Construction recently finished on a new Frank Lloyd Wright house in Willoughby Hills, which is news not least of which because the famed architect died in 1959.
“RiverRock,” as it’s called, is something of a miracle, as well as a passion project, and the story of what the owners say is Wright’s last residential home design is fascinating.
Back in the 1950s, Louis Penfield commissioned Wright to design and build a home for his family overlooking the Chagrin River. When plans for I-90 threatened eminent domain and the destruction of the home, Penfield returned to Wright and asked for a second design to be built nearby. By that time, the architect was aging and had enough work, he said, to last the rest of his life. Years went by, and shortly after Wright’s death, the plans arrived in Cleveland. They’d been found in his office.
The second home was never built, and when Sarah Dykstra bought the Louis Penfield House (which had been spared when plans for I-90 changed) in 2018, it included the plans for Project #5909. Penfield, as Dykstra told the News-Herald, had begun collecting stone from the Chagrin River for the build but never finished.
Dykstra and her partners set out to finish the job in recent years, working through permits and modern code along with a team of Wright experts.
“When we set out to build this home, we gave a mandate to the professional team involved: if you must change something due to current building regulations, code, products, etc., do so under the ‘skin’ so the house will look exactly the same,” Dykstra told the News-Herald. “The design and the artistic aspect of this home should remain the same as intended in 1959. We are thrilled our team of construction professionals delivered on this promise and are proud to present a beautiful 2025 build from Wright’s 1959 plans.”
Take a mini tour below. And yes, Frank Lloyd Wright’s RiverRock is available for rental, as is the Penfield House.
