The last residential home designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright has finally been constructed, more than six decades after his death left the blueprints unfinished on his drawing board. The home, known as RiverRock House, was originally designed in the 1950s for art teacher Louis Penfield and was meant to be built around a small poplar tree on 30 acres of land in Willoughby, Ohio.
Wright, who was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, is widely regarded as one of the greatest architects of all time. Wisconsin is home to more than 40 of his buildings, making it a significant repository of his architectural legacy. When Wright died in 1959, he left behind the incomplete plans for the Willoughby home, which would become his final residential design.
The Penfield family never built the original house but kept the dream alive for decades, hoping that someone would eventually bring Wright's vision to reality. That opportunity came when Debbie and Sarah Dykstra, a mother-daughter team, purchased the Ohio property and committed to completing the home while staying as true to Wright's original design as possible. "To take this piece of art and have them change it would be very hurtful," Sarah Dykstra explained during an interview on the Magnolia Network.
The construction process presented unique challenges, particularly regarding the poplar tree that was central to Wright's design. The house was specifically designed to sit roughly 60 degrees off the particular poplar tree on the property. "Seventy years ago, it would have been fun, but because we were doing it now, the design created a problem with the roots," Debbie Dykstra explained. "We were afraid we were going to lose the tree. But this house sits right on this particular piece of land because of that poplar tree and we decided to make the build as authentic as possible."
The financial scope of the project had dramatically changed since Wright's original estimate. While the architect's 1959 budget was $25,000, Sarah Dykstra noted that today "maybe [that would cover] the door." She described the final cost as "less than our first construction bid, but a lot more than 1959," reflecting the significant inflation in construction costs over the decades.
The completed RiverRock House showcases Wright's distinctive architectural philosophy, featuring 18-foot windows that create a seamless indoor-outdoor experience. Debbie Dykstra, now 74, explained her attraction to Wright's work: "If you look at the way he built things versus the way things are built today, it's completely different. There's no other architect like him around ever. As far as the inside-outside design, he did it first." She noted that when sitting in the house with its massive windows, "I feel like I'm sitting outside. But you don't feel the weather change."
Sarah Dykstra was drawn to different aspects of Wright's design aesthetic, particularly "those straight lines, the glass, the rock" that characterize his architectural style. She expressed amazement at Wright's forward-thinking approaches, including "his philosophies and the compression and release, the passive solar energy systems that he built in the house." She wondered, "How on earth in the 1950s did he think of some of these things?"
The 14-month construction journey has been documented in a new Magnolia Network show called "The Last Wright: Building the Final Home Design of America's Greatest Architect," which premiered this month and is available for streaming on HBO Max. The show captures the challenges and triumphs of bringing Wright's final residential vision to life.
Being filmed for television added an unexpected dimension to the project for the Dykstra family. "I'm 74 and this definitely was the strangest part of my entire life," Debbie Dykstra reflected. She established ground rules for the filming process, insisting on no more than three takes per scene and maintaining authenticity rather than scripted dialogue. "It was a strange situation but our whole family was involved at some point or another and that was very exciting to have them forever be remembered."
The house, which features Wright's pioneering great room concept and incorporates natural materials like stone fireplaces, was completed in January 2023. The RiverRock House is now available for people to rent, allowing visitors to experience Wright's architectural genius firsthand. This completion represents not just the fulfillment of a decades-old dream, but also a testament to Wright's enduring influence on American architecture and design philosophy.
