The original plans and site are still for sale Considered the final residential design Frank Lloyd Wright completed before his death on April 5, 1959, the unbuilt Riverrock Home was the second commission Wright finished for Ohioan Louis Penfield. The unrealized project also offers Wright fans a unique chance to not only own, but to construct, their own bit of architectural history: the original plans, and the specific land for which they were designed, are both still for sale.
Riverrock was to be a sibling of sorts to the 1955 Penfield Home, a private residence in in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, that?s one of the rare Wright residences available for rent. Louis?s son, Paul, said visitors book nearly 300 nights a year, with rates starting at $275 a night. While it?s one of a number of Usonian designs Wright created throughout his lifetime, the home also breaks a few rules. Designed to accommodate Louis, a 6-foot-8-inch high school art teacher who Wright said was ?tall as a weed,? the residence, now on the National Register, features a 12-foot high ceiling and floating stairs without risers. These details give the interior a sense of openness and vertical space rarely found in relatively compact Wright homes. Paul later restored the home and helped finish a series of built-ins initially designed by Wright, but left unfinished during initial construction due to cost overruns.

Designed for a perch atop a rise near the Chagrin River across from the ex...