Mental Floss

Frank Lloyd Wright's Spiral House in Phoenix Hits the Market for $12.9 Million

Emily Petsko|
Outinaz, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0
Outinaz, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0 | Outinaz, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

Frank Lloyd Wright designed nearly 60 houses in his lifetime (and even more if you count the ones that were never built). You’ll find these iconic structures scattered throughout the U.S. Some are private homes in far-flung places, while others have been turned into museums.

One of these structures is the spiral-shaped David and Gladys Wright House in the affluent Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona. And if you have $12,950,000 to spare, it could be yours to keep. As Curbed reports, the home is currently up for sale via Russ Lyon Sotheby's International Realty.

The home’s distinctive shape and spiral walk-up are early examples of Wright’s rounded style, which he honed and mastered while drawing up plans for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The museum opened in 1959, just six months after his death.

Of course, even non-architecture aficionados would probably agree that this is a beautiful—and comfortable—home. It boasts three bedrooms, four baths, custom-designed furniture, and a roof deck overlooking Camelback Mountain. The home was constructed for and named after Wright’s son David and daughter-in-law Gladys in 1952. After their deaths, a developer bought the home and made plans to demolish it to make room for new houses in 2012.

However, another buyer—current owner Zach Rawling—stepped in and took it off the developer's hands for $2.3 million, saving it from certain death. Rawling’s plan was to donate it to the School of Architecture at Taliesin in order to preserve it, but that partnership fell through, so it’s back on the market once again.

Frank Lloyd Wright homes can be difficult to sell for a number of reasons. For one, the high asking price for these old-fashioned homes—some of which don’t have air conditioning and other modern comforts—can be hard to justify. But even if you can't cough up several million dollars for the David and Gladys Wright House, you can still scope it out via an online interactive floor plan.

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