Bubbleinfo.com readers took kindly to Kwaping’s idea that we include significant homes for sale, so here’s another:
From the L.A. Times:
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Feliz has landed on the Multiple Listing Service at $15 million.
The 1924 concrete-block structure has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms in about 6,000 square feet. The Mayan-inspired California landmark — it is a state landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places — sits on about three-quarters of an acre with city, canyon and ocean views.
The seller is the Ennis House Foundation, a nonprofit that has spent about $6.5 million to restore the earthquake- and water-damaged estate. The house “needs more stewardship at this point than a small nonprofit can sustain,” the foundation states on its website.
It is estimated it will take an additional $5 million to $7 million complete the restoration.
The largest and loudest of Wright’s four concrete-block houses in L.A., the Ennis House suggests what the greatest of Modernists would have done with a commission from the Maya Empire 700 years earlier. A heavy, elongated mass constructed of 16-by-16-inch concrete blocks (most textured with an ornate pattern) and sited majestically on a hilltop overlooking Griffith Park, the building appears to be more than a house — an elegant fortification, perhaps, or a temple.
It’s a house very much designed for the site, with consciously framed views of Los Angeles built into its plan. A nod to Wright’s genius is that “It doesn’t feel oversized,” said Dishman, whose organization is helping to restore it. In spite of its grandeur — or because of it — you might wonder what it would be like to live in the Ennis House, especially if you’ve ever been there at night.
It was used to film a number of pictures, including Blade Runner, Grand Canyon and The House on Haunted Hill and tv shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twin Peaks and South Park.
According to his widow, this was the only house that the late rock star Jim Morrison ever expressed an interest in owning.
CurbedLA mentioned the stoty here, and included more photos:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2009/06/frank_lloyd_wrights_ennis_house_hits_the_market.php
Here’s an aerial view:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbg.cgi/Ennis_House.html/34.116113/-118.292863/19
“It is estimated it will take an additional $5 million to $7 million complete the restoration.”
On top of $15 million asking price? This doesn’t sound like a happy ending.
Sold!!!!!!!Can anyone give me a stated income loan for 15 million?I make 10000/month picking strawberries.
Jim I like you posting significant homes for sale but I’d like it even more if you would also give some thoughts or opinions on it. Just like a couple of sentences at least.
I’m a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, having grown up near Taliesin West – it is a fascinating place.
A lot of people bag on Frank, but there aren’t many people who have such a wide-ranging body of work in the 1900-1950 era.
The Ennis House, unfortunately, hasn’t been occupied for 29 years, and if somebody buys it, they’ll have their hands full. It might be easier to tear it down and re-build it using today’s engineering?
Unfortunately, it looks like it might have to be torn down to properly repair it. The picture of the house during construction, shown on the CurbedLA website, indicated insufficient rebar in the walls. I am also wondering what type of headers are being used for the doorways and windows. I don’t see any indication of a steel beam being used within the blocks.
Frank Lloyd Wright houses are known for being aesthetically nice but structurally iffy.. as can also be noted by the house ‘FallingWater’.
ucodegen wrote Frank Lloyd Wright houses are known for being … structurally iffy.. as can also be noted by the house ‘FallingWater’.
To say that Wright houses are structurally iffy is like saying that Yuma, AZ is slightly warm in the summer.
The only reason Fallingwater lasted as long as it did before needing serious shoring up is that the original contractor put in twice as much reinforcement than was called for; he could see that it was badly designed. (Unfortunately twice as much wasn’t enough.)
To say that Wright houses are structurally iffy is like saying that Yuma, AZ is slightly warm in the summer.
I was being polite to avoid flame-wars.
The only reason Fallingwater lasted as long as it did before needing serious shoring up is that the original contractor put in twice as much reinforcement than was called for; he could see that it was badly designed. (Unfortunately twice as much wasn’t enough.)
With FallingWater, they should have used hydrophobic concrete instead of standard. They are dealing with a wet environment. This would also help protect the rebar in the concrete.
