Frank Lloyd Wright’s former home in New York’s famed Plaza, where the respected American architect spent five years supervising the construction of his iconic Guggenheim Museum, is back for sale.
The “rare and extraordinary” four-bedroom corner condo, located in the Plaza Private Residences, was listed on Wednesday for $18.9 million, according to a StreetEasy listing update. The news was first reported by 6sqft.
The unit was last purchased in 2009, during the global recession, for $13 million. The owners undertook four years of gut renovations by architect Louis Lisboa of VL Architects and interior designer Susanna Maggard. The home listed again in 2015, that time for $39.5 million, which dropped to $26 million in 2016.
The Post previously reported on the Plaza’s uptick in available units and decline in prices over the years.
The unit boasts the highest ceilings in the building and stunning views, said Charlie Attias of Compass, the lead broker on the listing. Attias has handled dozens of sales at the Plaza since it was turned into a condo-hotel in 2008.
The apartment boasts luxury amenities like a chef’s kitchen with Viking appliances, marble bathrooms and expansive closet space. Its 4,000 square feet are encompassed by 13-foot ceilings with sweeping views of Central Park and Fifth Avenue.
The condo was featured more than once in Architectural Digest, showing off its Venetian plaster walls, custom moldings and mosaic tilework.
The Guggenheim Museum was one of Wright’s most famous projects, but the architect would not get to see its completion. He died just six months before the museum opened in October 1959.
Wright and his wife, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, took over their Plaza suite from another famous tenant, “Gone with the Wind” producer David O. Selznick, according to “Wright and New York,” by Anthony Alofsin. The couple exactingly redesigned the condo in 1945, in which they removed “the last vestiges of French detailing by Christian Dior,” Alofsin wrote.
It was at the Plaza that Wright unveiled his museum design to the public in 1945. The building’s unique spiral design evoked a utopian parking deck. Wright proudly declared that the spring-like structure could survive an atom bomb, according to Alofsin, with Wright claiming, “It may be blown a few miles up in the air, but when it comes down it will bounce.”
During their 1954 to 1959 tenure in the Plaza suite, Wright and his wife reportedly held court with the likes of newlyweds Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, as well as King Faisal II of Iraq, according to “Frank Lloyd Wright in New York – The Plaza Years,” by Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel.
Residents at the Plaza Private Residences enjoy the hotel’s 5-star amenities, like 24-hour in-room dining and twice-a-day housekeeping.
A total of 29 units at the Plaza Residences are listed for sale on StreetEasy, including a $900,000 loft, for more budget-conscious buyers.
