After two years of updates, a Usonian home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Kalamazoo, MI, is ready for its next owner.
Like Wright’s other Usonians, it’s a ranch style with horizontal lines throughout. Other design hallmarks include radiant-heat concrete flooring, a cantilevered carport, low-pitched roof with generous overhangs, and built-in furnishings and shelving.
It’s one of just two homes in Michigan that Wright designed using his diamond-shaped module. The masterful architect is known for some of the country’s greatest design feats, such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum.
And get this: Priced at $790,000, it’s the lowest-priced Wright-designed home on the market right now. The property is listed with with Fred Taber, of Jaqua Realtors.
“In the current market of Frank Lloyd Wright homes, you take the size of the house and the condition, I think it’s priced where it should be,” Taber says.
This is the third Wright-designed home he has listed in the state. The other two are adjacent properties in Galesburg, MI, that can be purchased together for $4.5 million.
Angular abode
There are four bedrooms and two baths in the 1,671-square-foot dwelling, which sits on just over an acre. Known as the McCartney House, it was completed in 1950 within Parkwyn Village, a subdivision that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
Despite plans to erect 41 Wright-designed homes in a natural setting for researchers at Upjohn, a local pharmaceutical company, only four were built.
Ward and Helen McCartney resided in the home for 54 years.
Improved interior
The sellers, who were the sixth owners when they bought the home in 2021 for $425,000, embarked on improvements a year later. The renovation included the addition of air conditioning and custom-carpentry updates to replicate Wright’s original interior design.
“They’re great stewards of the home,” Taber says. “They’re in Texas and don’t get to come to the home as often as they can. They bought it sight unseen.”
The next owners could continue the architecture’s restoration, particularly by improving the look of the concrete blocks, he adds.
“The McCartney doesn’t have the block staining,” Taber notes. “If someone would do that, it would significantly increase the value of the home.”
He adds that the windows might also need to be replaced, and one of the two baths could stand to be updated. Even then, the place is in solid shape as is.
“Everything else is very well done,” Taber says. “It’s intact.”
The sellers worked with Lee Doezema, carpenter and Wright restorationist, to replace the doors that lead to the patio.
Furnishings designed by Wright (including a coffee table and dining table), as well as the home’s blueprints, convey with the sale.
“Some of the stuff was taken out when the McCartneys moved,” Taber says. “It’s pretty minimal on the furnishings.”
Despite its scenic setting, the home is just a seven-minute drive from downtown Kalamazoo. It’s also 1.5 miles to Western Michigan University, and it borders Asylum Lake Preserve.
So, what kind of buyer is Taber targeting?
“This is going to be someone who wants a Frank Lloyd Wright home,” he says. “I feel like that buyer’s coming from Chicago, Detroit, South Bend, or Grand Rapids. That’s probably more likely than a local buyer, but I’m not ruling it out.”
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