Part of what will plague the Ennis house repairs is that they tried to preserve as many of the original textile blocks as possible, yet at the same time they admitted that FLW incorporating some of the site ‘soil’ during construction contributed to making the blocks weak. It would have been better to replace all of them while they had the walls open. You can compare the amount of rebar used between the original construction and the updated work on the walls. Big difference. Unfortunately by doing a patch-work fix as opposed to tear-down and rebuild, they have condemned the property to continual patchwork.
Maybe LegoLand would be interested………kinda looks like their architecture style……could place their unused MJackson figure at the door maybe & charge admission….half off if quake hits.
An interesting note about FLW… Back in the day architects didn’t need formal education. He apprenticed, but had no formal engineering or design schooling. In fact, he only had 2 semesters of college. His major learning was under Louis Sullivan – the father of the skyscraper.
That said – his aesthetics were very cool. My mother went to high school in River Forest, IL at a school designed by FLW.
Ocean views? The air is hardly ever clear enough to allow someone to see the ocean from Los Feliz. Maybe they should have said ocean view, singular, because you’ll probably only see it once, if you squint.
It was used to film a number of pictures, including…South Park.
I didn’t know South Park was drawn on location.
And whoever buys this, party at your place on December 21, 2012.
I would gently suggest that FLW’s architectural engineering vision is being confused with his expertise in actually building these things. I would contend that his concepts were unmodified genius. Where he fell down was following through making sure the buildings were built appropriately. Once the project was in the building phase, for the most part, though he frequently visited and micro-managed some aspects of construction, most others went by the wayside.
Two exceptions, good and bad respectively would be the S.C. Johnson parking structure and the California textile block homes. The SCJ parking garage was brilliant and that was born out in exhaustive testing before construction and the durability since. The textile block homes were disappoints to FLW. IIRC, one of his sons supervised the construction and FLW, fairly or otherwise, complained bitterly about his oversight.
Like many leaders and like so many of us, FLW was a complicated man but I think it’s an inaccurate characterization to say,
“Frank Lloyd Wright houses are known for being aesthetically nice but structurally iffy.. as can also be noted by the house ‘FallingWater’.”
or
“To say that Wright houses are structurally iffy is like saying that Yuma, AZ is slightly warm in the summer.”
Sorry, I think both of those statements are unfair and wildly overstated.
Beautiful house
Unfortunately I can’t locate it, but someone did a finite element structural analysis of Fallingwater and it was structurally deficient as Kaufmann’s engineers originally reported. The West Penn Conservatory has reinforced the cantilevers in the not too distant past.
I have toured Fallingwater twice and it is one of the most marvelous places I have ever seen. From the understated loggia entrance to the immense main living space, it was an incredible vision. I can only imagine the snark amongst the stonemasons as it was under construction.
I have to agree with Travertin Man on one thing – I’ve also toured Falling Water and it truly is magnificent.
Not sure if this is the article metnioned – it’s from Structure Magazine – a 2 part article by the engineers who did the analysis and retrofit.
http://www.structuremag.org/archives/2006/Falling%20Water/FallingWater.pdf
and
http://www.structuremag.org/OldArchives/2005/September%202005/Fallingwater-by-Gerard-Feldmann.pdf
It is amazing that the Mayans didn’t use or need rebar or concrete.
Perhaps they are the real geniuses.
Thanks UCGal, those are the articles I was attempting to locate (google skills fading rapidly).
Like all FLW structures, this would look better under a bulldozer.
People, keep in mind that he started the mess and decline in CA/AZ architecture. Go stay at the Biltmore in Phoenix and report back.
So long, Frank Lloyd Wright: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKwrx5dm81o
I’ll buy it. Will you accept California I.O.U.s?
Reminds me of Deckard’s apartment in the movie Blade Runner. You can almost hear the soothing saxophone piece in the background, just before the dark sounding synthesizer kicks in.