A rare and incredible opportunity to own a piece of history and a work of art has recently emerged in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Frank Lloyd Wright original, the “Buehler House,” recently hit the market with an asking price of $4,995,000. Designed in 1948 for Katherine and Maynard Buehler, the sellers are looking for the “Wright” buyer for this Orinda home, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in late 2006. The home features both modern architecture and Japanese traditional gardening, “with an eye toward both function and beauty.”
The home is described as “Usonian,” a word Frank Lloyd Wright used to refer to his vision for landscape in the US. The Buehler home was constructed with a steel frame, redwood paneling and handpicked cinder blocks, and possesses the Wright touches of a distinct flat roof, sloped ceilings, carports, and is organized on a modular grid system on an L-shaped plan. The sloped ceiling of the living roof has a gold leaf inset that is designed to reflect natural light. Wright also designed a few pieces of unique furniture specifically for the Buehler house, which can be seen in the listing photos. The main home is accompanied by a guest house, a Japanese tea house, a gazebo and a green house.
Built on 3.5 acres of land traversed by a small stream, the stunning grounds were landscaped by Henry Matsutani who did the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. The landscape is accented by two large terracotta statues from Xian, China.
Todd and Gretchen Scheid of Alain Pinel Realtors hold the listing
