who built what where near?

June 5, 2008 2:14 PM

How can I find houses by interesting architects in my area? It seems like every couple of months I come across a story about someone who bought a house that was designed by a frank lloyd wright 3rd gen second cousin disciple.

How can I find out what interesting architects have built around me and where those houses are? I'm already noting interesting properties in case they ever come up for sale via the drive by method, but I'd like to know what else is there that I'm missing. I see these stories and they're always to houses I'd never seen or noticed. Recent architects are easy since I can visit their websites and see the projects they've done. I'm more interested in the 20, 30, 40, 50+ year old homes. I'm in the Oklahoma City area.

posted by striker to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

You might check the National Register of Historic Places (and your local/state equivalent, if there is one).
posted by kickingtheground at 2:20 PM on June 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I've done that as well; it pointed me to some neighborhoods but not much else.
posted by striker at 2:52 PM on June 5, 2008

Check with the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. They'll probably know who the significant architects were in your time periods, and may know of surviving examples of their work. Then you just have to wait until one comes on the market.

Ask them also for names of realtors who are familiar with historical residential architecture in town. They're always looking for potential buyers to market to when new things come on the market.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 2:52 PM on June 5, 2008

Your local historical society probably has someone that you could hobnob with regarding local architecture. I would keep in mind that the "signature" architecture you seem drawn to is rare compared to local architects just doing fairly good work in contemporary styles. For one thing, most people want a house they can actually live in, as opposed to one that's a conversation piece. What you may want to do is become more familiar with certain architectural styles to the point where you can appreciate what may initially seem more pedestrian work.

Regarding the Wright angle (heh), it's funny that he's the one architect with nearly universal name recognition, but he was an iconoclast in his time and very few architects directly imitated him. He innovated a number of techniques that became standard (the toilet partition that doesn't go all the way to the floor, for example, to make cleaning the floors easier), and arguably his Prairie Style led indirectly to the American Ranch Style home, but even his conscious attempts to create a mass-market house was a notorious failure. You'll still find more Sears homes than anything closely resembling a Wright design, except in the limited circumstances where the Taliesin influence was sought after and made overt.
posted by dhartung at 3:32 PM on June 5, 2008

There is one FLW house in Oklahoma; it's in Bartlesville. See list here by location.

If you have an interest in buying an older house of architectural merit, the best way to keep tabs is probably to acquaint a good Realtor with exactly what you're looking for, and have him/her keep you appraised, as a buyer's agent, as they come on the market. This shouldn't cost you a cent, since commissions are usually split between seller's and buyer's agents.
posted by beagle at 7:09 PM on June 5, 2008

Two sites:
oldhouses.com: historic real estate properties
also, my favorite: architectureforsale.com
posted by media_itoku at 8:11 PM on June 5, 2008