Private heart-shaped island with Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes can be yours for $12.9M

Perhaps the perfect gift for your Modernist Valentine, this private island in Carmel, NY (15 minutes by air from Manhattan via rooftop helipad) has an interesting backstory and boasts a Frankly Lloyd Wright-designed house that rivals his iconic Fallingwater. 6sqft reported on the property when it was previously listed in 2017; Curbed reports that it’s back on the market for $12.9 million. In addition to the amazing home featuring Wright’s signature cantilevering and outdoor terraces outside and massive stone boulders within, the 11-acre, heart-shaped property known as Petre Island boasts a Wright-designed guest cottage.

The island’s remarkable homes include the original 1950s guest house and a spectacular four-bedroom main residence cantilevered over 593-acre Lake Mahopac. A second guest house, tea house, beach, dock and the aforementioned helipad comprise this unique property located one hour north of New York City.

You’re assured plenty of privacy once you get here: The island is accessible only by helicopter, plane or a five-minute boat trip from the mainland.

In 1949, then-owner, engineer Ahmed Chahroudi, hired Wright to design a 5,000-square-foot house; due to lack of funding for the project, Wright ended up building only a smaller 1,200-square-foot cottage on the property.

In 1995, sheet metal mogul Joe Massaro purchased the island for $750,000. The triangular-shaped three-bedroom cottage with redwood ceilings inspired Massaro to build, with the help of architect and Wright scholar Thomas Heinz, the main residence according to the detailed set of plans that Wright had drawn up.

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 home was completed in 2007–but not without controversy:The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has refused to recognize the 8,415-square-foot home as an authentic Wright design.

The main residence is triangular in shape, like the original cottage. The cottage was painstakingly restored to Wright standards as well. It even boasts an authentic-looking 1950s kitchen.

Wright fanatics will delight in the details found here, particularly the way the landscape is integrated 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.

The main residence, completed in 2007, has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths with sculptural rock and rich wood details throughout.

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.

In addition to the two Wright properties, this incredible retreat holds an additional guest house, tea house, and dock. Can’t get enough? You’ll find plenty of images in the gallery below.

[Via Curbed]

[Listing: 1 Petre Island by Margaret Harrington for Douglas Elliman]

RELATED:

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• 10 things you never knew about Frank Lloyd Wright
• Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater lookalike asks $3.5M in Greenwich, CT
• A tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright’s built, unbuilt, and demolished New York works

Images courtesy of Douglas Elliman.