MAHOPAC - A house designed by the late architect Frank Lloyd Wright has just been completed - 56 years after he laid out the blueprints.
The plans for the one-story house on a 10-acre private island in Lake Mahopac, about 50 miles north of New York, were drawn up in 1951 for a previous owner of the property but stayed rolled up in a desk drawer until the current owner, Joseph Massaro, decided four years ago to make them a reality.
Massaro, a heating and air-conditioning contractor, bought Petra Island for $750,000 in 1995 with ideas of erecting the house, with its characteristic Wright touches - natural stone, glass and a cantilevered 60-foot deck extending into the lake.
“If Frank Lloyd Wright were alive today, it would look as it does today,” Massaro told The Journal News for Sunday's editions.
That means 27 skylights, imprinted copper panels with a Wright-designed triangular motif, hand-built stone walls and a large rock - dubbed the “whale rock” by Massaro - that extends from the front door into a library and living room and has its tail in a guest room shower.
Wright was noted for integrating natural features into his designs, the most famous example being his Fallingwater House, which straddles a waterfall in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Wright died in 1959 at age 91, having earned a reputation as the greatest of American architects.
His other notable works included Tokyo's Imperial Hotel and New York's Guggenheim Museum.
The Mahopac house was one of 400 Wright designs that were never built and possibly the only one at a specific location that the architect himself had visited, the newspaper said.
Massaro said the only changes from the original blueprints for the Mahopac residence were to increase the concrete's structural stability and comply with modern building codes. Wright-designed cabinets conceal a 64-inch television and a state-of-the-art sound system.
Massaro, a heating and air-conditioning contractor, bought Petra Island for $750,000 in 1995 with ideas of erecting the house, with its characteristic Wright touches - natural stone, glass and a cantilevered 60-foot deck extending into the lake.
“If Frank Lloyd Wright were alive today, it would look as it does today,” Massaro told The Journal News for Sunday's editions.
That means 27 skylights, imprinted copper panels with a Wright-designed triangular motif, hand-built stone walls and a large rock - dubbed the “whale rock” by Massaro - that extends from the front door into a library and living room and has its tail in a guest room shower.
Wright was noted for integrating natural features into his designs, the most famous example being his Fallingwater House, which straddles a waterfall in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Wright died in 1959 at age 91, having earned a reputation as the greatest of American architects.
His other notable works included Tokyo's Imperial Hotel and New York's Guggenheim Museum.
The Mahopac house was one of 400 Wright designs that were never built and possibly the only one at a specific location that the architect himself had visited, the newspaper said.
Massaro said the only changes from the original blueprints for the Mahopac residence were to increase the concrete's structural stability and comply with modern building codes. Wright-designed cabinets conceal a 64-inch television and a state-of-the-art sound system.
