Design

One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s final designs has just gone on the market in Virginia Beach. Known as the Cooke House, the 3,000-square-foot home was the result of a letter written by Maude and Andrew Cooke in 1951 that began thusly: Dear Mr. Wright, Will you please help us get the beautiful house we have dreamed of for so long?

Over a period of several years, the couple and Wright corresponded by letter, with an initial rendering appearing in 1953 and the final plans delivered in 1957. Construction didn’t begin until 1959, just two weeks before Wright’s death. The Cookes and their children moved in in October of 1960, their nearly-decade long dream finally becoming a reality, and lived there for the next 23 years.

When Daniel and Jane Duhl purchased the home in 1983, they immediately began a significant restoration project, for which they received an award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The four-bedroom is now considered a green, passive solar home and features two central air conditioning systems and a swim spa. It’s on the market for $2,750,000 — via Curbed

Rare opportunity in northern New Jersey: The oldest and largest of four Frank Lloyd Wright designs in the Garden State has come on the open market for the first time in decades. Sitting on seven acres of secluded woodlands, the 1940 James B Christie House embodies Wright’s Usonian concept, which called for simple, single-story dwellings that embrace natural materials and a strong visual connection to the outdoors.

The expansive horizontal structure, built from cypress wood, brick, and glass, features an L-shape plan common to Wright’s Usonian houses. Here, the living and dining areas sit perpendicular to a wing of bedrooms, and the kitchen takes up the intersecting corner. Glass walls, clerestory windows, and original built-in seating, tables, and chairs can be found throughout the home.

Already quite large at the original 2,000 square feet—here’s Wright’s Tarantino Studio to add a master bedroom suite that had been part of the original plans but was not constructed initially. The sunken space includes a bright sitting area—complete with its own huge brick fireplace and built-ins—that separates the bedroom from the bath. Now it’s on the market seeking $2,200,000, with a new heating system and roof in place — via Curbed

According to Curbed, the house in Boulder City, Nevada, dates back to the early 1960s, with the original concept designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. However, the design was modified to fit the lot by Harry Thompson, who was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1950s. There was another twist too. The original buyer went bankrupt, so effectively never lived in it, instead passing on the house to the second owner.

This 1963 build covers around 195m² and comes with some of its original dramatic features still intact. The exterior is obviously one such feature of course, as well as the wonderful main living area with its wood-panelled ceilings and oversized rose quartz fireplace and high angled ceiling. $450,000 is the asking price — via WowHaus

Have you noticed in the last few years that you don’t see colourful cars much any more? If you’re looking for your car in a parking lot, or you’re in heavy traffic, all the cars around you are silver or white, with a few black outliers. Look at any car dealership, you’ll see it full of silver and white cars, with one of two red ones for contrast. What happened to the colours?

Classic car owners are having none of that. This picture of 76 Dodge Challengers was organised at a meeting of the Peach State Challengers. You can see that a few drivers in the back showed up a few minutes late (or more likely, they didn’t want the end of the line to be white), but the overall effect is glorious. Doesn’t anyone in Georgia want to drive a yellow Challenger? — via Neatorama

This 1950s Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Eppstein Residence in Galesburg, Michigan, USA is the latest to hit the market. Actually, that should be returned to the market, as this was up for sale a while back. Seems like the sale might well have fallen through, as the house is up again, tempting us in with its low price tag. At least, in comparison to UK houses of similar stature.

The house is on The Acres, which contains four Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian homes, along with two properties from Taliesin School fellow Francis Willsey. The idea was to create some kind of co-operative on the 70-acre site, with 21 houses, each on a one-acre plot, with excess land for communal use. Sadly that never quite came to fruition. But the houses that were build still stand, now with the added protection of being on the National Register of Historical Places.

This particular build dates from 1953 and looks very much like it has been restored to bring out the best of the place. It’s up for sale at $455,000 — via WowHaus

Not just an A-listed piece of architecture, this Sir Basil Spence-designed Gribloch art deco property in Kippen, Stirling, Scotland also comes with plenty of land and a separate gate house. One of three private houses designed by Basil Spence prior to the Second World War, this one was commissioned by John Colville, part of the Colville steel-making family and named after the land surrounding it. It doesn’t come cheap with offers sought over £1,500,000. But compare that to some London apartments we have featured of late and it doesn’t seem too bad — via WowHaus

Cyprus-based designer Stelios Mousarris, infuses his creations with a sense of fun, combining functional objects with sculptural elements. His Rocket Coffee Table is a prime example, supporting an ordinary glass table top with the most unexpected shapes: five wooden rockets shooting up toward the ceiling, resting on resin supports in the shape of smoke plumes. Mousers combined various techniques from lathe to 3D printing, resin casting and traditional hand-curved pieces to create the creative table. One rocket pokes up higher than the rest to emerge from the glass, as if piercing the sound barrier, while the others aren’t attached so you can move them around however you like — via dornob

This is the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Paul Olfelt house in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. The house actually dates from 1960, which is two years after the death of Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for lawyer Paul C Olfelt and his family in 1958. After the architect’s death, Taliesin Architects completed the project.

There’s something else very interesting about this place too. It has just been put on the market for the very first time by those original owners.

$1,495,000 is the asking price, which works out at around £1,048,000 — via WowHaus

Students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Taliesin West have designed and built Little Shelters, a collaborative project in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, as part of a design and build studio led by little maps — via ArchDaily