The John B. Storer House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's four Southern California textile block houses, has just hit the market for the first time since 2000, when Die Hard producer Joel Silver sold it to an architecture-loving couple with Microsoft ties. The house was built in 1923 for Storer, a Wisconsin surgeon "who turned to real estate after failing the California medical examination," according to Big Orange Landmarks; Frank's son Lloyd Wright supervised construction and designed the landscaping. FLW''s Mayanish textile block houses are made up of concrete blocks, each imprinted with a pattern--unlike the others, the Storer has four different patterns. (Quick roundup on the other three: La Miniatura in Pasadena has been on and off the market for years, the Freeman House in the Hills belongs to USC, supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle bought the Ennis House in Los Feliz last year.)
Storer sold the house in 1927 and it was briefly rented to Rudolph Schindler's wife Pauline. FLW made a few alterations in the 1930s, Lloyd Wright oversaw a partial restoration in the 1970s, and then Silver bought the house in 1984. He gave it a thorough and sensitive restoration and added a pool that had been in the original plans. He sold the house in 2002 for $2.9 million. The listing today is classily stark, just one old photo and a quote from architecture critic Sally Woodbridge (if you're interested in this house at all, you don't need a sales pitch). Asking price is $6.9 million.
· 8161 HOLLYWOOD [Redfin]
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