A treasured Frank Lloyd Wright home once resided in by the architect himself has sold for a reported $6 million in suburban New Canaan, Connecticut. The house is one of Wright’s largest designs and was purchased for $2 million below the original $8 million asking price that was published with its first listing in June 2023.
Tirranna House was originally built for the local Rayward family in 1955 and features seven bedrooms with eight full bathrooms in a horseshoe plan covering some 7,861 square feet on 14 acres of land. It has had just four owners in the subsequent 70 years, according to Robb Report. Wright lived in the home during the construction of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York after 1956 and incorporated some of the same clerestory windows used in the museum’s design into the home’s greenhouse, which is joined by a guest residence, five-car garage, converted wine cellar, and barn.
Featuring a lively palette of Philippine mahogany wall panels and red corundum concrete floors, the home is designed with many of the same elements (built-in furnishings, a low-slung roof, large windows, radiant heating, and concrete block walls) that were characteristic of the Usonian style used by Wright until the late 50s.
The home had previously been sold in 2018 for $4.8 million.
Previous owners have issued several renovations to add an extension and rooftop observatory to the property. The main volume cantilevers over a reflecting pond that backs into the circular patio and L-shaped living room. Frank Okamura was responsible for the home’s landscaping, following his influential work at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden the decade prior. Also notable at the site are three small bridges Wright designed as private crossings for the nearby Noroton River.
'Tirranna' is the Australian Aboriginal term for “running waters,” imparting the infusion of nature and architecture that was a central part of Wright's vision for Fallingwater and other similar designs.
The house's new owners are now planning to spend “millions of dollars” on further restorations, according to broker Albert Safdie. They will be joined by the future caretakers of another coveted Wright design, the 1929 Westhope home, which went on the market recently in Oklahoma for $8 million.
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