
FOR THE PRICE OF A PERFECTLY ORDINARY Brooklyn brownstone, you can get a 16-room, 6,100-square-foot house designed by none other than America’s arguably most important architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s the Isidore Heller house in Chicago’s Hyde Park, which has hit the market with a $2.5 million price tag.

Wright would no doubt by horrified by how the current owners have filled the place with tchatchkes. Hopefully someone more tastefully deserving will come along to buy the 7-bedroom house, with its 33 stained glass windows, four fireplaces, and a working elevator.

The house is a classic example of Wright’s signature Prairie Style, though with higher ceilings and larger rooms than many he designed in that period.

It seems to me that Chicago is under-priced, and Wright’s work generally undervalued. What do you say?


4 comments
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February 14, 2012 at 10:22 pm
Richard E. Hughes
Great house!
February 15, 2012 at 2:28 am
montrose morris
What a fascinating house! You can certainly see the Sullivan in the design, and it’s very transitional inside, between Arts & Crafts and Wright’s later Prairie Style. Which makes all of the Victorian furniture, and all of the stuff in there really so wrong. They didn’t “listen” to the house at all, even though it’s decent furniture and art, in of itself. It would have been much better suited to the house next door.
Relatively “cheap” compared to NYC. How cool!
February 15, 2012 at 5:27 am
Joe Kunkel
I agree! A great value. And you could live near Obama’s house, the FLLW Robie house, and the University of Chicago. Let me know if you want to come to tour it in person! You already know I’m a Realtor specializing in great architecture in Chicago! :-)
February 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Harriet
According to my Chicago pal, the house is just two blocks from the Obamas’ house. (All that Secret Service activity.) And Wright houses are notorious for their costly upkeep. The price may be right, but the amount of money required to maintain it….
I’m going to pass on this one, Cara.