This is maybe the coldest listing copy we’ve ever seen. It’s for the Laing House in Pasadena’s fancy Poppy Peak–the house was designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris for Caltech professor Graham Laing and has been called “A Frank Lloyd Wright House With a Hat On.” We first saw it in 2010 when it was renting for $4,450 per month; it was rentchopped down to $3,250 in 2011. Now it’s up for (short) sale with this broker babble (and zero listing photos): “HOME BUILT IN 1935. 2 BEDROOMS/2 BATHS. HOME HAS HARDWOOD FLOORS THROUGHOUT. WINDOW ARE SINGLE PANE AND OLD. KITCHEN NEEDS IMPROVEMENTS AND APPLIANCES ARE OUTDATED. ROOF IS OLD AND NEEDS REPLACEMENT. 2 DOOR GARAGE TOO SMALL TO ACCOMMODATE 2 CARS. PARKING ON STREET WITH PERMITS. FOUNDATION HAS SHIFTED. LEAKS IN GARAGE AND INTO THE HOUSE. GARAGE MAY CONTAIN MOLD. LANDSCAPING MAINTAINED.” It’s practically begging someone to tear it down and build something garish and new among all that well-maintained landscaping. And it doesn’t even mention the 150 feet–150 feet!–of built-in bookshelves (let alone Harris’s name, or even Wright’s, for that matter). Asking price is $549,000.
· 1642 PLEASANT Way [Redfin]
· Harwell Hamilton Harris’s “Frank Lloyd Wright House With a Hat” in Pasadena’s Poppy Peak [Curbed LA]