Frank Lloyd Wright’s Most Vibrant Home? Famed Architect’s First-Ever Usonian Automatic Lists in Phoenix for $5 Million

Frank Lloyd Wright fans are being offered the rare opportunity to own one of the famed architect's most significant residential properties in the form of a colorful Arizona abode that was the first-ever Usonian Automatic he designed.

Located on a leafy street in Phoenix, the property, which was built for Benjamin Adelman, a man for who the dwelling is now named, flaunts a kind of edgy rock-star appeal rarely seen in other Wright designs.

The home's grey exterior and vibrant red-framed windows have turned it into something of a local attraction, according to Jan Kabbani, who is co-listing the property with Oleg Bortman, both with The Brokery.

“I’ve been in the business 26 years and I love unique properties," Kabbani notes. "This is the most unique property I’ve ever listed in my career.”

On the market for the first time in more than 20 years, the distinctive dwelling is asking $4.95 million—almost four times the price it sold for in 2004, when the current owners snapped it up for $1.27 million.

Prior to that purchase in the early 2000s, the home had only changed hands on two other occasions: first in 1996, when it sold for $710,000, then again in 2003, when it was picked up for $1.2 million.

Wright originally designed the home in 1951 for Benjamin and his wife, Regina Adelman, and while it has since undergone some alterations, it bears many of the hallmarks of the architect's signature style.

Among the more iconic features are a carport—which has since been transformed into a closed space—an abundance of windows (438 in total), and elegant wooden accents that help to add a natural feel to the interior.

Cast concrete blocks, a hallmark of Wright's Usonian Automatic designs, installed to capture light and shadows, further the layers of design this home can showcase. There is also a floor-to-ceiling fireplace in the living room, a common feature in Wright’s homes, and another fireplace in one of the bedrooms.

More recent updates include the addition of a six-car garage on the property.

Beyond the main four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom residence, there are also two guest houses located on the property, which spans an impressive 1.67 acres inside the Alta Vista Estates subdivision, near the Arizona Biltmore resort.

"This house is actually two parcels," says Kabbani. "The second parcel is where the guest houses were built."

What's more, the dwelling is perched just steps away from the 18th hole of the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club's links course.

For those more interested in history than hitting golf balls, the dwelling boasts a very impressive heritage that extends far beyond Arizona.

The home has a family connection to another Usonian home Wright designed, 1,800 miles away in a Milwaukee suburb.

Built in 1948, that property is named for Albert and Edith Adelman, having been built for Benjamin’s son and daughter-in-law in Fox Point, Wisconsin. Benjamin founded a laundry and dry-cleaning business in the Milwaukee area and, like Wright, split his time between Wisconsin and Arizona.

Set on 1.67 acres, the property includes mature desert-style landscaping, fruit trees and artificial turf.

In 2018, the home, per the listing description, was “thoughtfully enhanced with modern updates.”

Based on photos, it’s apparent that this work extended to the kitchen, which features a waterfall marble island, as well as in the baths. One includes a free-standing soaking tub and a large walk-in tiled shower.

Known locally as "the house with the red windows," Kabbani says, it's a Wright home that most people appreciate, even if they haven't been inside it.

To find a buyer, in addition to the usual methods, she's marketing through Arizona Biltmore, a resort with an architectural style (textile block construction) similar to that of Wright's, in part because the architect responsible for that project, Albert Chase McArthur, studied under him.

Like Oak Park, IL, where Wright kept a family home that included his studio, Phoenix is a city where the famed architect received many commissions for private homes.

It was also a region in which he spent a lot of time, establishing a winter home at Taliesin West in Scottsdale in the 1930s, and then dividing his time between that estate and Taliesin in Spring Green, WI, until his death in 1959.