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The primo spot that Prairie School poobah Frank Lloyd Wright holds in the pantheon of American architecture draws hefty asking prices for the homes he designed, and naturally, realtors looking to hawk homes by even loosely Wright-associated architects are quick to mention the connection. His son’s designs command multimillion-dollar prices, and many architects trained at his Taliesin school haven’t done too bad for themselves, either. Berekely-based former Wright apprentice Daniel Liebermann has been described as an “iconoclastic” architect whose curve-heavy homes are the “wrong place” to find right angles, a man who “dismisses gridlike measurements as ‘Cartesian.'” Currently listed at a reduced $2.595M after selling in March of 2013 for $2.195M, this 1967 Santa Barbara three-bedroom is closer to classic ideas of midcentury modern than all that suggests, but it still is quite the looker. Listed below are five more finds showcasing the good, the bad, and the ugly of Wright-associated real estate.
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↑ Blaine Drake worked with Wright at Taliesin from 1933 to 1941 and established his own practice in 1945. According to the listing, of the 150-or-so homes he built in and around Arizona, this 1965 post-and-beam in the town of Carefree is “one of the very few left that still exhibit the character and feel of the famed architect’s intent.” It’s got two bedrooms, doors and walls of glass, poured terrazzo floors, cabinets of “tremendous teak,” and a $1.195M price tag, reduced from its fall 2013 ask of $1.245M.
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↑ John Rattenbury became a member of the Taliesin Fellowship in 1950, and worked on over 60 of Wright’s projects over the next nine years, including the Guggenheim, the Marin County Civic Center, and the Gammage Memorial Auditorium. He helped establish Taliesin Associated Architects after Wright’s death in 1959, where he served as a senior architect and planner until the firm dissolved in 2003. He designed this gray, soft-edged, 3,400-square-foot Phoenix home during his time at TAA. According to the marketing material, it’s looking for $1.695M, and was based on a Frank Lloyd Wright concept, although that claim should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
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↑ It’s unclear when this 4,000-square-foot Paradise Valley home was designed by Paul Christian Yaeger—who, according to art ltd. magazine, was an “older, already established architect when he studied with Wright,” whose “residential work in the ’70s and ’80s carried a flavor of his time at Taliesin”—but the listing says it was treated to “an extensive $1.5m + rebuild” in 2003 that brought it closer to the palatial offerings of Paradise Valley. Inside, it sports a lot of sloping ceilings, brickwork, and skylights, while out back it’s got a few large glassy sections overlooking a pool and a few low Barragánesque walls. Last sold for $950K in 1998, it was listed for $2.65M in early 2013, which has since been reduced to a $2.295M ask.
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↑ Currently practicing Taliesin school fellow and faculty member Floyd Hamblen designed this 5,500-square-foot contemporary, which was built in 2008 in the village of Arena, Wisc. “If views are your forte,” says the listing, “this one is breathtaking,” but it’s a shame how poor the views in the listing photos are, which picture the exterior covered in snow and the interior drenched in late-afternoon gloom. You can still make out some interesting Prairie School-reminiscent finishings in cherry woodwork and stone, and what looks like at least three mounted bucks, a handful of rams, and a cougar in the living room. The place failed to sell last year at $1.25M, and as of mid-February, it was back asking $1.59M.
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↑ Bonus round: PHX Architecture principal Erik Peterson wasn’t a Taliesin school fellow or a TAA architect, but while interning with the TAA he worked on Wright’s posthumously built Monona Terrace convention center. As the listing puts it, “extensive use of native stone, mahogany, and copper add warmth and drama” to this Peterson-designed circa-2006 Scottsdale four-bedroom, which is currently listed for $2.45M.
· 7724 E Long Rifle Road [Zillow]
· 6636 N 36th Street [Zillow]
· 4211 E Highlands Drive [Zillow]
· 6505 Erdman Road [Zillow]
· 38625 N 103rd Place [ZIllow]