Property of the week: Frank Lloyd Wright’s mushroom-like Sol Friedman House

Experimental utopian design

A futuristic Usonia home by Frank Lloyd Wright has just hit the market in New York for $1.5m.

The Sol Friedman House was built in 1948 for a retailer of books, records and toys (earning it the nickname ‘Toyhill’), and is just one of three properties Wright built in the experimental midcentury modern town, close to the village of Pleasantville.

Positioned on top of a slope cocooned by trees, the New York property has fortress-like stone elevations in the form of two intersecting circles and extensive oak detailing. It is a classic example of Wright’s talent for combining natural materials and organic shapes to connect a building to its natural surroundings.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s mushroom-like Sol Friedman House
Via Houlihan Lawrence

Now on the market via Houlihan Lawrence, the 2,164 sq ft house features a double-height circular living space which has a ‘sense of movement… [and] is not unlike a tree house floating in the woods’, according to the agent. Its central stone column, which features a large fireplace and supports an open-tread spiral staircase and the upper floor, echoes the forest.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s mushroom-like Sol Friedman House
Via Houlihan Lawrence

Attuned to the elements, the three-bedroom time capsule house has wide, metal-framed windows shaded by overhanging roof lines and views of foliage from most rooms. Original built-in furnishings, fixtures and fittings custom made by Wright, and a mushroom-like concrete carport, are also original.

But it’s not the only property on the market in Usonia right now: Houlihan Lawrence is also selling Anderson House for $725,000, designed by engineer David Henken. He co-established the experimental architectural community with Lloyd Wright and Aaron Resnik.

Read next: John Lautner’s Tolstoy House hits the market in California

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