront Burnsville home lists for $1.5 million

Diane Bishop’s home is designed for life on the lake.

Built by her late husband, architect Wayne Bishop, nearly every room in the 4,288square-foot Burnsville home has a view of Alimagnet Lake. Sliding doors give access to a 1,500-square-foot deck.

“It’s designed for the lake so I can sit in the kitchen or lie in my bed and look at it,” she said. “Nature is right outside every room I sit in, and the deck feels like an extension of the house. It’s hard to think about leaving it in that aspect.”

Wayne Bishop, who died in 2011, was a founding partner and director of design at Walsh Bishop Associates in Minneapolis. He built the three-bedroom, three-bath home in 1987 knowing his teenage children would move out in a few years. So he placed their rooms on the lower level on the other side of the house from the primary bedroom.

“Teenagers aren’t always the quietest,” said daughter Chris Bishop Garlitz. “This is really designed to have the kids for a little while, but ultimately he knew it would [primarily serve an] empty-nester couple.”

With big, reflective windows, the house is similar to another building Wayne Bishop designed — the glossy 464-foot skyscraper formerly known as the AT&T Tower in downtown Minneapolis at 901 Marquette Av. S., Chris said.

Wayne Bishop, who designed a long list of buildings, was also one of the founding partners of Peninsula Papagyo Development, a residential and resort destination in northwest Costa Rica. “He loved to work, and it felt like he went to play every day,” Chris said.

“One of his biggest influences was Frank Lloyd Wright,” she said of the house, with vaulted ceilings, wood flooring and slate accents.

When Wayne Bishop saw the Burnsville property — one of only two homes he ever designed — he walked around and decided he wanted to leave the trees as undisturbed as possible while maximizing lake views.

He also designed for areas of the home that didn’t face the lake, such as the loft, upstairs bathroom, entryway and garage, which all have skylights that brighten the spaces. The courtyard was built around oak trees that can be seen through the loft’s skylight.

“They bring in a ton of daylight without compromising privacy,” Chris said. “You get the beauty of the tree through the skylight, and it brings a bright and cheery energy to the room.”

The home is filled with the architect’s personality, from the front wooden doors with carvings of cranes and an Asian-inspired awning (inspiration from his travels in Bali when he was researching homes built in tropical areas for his Costa Rica venture) to the stately stone fireplace that he salvaged from the Ames estate in Dakota County.

“He loved to reuse things of a unique nature,” Diane said. “It was fun for him to find purpose in the things he found in that 1926 Tudor-style home.”

Outside, Wayne Bishop designed the house to look like Minnesota’s North Shore. He sourced the stones from a quarry in Wisconsin, picking out every boulder and deciding how it would be placed.

“It’s a whole lot of house — it is hard to leave because of all the memories, but it’s way too much space for one person,” Diane said. “It has meant a lot to us as a family. This was his passion, but it’s a gift to the next family here.”

Sara Anderson (612-280-7983, sara@cedarhavenmn.com) of Cedar Haven Real Estate Group, a division of Keller Williams Preferred Realty, has the $1.5 million listing.