Frank Lloyd Wright's "Kalil House"

Take a minute to admire this. 

In my mind, incredible doesn't even begin to describe it. Frank Lloyd Wright's "Kalil House" is one of my all-time favorite pieces of residential architecture. Maybe it's not your cup of tea, and I can understand that, but you just have to wonder: 

What would living in it be like? 

As it turns out, there's not much sense in wasting your time with that question-- odds are that neither you nor I will ever find out. The reason for that is the same reason why the Kalil House, one of Wright's great triumphs, was a complete failure.

The house was designed in his "Usonian Automatic" fashion, calling for concrete block modular construction. The idea behind this was that the building was simple to construct, like a home made of big Legos, and that the homeowners-to-be could work on it themselves to save money. In fact, almost every principle of the Usonian Automatic style was aimed toward designing inexpensive housing that families could build for themselves. Wright planned to eventually make it so easy that you could even cast your own concrete blocks and be your own contractor, forget about those skilled tradespeople. A noble idea perhaps, but ultimately a dream that never came true.

220 pounds. Each and every one of the estimated 4,800 concrete blocks in the house tipped the scales at a staggering 220 pounds (Dwell). So, almost immediately, we can say goodbye to the idea that your twee first time homeowners could put that together on their own. The construction of the Kalil House also called for a specialized machine that quickly formed the concrete blocks under pressure. This allowed them to build the home on a timeline shorter than... let's say forever. But what if you've got a bodybuilder sort of thing going on and you have all the time in the world? How much might you expect this project to run you? The Kalil House cost an estimated $70,000-- not bad, right? It sure sounds that way, until we remember that it was built in 1957. Adjusted for inflation, $70,000 from 1957 is worth...

$651,745.65. Oof.

It also just sold at auction for $850k, so we're not going to pick up an old one on sale either. And I would say that this is the single most important reason why Usonian Automatic houses never really caught on: Nobody could afford them. Despite all of his best intentions, Frank Lloyd Wright's promise to deliver cheap and cheerful housing for the masses never materialized. That's not to take away from his enormous contributions to the field and to society at large, the man is pure legend. If anything, it's almost nice that he never cracked the case. It just means that there's still a little glory to be had out there for the rest of us.