Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed Ennis House to be sold

The 6,000-square-foot Los Angeles estate is being sold by the Ennis House Foundation, which recently completed the initial phase of a stabilization and restoration project following years of decay and damage from earthquakes and torrential rains. In March 2005, it was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation‘s most-endangered list.

Asking price $15million!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090619/stage_nm/us_lloydwright

Architecture Coach: Prairie

In suburban Chicago in 1893, Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s most famous architect, designed the first Prairie-style house, and it’s still a common style throughout the Midwest. Prairie houses come in two styles–boxy and symmetrical or low-slung and asymmetrical. Roofs are low-pitched, with wide eaves. Brick and clapboard are the most common building materials. Other details: rows of casement windows; one-story porches with massive square supports; and stylized floral and circular geometric terra-cotta or masonry ornamentation around doors, windows, and cornices. (Realtor.Org)

Any Prairie’s in Atlanta? I need pictures

Cool website: www.Prairiemod.com  (love this site)

Photo © Kenneth C. Zirkel / iStockphoto.com

The Frederic C. Robie House in Chicago is widely considered Frank Lloyd Wright’s finest example of the Prairie style. It was built in 1909.

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Midcentury Modern Homes Are Hot

Homes built in the midcentury modern style continue to fetch ever-increasing prices from preservationists and others who love their rich woods and minimalist design.

The Kaufmann Housein Palm Springs, Calif., designed by Richard Neutra in 1946, brought $16.8 million with commission last week at a Christie’s auction.

Marc Porter, Christie’s president in America, said the buyer, whom he declined to name, exercised an option to purchase an orchard adjacent to the property for an additional $2.1 million that includes three cacti that were a present from Frank Lloyd Wright to original owner Edgar Kaufmann, Pittsburgh department store magnate, on his first visit to the home.

The 1960 Esherick Housein Chestnut Hill, Pa. — one of the few private residences designed by the influential Louis Kahn — is part of a contemporary-design auction on May 18 at Richard Wright in Chicago. It is expected to bring $2 million or $3 million.

Many of these homes aren’t very livable. For instance, the Esherick House has only one bedroom and the kitchen. The five-bedroom Kaufmann House comes with restrictions that bar its new owner from making any structural changes.

Source: The New York Times, Carol Vogen (05/14/), and Newsweek, Cathleen McGuigan (05/19/)

Nia Fact: I love midcentury modern- and am a collector of the furniture….however looking at the price tag of these homes, I may need to find a new hobby.