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John Lautner's Elrod House in Palm Springs Wants $10.5M

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The asking price for the Modernist masterpiece is $3.4 million less than its last list price

A stunning modernist home designed by John Lautner in 1969 is back on the market in Palm Springs. The famed Elrod House has just been listed for $10.49 million, according to The Spaces.

The famous home's beginnings can be traced to a simple request that noted interior designer Arthur Elrod made to architect John Lautner. Elrod left planning the home entirely to the famed architect, asking only that the architect "give me what you think I should have on this lot." With scarcely a directive to go by, Lautner went to work designing a concrete work of art.

The four-bedroom, 8,901-square-foot home sits on a .64 acre lot, and includes a detached guesthouse. These are the kinds of things that are noted when a standard home is put on the market, but since the Elrod House is less a home and more a lair, several unusual amenities must be noted.

The home itself is built into a Palm Springs hillside, using the naturally occurring boulders as walls, stairwells, and partitions. Its circular living room is essentially a massive open-air patio, with views looking out into the Coachella Valley, and a swimming pool that cannot truly be defined as indoor or outdoor. The wood-paneled master bedroom includes a fireplace, large bathroom with its tub sunk right into the floor, and even a stone platform designed to hold a television. Its kitchen has been modernized, there's a gym on site—the list goes on and on. But it's the pictures that truly sell the home.

If written descriptions and listing photos are a bit too run-of-the-mill, potential buyers can also take a tour of the home via this bikini babe fight scene from the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds are Forever.

The Elrod House spent a little time on the rental market in recent years, as part of the Southridge Club—a $100,000 per year, invite-only luxury villa club. Along with Michael P. Johnson's Boat House, and a Hugh Kaptur-designed home once owned by Steve McQueen, the Elrod home served as the anchor property of the elite rental club.

Southridge Club quickly went belly-up, and the Elrod House was put on the market in 2009 for $13.89 million, but was delisted in 2011. The asking price has been slashed $3.4 million since then, a perfect opportunity for any aspiring, but frugal Bond villain to swoop in and take it.

Elrod House

2175 Southridge Dr., Palm Springs, CA