Buy One Frank Lloyd Wright House, Get the Plans for His Unbuilt Final Home Free

Here's an offer an architecture fanboy can't refuse

September 21, 2017 9:00 am

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Louis Penfield House for the man who bore its name in 1955, and there’s quite a tall tale associated with it.

Literally.

Louis Penfield himself was six-feet-eight-inches tall with a striking presence, and purportedly approached the architect with the question, “Mr. Wright, could you design a house for someone as tall as me?”

And so he did. The unusually tall and long home was designed for the Penfields to complement their physical presence as well as the surrounding landscape. Lots of windows open up to the surroundings, where many of the materials were sourced in keeping with Wright’s vision of “organic” architecture.

FLW House (6 images)

The home was given a $100,000 dollar restoration by the family in recent years, and has been open to guests as a rental since 2003 — also the year it was added to the U.S. National Registry of Historic Places. It’s one of the only FLW-design homes the public can rent.

It’s on the market — via the original family — for about a million dollars, which anymore, incredibly, isn’t unattainable. And for the price, you’re getting quite a tidy package:  

  • All of the home’s FLW-designed furniture
  • Two other homes on the 10-acre property
  • Access to an adjacent 178-acre park and trail system
  • 600 feet of river frontage
  • A panoramic view of the Chagrin River

And bragging rights.

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