Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house and heart-shaped private island ask $15M upstate
This private island upstate in Putnam County has an incredible backstory and stunning home (it’s also located just 15 minutes by plane from Manhattan, via the houses’s rooftop helipad), and it’s up for grabs at an ask of $14.92 million. Mansion Global shared the tale of how a Frank Lloyd Wright home, designed by the architect to rival his iconic Fallingwater, ended up on the grounds of this 11-acre, heart-shaped property known as Petra Island. Not only does it employ Wright’s signature cantilevering and series of outdoor terraces, but inside, there are giant stone boulders jutting into spaces from the living room to the shower stalls.
Back in 1995, sheet metal mogul Joe Massaro purchased the island for $750,000 when it only held a triangular-shaped three-bedroom cottage with redwood ceilings. The island’s previous owner had commissioned the modest property from Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950. That inspired Massaro to build, with the help of architect Thomas Heinz, the main residence Wright had drawn up plans for but never built–a home designed to rival his iconic Fallingwater property in Pennsylvania.
Though local zoning laws prohibited the cantilevered house from jutting directly out over the water, the town eventually decided to approve the project as Wright designed it. In the middle of the winter, a team transported all the building materials over the frozen lake.
The main residence is triangular in shape, like the original cottage. The cottage was fully restored in the construction process, as well, and it’s now kept by the owner as a kind of museum. It even holds a retro 1950s kitchen.
Wright fanatics will swoon over details that the architect is known for, particularly integrating the landscape into the design. There’s a massive geometric skylight over the center of the house, and the interior incorporates “desert masonry,” a technique Wright devised that incorporates chunks of exposed rock in concrete walls. One large boulder “bursts into the kitchen and central living space,” according to Mansion Global.
Large windows line the cantilevered portion of the home, which makes the property feel like it hangs over the water like a ship.
The main residence, completed in 2007, has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms with sculptural rock and rich wood details throughout.
Even the bathroom brings the island’s rocky outcroppings inside.
The home has plentiful outdoor space, with wrap-around terraces and spacious patios. Architecture that showcases such stunning views of nature is another classic element of Wright’s designs, particularly Fallingwater. The previous owner of this property asked Wright to create “his masterpiece” for the main residence but claimed he ran out of money to build it after the architect drew up the plans.
A helipad on the roof facilitates that 15-minute flight into Manhattan.
And in case you were wondering if the island is truly heart shaped, here’s proof. Besides the two Wright properties, this incredible retreat holds an additional guest house, tea house, and dock. If you’re like us and can’t get enough of the property, there are additional images in the gallery to drool over.
[Via Mansion Global]
[Listing: Petra Island by Chilton & Chadwick]
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- 10 things you never knew about Frank Lloyd Wright
- Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater lookalike asks $3.5M in Greenwich, CT
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Photos courtesy of Chilton & Chadwick
