These Homes By Big-Name Architects Just Hit The Market—With Curved Walls And Built-In Furniture

    Architect Eric Owen Moss designed this $10.9 million home in Los Angeles.
    WAYNE FORD FOR SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY

Two homes designed by celebrated architects Eric Owen Moss and Marcel Breuer recently went up for sale in Los Angeles and New York, joining a small class of pricey houses on the market designed by those who’ve also lent their talents to museums, cathedrals and government buildings across the world—but they may take awhile to sell.

KEY FACTS

CONTRA

Real estate agent Deanna Peters says it can be hard to sell a home that is both high-dollar and has a prestigious history, so much so that Peters has opened a famous Frank Lloyd Wright home in Phoenix (listed for $8.9 million) up to a fractional sale that could see six different people each pay $1.25 million to own it as a group. “I do believe that there exists a group of people who can work together as adults and as investors to create a really great property. Sometimes you have to get creative,” said Peters, who has explored ways to update the Wright-designed Norman Lykes House. She says she’s looked into having an exclusive documentary made about Wright with Volumedia and offered to work as a project manager for owners looking to use the property as an “experience” rental.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“The market value of a house like this may be slightly lower than the asking price, but people who really love a Frank Lloyd Wright house won’t care,” Peters said of the Norman Lykes House. “For the right person, the money will mean nothing, but yes it can be challenging to sell a house at this price point and they can stay on the market for quite a while.”

RICARDO LEGORRETA’S LOS ANGELES MANSION

A home designed by Ricardo Legorreta is listed for $47 million in the Brentwood Circle neighborhood of L.A. Listed by Hollywood producer Joel Silver, known for his work in films like “Road House” and “Predator,” the 25,000-square-foot home includes eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Its unique features designed by the Mexican architect include an atrium entrance, reflection pool, library, gym, sauna and movie theater. The home has been re-listed and steadily dropped in price from $77.5 million since 2019.

THE FIRST HOUSE EVER DESIGNED BY ERIC OWEN MOSS

A curving dome with windows pointed toward the sky defines the interesting architectural features of Constellation 167, the first residence ever designed by American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal winner Eric Owen Moss. Listed for sale at $10.95 million by “ER” actress Nicole Nagel, the 5,500-square-foot home includes four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a lagoon lap pool and yoga space in Los Angeles.

A LOS ANGELES RANCH BY CLIFF MAY

A Sullivan Canyon home designed by Cliff May, called “the father of the California ranch house” by the L.A. Conservancy, is listed for $10.25 million in Los Angeles. With four bedrooms and three baths, the 2,762-square-foot dwelling has numerous skylights, shiplap ceilings and terracotta tile floors.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S NORMAN LYKES HOUSE

The last home ever designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, also known as the Circular Sun House, is up for sale at $8.9 million in Phoenix. Plans for the home, which is built into a hillside, were on Wright’s drawing table when he died in 1959 and the building was finished in 1967 by Wright’s apprentice. The 3,000-square-foot residence includes curved walls, built-in furnishings, three bedrooms, three baths, a library and a media room. It is one of only 14 circular homes ever built by Wright.

RICARDO LEGORRETA’S MEXICAN ESCAPE

ONE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S LARGEST-EVER HOUSES

One of the largest homes Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed has been listed for sale for $4.5 million in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Created for his cousin and the publisher of the Tulsa Tribune in the 1920s, the 10,500-square-foot house known as Westhope is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The home’s exterior was made using 5,200 panes of glass and it includes five bedrooms, five bathrooms and a concrete pool.

LOUIS M. NAIDORF’S PERSONAL HOME

The home Louis M. Naidorf, famous for his design of the Los Angeles landmark Capitol Records building, designed as his personal residence in 1964 has listed for sale in California for $2.37 million. Walls of glass and wooden floors emphasize the indoor-outdoor design of the 3,287-square-foot home on a half-acre lot in Woodland Hills. The house has four bedrooms and bathrooms, a den with wall-to-wall built-in bookshelves and a backyard with a pool and large patio.

MARCEL BREUER’S MID-CENTURY MODERN

A 1950s home built in Southern New York by Marcel Breuer, one of the famed Harvard Five group of architects and an AIA Gold Medal recipient, is on the market for $1.8 million. The current owners added a one-story office at the end of the original house that brings the home’s current square footage to 2,292 with three bedrooms, a distinctive butterfly roof and original bluestone flooring.

BIG NUMBER

$11.55 million. That’s how much a 4,700-square-foot home designed by architect Joseph Esherick sold for in April after the former owner received a sight-unseen offer, according to Sotheby’s International Realty. The house is a four-bedroom, four-bath dwelling across the street from Presidio National Park and represents the third most-expensive single-family home sold in San Francisco so far this year.

SURPRISING FACT

Sometimes, all it takes is a famous designer’s touch in one room to make a listing stand out. A house in Miami Beach that sold for $36 million last year included a bathroom designed by Zaha Hadid—a famed architect and personal friend of the sellers. Called the “crown jewel” of the house by the Wall Street Journal, the bathroom’s unique design included a curved shower and bathtub that stretched the expansive length of the wall. Seller and real estate developer Craig Robbins called Hadid’s design contribution “the nicest thing that probably any friend has ever done for me.”

TANGENT

A gutted mansion designed by architect-to-the-stars Tadao Ando has been listed in Malibu by Kanye West. The musician bought the home for $57.3 million in 2021 before ripping out its windows, doors, electrical and plumbing systems, then abandoning his planned renovation. The 4,000-square-foot home is now on the market for $39 million and would need several million dollars worth of work to be livable.