Architecture Wednesday: Fawcett Farm

This is that rare combination of rural farm and a modern home … though this one is designed by Frank Lloyd Wright …in the Central California city of Los Banos; and you can have it all for$4.25 million.

The 1961-era home known as Fawcett Farms sits on 76 acres, but you won’t have to tend to the land; the working farm is leased to a neighbor who grows alfalfa on the land. But still t begs the question … how did FLW end up designing what is basically a farmhouse in California?

The original owners Randall “Buck” Fawcett and Harriet Fawcett met the legendary architect while taking courses at Stanford in the 1950s and subsequently persuaded Wright to draw up plans for a home on their family farm. In 1955 Wright produced the design and the home was completed in 1961, two years after Wright’s death in 1959, at the age of 91.

After the deaths of the original owners, the home was sold in 2012 for $1.6 million and the new owners completed a restoration of the house, upgrading everything inside and out. They wanted to keep the home as true to its origins as possible so they consulted Wright’s grandson Eric Lloyd Wright, and then the entire  project was overseen by Taliesin West—headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Association—architect Arthur Dyson.

The original design features many of Wright’s essential elements, including exterior concrete blocks, a horizontal roofline, and a copper covering, while the interior spaces connect with the exterior gardens through doors and walls of glass, and features the built-in furniture, seating, storage, and beds designed by Wright.

The gated, 4,041-square-foot residence has seven bedrooms and six baths. The open layout features a wall of glass doors and a 12-foot-wide fireplace in the main living and dining space. There’s also a family room, kitchen, and laundry room. The grounds contain a detached workshop, separate guest quarters, swimming pool, Japanese garden, and koi pond.

Fawcett Farms is possibly the only Frank Lloyd Wright farm, at least in California, and all the rarer because it needs no further restoration. Still, the rural locale could be a challenge for a buyer as Los Banos is about two hours from San Francisco and four hours from Los Angeles, but it is the perfect house for a Wright enthusiast.

Realtor