Purcell and Elmslie received more commissions than any other firm of progressive architects after Frank Lloyd Wright. The partnership began when two Cornell architecture school classmates, William Gray Purcell and George Feick, Jr., opened a practice in Minneapolis in 1907. Purcell had been raised in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, and worked for a short time with Louis Sullivan's chief designer, George Grant Elmslie, in Sullivan's studio. In 1909 Elmslie's twenty-year employment with Sullivan came to an end, and Purcell encouraged him to join the Minneapolis partnership. While Feick left the group in 1913, the firm of Purcell and Elmslie continued until 1921.|
Purcell and Feick's architecture is marked by buildings rarely accompanied by decoration beyond opportunities afforded by building materials. Elmslie's entry into the partnership brought an added complexity of composition and ornamental design, tying their work more directly to Louis Sullivan's decorative tradition. Purcell contributed an imaginative sense of space and the ideal of developing a better living environment for the middle class, quickly establishing a national reputation for the firm.
Purcell and Elmslie's architecture is characterized by open floor plans with the hearth as a focal point, versatile rooms that served multiple functions, custom designed built-in and free-standing furniture, and large bands of windows to take advantage of the light at various time of day. Consistent organic schemes of ornament inside and out helped unify the design. The Edna S. Purcell Residence (now the Purcell-Cutts House, owned by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts), built for Purcell and his family, combined all these elements into a successful design for modern living. see objects >