‘It reeks of delight’

Art show celebrates new Wright-inspired Cottage Row gem

The dozen or so local artists showing their work this weekend at the latest addition to the Cottage Lane development on Lansing’s east side deserve a citation for bravery.

Will people even look at the art?

The competition is brutal.

The art show celebrates the long-awaited completion of the sixth and final dwelling in the one-of-a-kind village-style development.

The mid-century modern, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired cottage at 128 Regent St. is an eye-cleansing, eye-filling box of surprises, a classy capstone for eastside developer Dave Muylle’s 20-year dream project.

The cottage packs a lot of Easter eggs into 1,200 square feet, and not just for architecture freaks.

Tucked into a corner in the downstairs bedroom is an unassuming bookcase, currently stocked with a sheaf of dog-eared 1960s “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” paperbacks.

“You know, there’s something weird about that bookcase,” Muylle said, a twinkle in his eye.

Tug at the bookcase, and sure enough, it smoothly swivels out to reveal a glimpse into a hidden room.

Nominally, it’s another bedroom, but who’s kidding whom? This is a classic pool room, ringed with dark wooden wainscoting salvaged from a house Muylle demolished in Hillsdale 20 years ago. In a week or so, he expects delivery of a vintage 1960 Valley pool table that spent many years in a bar, complete with cigarette burns he will, of course, leave intact.

“Every one of us, no matter how old we are, needs a spot where we can still be a kid,” he said.

It took a lot of trial and error to build a functioning, real-life swiveling bookcase, but Muylle built this stealthy feature so well that it moves at the lightest touch.

Then again, Muylle is not your average developer. Quoting the Roman architect Vitruvius, he asserted that the most important element of architecture is “delight.” (The other two are “commodity,” or suitability to the purpose, and “firmness.”)

“But delight is the key,” Muylle said. “This is a small house in a tight spot, and yet it reeks of delight.”

Muylle has dreamed of building a Wright-inspired house since Cottage Lane was in the earliest planning stages. It’s been on his drawing board, in one form or another, for 10 years, but he didn’t break ground on it until 2024.

He was inspired, in part, by a 1966 multi-unit dwelling across from the cottage, at 131 Regent St., designed by East Lansing architect Howard DeWolf — a big cluster of cubes dramatically cantilevered by steel I-beams over the adjoining driveway.

Negotiating with city planners, Muylle pointed to the DeWolf building as a context for his own cottage’s bold design, with its rectangular profile and nearly flat roof. (Muylle actually pitched the roof at a barely noticeable, but rain-diverting, 2%, as Wright often did).

The flat roof extends outrageously far over the Regent Street entrance, like a two-point-perspective illustration on Wright’s drawing board come to life.
“The aspiration is to defy gravity,” Muylle said. “That’s what cantilevers are made for: ‘What’s holding that up?’”

He couldn’t afford massive steel I-beams, but there are other tricks in his bag, like cantilevering counterweights, judiciously placed support posts and built-in material structure that defies sagging.

Visitors walk through a front door framed in rich cypress, setting the stage for a Stravinsky-esque symphony of clean lines and crisp light-and-dark contrasts.

True to Wright’s aesthetic, the house has minimal moldings or curlicues, so the workmanship has to be perfect — every surface smooth, every angle knife-sharp.

“You can’t hide behind a molding,” Muylle said. “Mid-century modern is fine detail. It’s not fussy.”

The low-ceilinged, cozy kitchen opens into a sunny living area that feels much larger than its modest footprint. The high ceilings are lined by horizontal “clerestory” windows, also called “lantern roofs,” that give the space the feel of an airy treehouse.

Years before starting Cottage Row, Muylle scrounged a partition’s worth of “breeze blocks” (decorative concrete bricks) from overstock at Consumers Concrete, only to find in 2025 that they fit Wright’s aesthetic perfectly.

But Muylle doesn’t consider himself a member of the “Wright cult.” His own distinctive touches are all over the cottage, not just in the secret pool room.

The gnarled central post on the main floor is a rugged oak log Muylle found near St. Johns and left unstained and untreated, in stark contrast to the clean, smooth surfaces around it.

“This was alive,” he said, running his hand over the log. “Here it was struck by lighting and healed itself. You have all these wormholes. It’s just nature creating art.”

A vertical window, part of the cottage’s original design, proved to be the perfect frame for an antique rain chain — a hanging chain of bowls, meant to catch and slow rainwater as it falls from a downspout. Each metal bowl is adorned with a resplendent golden bee. The rain chain was found in a dumpster at a house tear-off in East Lansing. Muylle was going to install it outside, but once he cleaned it up, he realized it was too beautiful and it belonged inside the house.

There’s a lot more to discover, but that’s what this weekend’s art show is for. Muylle plans to move into his dream cottage, so the show will be among the last chances for the public to go inside. (An architectural tour in tandem with the Historical Society of Greater Lansing is in the works for late May.)  

Knowing that local artists often struggle to find a place to show their art, Muylle reached out to a friend, Nikki Rose, who is well connected with the local art scene, to help celebrate the completion of each successive cottage in the village. This weekend’s show will be the fourth, and last, in the series, and the first since 2022.

“It’s going to be a happy reunion for the artists,” Rose said. “We’re kind of sad but excited to be able to do this one last time.”

The work of 13 local artists will be on display, including sculpture by Mark Chatterley, Doug DeLind and Laura DeLind, paintings by Rose and watercolor artist Dave Jordan, jewelry by James LeTerneau and a collection of prints by the Lansing Area Printmakers Collective, aka the Lino Ladies.

Art browsers Friday night will be serenaded by a ukulele group raising funds for Music is the Foundation, whose mission is to support music programs in Michigan schools and communities.

Visitors might struggle to divide their attention between Muylle’s handiwork and the art on the walls, not to mention the ukulele music, but that’s the risk you take when you enter a house that reeks of delight.