The Pew house is one of Wright's few Usonian houses with a second floor.  It takes advantage of its Lake Mendota shore site by having just one side anchored to the ground, the other end is supported by a limestone pier as the house passes over a ravine.  A row of doors allows the balcony to function as an extension of the living room.  Seen from the lake, the house appears to rise up the slope; it appears much larger than its 1,300 square feet from there.  From the street, where this picture was taken from, we can only see the square mass of the second floor bedrooms and the carport.  Wright wisely did not have the house face the lake directly, but rather angeled it about 30 degrees.  This allows the homeowners to have two separate views of the lake from two sides of the house, rather than just from the front.

John Pew was a research chemist.  His family lived in the house until 1986.