Petra island, an 11-acre private island located 50 miles north of New York City, and its two Frank Lloyd Wright–attributed properties are listed by international luxury real estate agency Chilton & Chadwick for just under $15 million.
The story goes that in 1949, an engineer named Ahmed Chahroudi purchased the island and commissioned Wright to design a single-family residence for him and his family. Wright initially sketched a 5,000-square-foot residence, and estimated that it would cost $50,000. Chahroudi, who could not afford the price tag, negotiated a smaller 1,200-square-foot house instead. Wright then designed and built a three-bedroom, one-bath cottage between 1951 and 1953—known as the Chahroudi Cottage.
Although Wright never built his initial design for the island's main residence—a house that he believed could outpace his famous Fallingwater—a similar house did come into existence 48 years after the architect's death. In 1996, sheet metal contractor Joseph Massaro and his wife Barbara purchased the island, which came with the Chahroudi Cottage as well as Wright’s five original drawings of the unbuilt larger residence, “including a floor plan with ideas for built-in and stand-alone furniture, a building section, and three elevations,” writes Elsa Brenner in a 2004 New York Times article. Massaro was renovating the cottage when he got the idea to build the main residence from Wright's drawings. Since Massaro could not afford construction supervision charges proposed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, he commissioned architect and Wright historian Thomas Heinz to oversee the construction.
After four years, the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom single-family Massaro House was completed in 2007. Although Massaro went out of his way to stay true to Wright’s original design, many think he failed in delivering a true Wrightian design. These arguments erupt mostly over details and aesthetic characteristics of the house that critics say are in conflict with Wight's style. “Frank Lloyd Wright rarely built exactly what was drawn on paper," says Stuart Graff, president and CEO of Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. "Indeed, the essence of his work was to respond to conditions, materials, and opportunities that came about as a result of the specific site for which any design was uniquely drawn. There was an evolution of the design during construction.” Despite the ongoing debates over the authenticity of the house, some believe a Wrightian spirit can still be felt in the house.
As with many of Wright's works, the design of the main residence was site-specific. He incorporated a rock formation into the main entrance foyer, kitchen, and one of the bathrooms. The house features a cantilevered deck that suspends over the Lake Mahopac, and a rooftop helipad. Twenty-six triangular skylight windows create a light-filled interior, and a panoramic row of windows offers an exceptional view of the lake, blending together indoor and outdoor spaces. The house is furnished mostly with Wright-designed furniture, including built-in pieces, but has been upgraded with a modern climate-control system that did not exist at the time of the original design.
