The last home iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed is located in Phoenix, and will soon go to the highest bidder.
Called the “Norman Lykes home” after the man it was designed for, the curvaceous house at the edge of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve is set to go to auction on auction Oct. 16. The house was listed for $3.25 million in 2018.
Wright began designing the 3,100-square-foot home in 1959, just before his death. The house has rounded windows and walls to blend into the desert mountain it is perched on.
His apprentice John Rattenbury finished the design, and the house was built in 1967.
The house will go to the highest bidder, with no reserve, according to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. That means the house will sell no matter how low the bid, but it's hard to imagine the cool home will go for a bargain price.
It’s one of 14 circular houses designed by Wright.
The spiral house Wright designed for his son David in the upscale Arcadia neighborhood is on the market, listed for $9.9 million.
The concrete block house with three bedrooms and four bathrooms sits on 5.9 acres. The home has curved walls with panoramic Camelback Mountain views.
A plan for the house to be donated to the School of Architecture at Taliesin fell through last summer.
Many neighbors of the Arcadia-area Wright house hope the landmark will be preserved by buyers who wants to make it their home.
From Arizona State University’s grand Gammage Auditorium, originally designed for a Baghdad opera house, to his signature concrete and circular homes and the First Christian Church with its 77-foot spire, Wright gave the Valley its own architecture style.
"He (Wright) was drawn to Arizona by a certain magic of the desert environment,” said growth expert and attorney Grady Gammage Jr. “It presented a kind of clear canvas on which he wanted to paint with his organic architectural style.”
His father, former ASU President Grady Gammage, was friends with Wright and commissioned him to build the university's auditorium in 1957.
Wright’s last project, the Norman Lykes home, will go to auction 60 years after the prolific architect died.
Selling luxury homes via auction is a new trend for metro Phoenix.
In January, baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson's 25,000-square-foot Paradise Valley mansion sold at a live online auction, according to New York-based Concierge Auctions.
The deluxe home built by the MLB pitcher was put on the market for $25 million in 2014. It was later reduced to $14.5 million. It sold for $7.3 million at auction. Johnson’s auction was also a no-reserve setup.
The auction of the Norman Lykes home — with a circle structure like New York’s Guggenheim Museum designed by Wright — won’t be online, according to Heritage.
The winning bidder will get one of Arizona’s important historic buildings as well as some of the best views in metro Phoenix.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8040. Follow her on Twitter @Catherinereagor.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral today.
