Rob Bear, Curbed National
curbed
Back before 2008, houses by famed midcentury architects were selling thick and fast. The auction house Wright sold a Pierre Konig-designed Case Study house in L.A. for $3.185M in 2006 and in '07 dropped the hammer on a $1.16M sale of Marcel Breuer's Wolfson House.
Esherick House in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia.
That record took a hit in '08, when this petite structure designed by Louis Kahn failed to sell at auction. Now, the house, located in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood, has been wallowing on the market with a price tag of $1.9M.
Interior glass wall of Esherick House.
The design icon might be considered less than livable by buyers — there's just one bedroom and 1.5 baths in the 2,700 square feet — but we'd think the style and provenance would be enough to find this place a buyer, to say nothing of the built-in bookcases that nearly reach the ceiling, a rear double-height wall of wood and glass, fireplace in the main bathroom, and a custom kitchen designed by Philadelphia-based sculptor Wharton Esherick, uncle of Margaret Esherick, who commissioned the dwelling from Kahn.
Plus, it's just around the corner from another midcentury masterpiece, Robert Venturi's Vanna Venturi House.
(Photos courtesy of Todd Eberle)
160 comments