Its owners are hoping to sell the house before Nov. 7, when the City Council is scheduled to vote on giving it landmark status, which they oppose. Though they agree that the house ought to be saved — “The property is gorgeous,” Mr. Sells said in its master bedroom one morning — they say they must first safeguard their investment, as well as their livelihood.
“If it becomes a landmark,” Mr. Sells said, “we’re out of business.”
— nytimes.com
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"I’m going to wait three years,” he said, interlacing his fingers behind his neck as he slouched on the orange cushions of the master bedroom’s seating area. “Then I’m going to knock it down to recoup my losses.”"
Good to know that the owners intend to demo it no matter what if they cannot sell....
“Does the house deserve landmark status? Yes. This place needs to be preserved,” he said. “But when three Wright granddaughters sell it for $2.8 million, for me to carry the cross for Frank Lloyd Wright, that’s not fair.”
not fair? you just said it 'deserve(s) landmark status' and 'needs to be preserved'. what the hell is your problem?
In Arizona, where ownership rights are strong, granting a property landmark status shields it from development or destruction for only three years. So if the Council approves the request, something else might happen, Mr. Sells said.
then what's the point of landmark status in arizona? or do they go through this every three years with a property? bah!
Mr. Sells, 50, a technology entrepreneur, said he had no idea of its significance, or of the difference “between Frank Lloyd Wright and the Wright brothers.”
Fucking amateurs. Any developer worth a damn does his due diligence before shelling out cash.
“I grew up in Idaho rodeoing,” he said. “We had no money.”
That is...just too funny.
“I’ll move in, invite everybody to come in and take their pictures, and I’m going to wait three years,” he said, interlacing his fingers behind his neck as he slouched on the orange cushions of the master bedroom’s seating area. “Then I’m going to knock it down to recoup my losses.”
...and then hopefully someone knocks this asshole down in an (admittedly futile) effort to recoup our cultural losses. Seriously, someone should knock the teeth out of rodeo boy, then maybe he'd understand there are things bigger than him.
Yo!
So how to make a killing in real-estate?
1 buy at a bargain an iconic or historic landmark
2 double the price
3 threaten to tear it down essentially holding it for ransom
This guy has a guaranteed seller at one million more than he bought it for and possibly within less than a year. He had a demolition permit for a month and did nothing? It takes a week to knock down a building the size of a house if that. We are all playing into his game and either way he wins two sellable lots or a flip with-out doing much work.
Declare it a historic landmark. In fact declare much more that's lying fallow before another similarly enterprenurial fellow decides to delete more of our heritage. Unfortunatley you're probably hear some nonsense about "hording" but move forward, not every inch of land needs to be monetized.
Peter has a point, suckers.
In fact declare much more that's lying fallow before another similarly enterprenurial fellow decides to delete more of our heritage.
Except Frank Llyod Wright and his Usonian movement did more to delete history and raze much of the historic United States down to the ground than basically any other of his contemporaries with the exception of Le Corbusier.
I could care less about the legacy of Wright and the weird double-standard of preserving his projects.
Huh? Deleting history? Wright created his role in history. I was unaware of the vast parts of American history Wright "razed down to the ground". Just the opposite, he created an American Architecture.
If it gets torn down, maybe the FLW copiers can build over it.
Becasue the world is separated betewen those who copy and those who are original. Simple!
wtf is that guys name really mr. sells...
Wow, I (unfortunately) have too much experience with how ass-backward Arizona is, but seriously?! LANDMARK STATUS only lasts for THREE YEARS?!?! What the hell is a "landmark" to these people? What is even the point of that at all? For a state with so little in the way of landmarks to recommend itself, you'd think they'd at least try to hold on to the few they've already got. It doesn't make "big government" to say this one lone little building shouldn't be demolished, ever.
Anyway if the state was run by actual intelligent capitalists instead of reactionaries, they'd recognize that part of what gives Scottsdale its cachet is Taliesin West - no small tourist draw in its own right. Scottsdale was little more than a dusty few streets when FLW began his paeans to the beauty of Arizona. For all the good he's done the state's tourism industry, you'd think they'd be smart enough to recognize a money-making possibility when they see one. The warm climate properties of his require less maintenance, too.
First of all, the three year rule only applies to the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation office, not the state of Arizona. This isn't a National Historic Landmark designation, and owned and maintained by the state department and federal government. And yeah, as previous NYT coverage has mentioned, previous amendments have limited the language and impact that "landmark" status has from city designation.
That's not to say preservationists can't nominate it for the state and national historic register in order to get tax credits and benefits. But unless its owned and operated by the government, there's nothing really to be done to protect it from being knocked down in the end. Preservation is always a tough battle to fight because of the protection of property rights in this country. If the FLW building conservatory, or any other private entity wants to buy it outright, that's fine. But the state or government can't seize property, no matter how important FLW properties have been
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