It’s Time Capsule Tuesday and today: An unusual, original-owner round house built in 1965. The house was recently listed for sale by Atlanta realtor Jason Morris. Reader Anika spotted the fresh listing and tipped us — thanks! This home was built specifically for its hilltop site by Atlanta architect Ike Saporta, with the idea that the home’s views should be visible from every room. See that screen porch? It runs around the entirety of the house. You could do… laps!
From the listing:
- Price: $1,699,900
- Year built: 1965
- Square footage: 2,475
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 2 full
A perfectly positioned contemporary home on top of 6.7 acres in Sandy Springs. A beautiful drive takes you to this masterfully planned home with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. Famed Atlanta Architect, Ike Saporta, selected and designed this home and setting for the current owners almost 50 years ago. The site has endless possibilities. The focal point to this home is the central fireplace which is opened on all 4 sides.
Pam notes: Yup, this house is on an expensive piece of property — and the listing information and other marketing materials acknowledge the potential market for use as a larger estate. As much as well all love original homes here and hate to see a tear down, please let’s all be kind in comments regarding this possible outcome. If that is what ultimately comes to be, I am grateful we have these photos to archive here.
The home has a screened porch that extends all the way around its exterior. Some parts of the porch are used for relaxing, while others like the photo above seem to be just a place for plants and walking by to enjoy the 360 degree views.
In the home’s main living area, a long curved built-in banquette wraps around the room. The additional small table and chair sets that gather around the central piano suggest there may have been a few parties in this space over the years.
There’s that four-sided fireplace mentioned in the listing — complete with a themed mural that wraps around the upper section.
The home’s kitchen is simple — we love the grey/green irregular shaped slate floors. The restrained design looks current — proof that good design has staying power.
Have you ever seen so much cabinet space in one kitchen before?
In one of the bedrooms, a dressing table hides a fold-out mirror and sink — complete with hudee ring, of course!.
This bathroom, while it looks typical of the era, has a few unique touches. We haven’t see this tile pattern before — nice! Another unusual aspect of the space — the faucet for the hudee rimmed sink is mounted directly into the laminate counter top instead of through the sink itself.
Link love:
More round houses:
- Sarah’s Gilbert Spindel Geodesica, which is made up of round and rectangular wings.
- Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion house
- 1964 styrofoam dome house — very cool interiors!
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
Merry Miller Moon says
Retro time warp! If I had a million dollars and change, I’d buy this house and not change a thing! LOVE IT! It is so unique. That’s why I cannot stand cookie-cutter houses of today. They built houses to last back in the day! My house is over 100 yrs. old and I love it. Although, older homes due require more maintenance. Hopefully, someone purchases this gem and keeps it as is!
Michelle says
I wonder if you could get a floor plan to add to this post? I’d love to see the overall layout. Does it have a full basement as well??
Lynne says
We had that “veiney” bathroom tile in our bathroom when I was a kid. Ours was white, and the “vein” was gold. It wasn’t smooth, the vein was inset a little bit.
I think my folks installed it in the very late 60’s or maybe 1970. We had water damage and the original pink plastic tiles were popping off, and the walls had to be replaced.
J D Log says
I have always wondered how you would build car accommodation to harmonise with a round house this has answered my question
JKM says
With all that acreage, there’d be plenty of room to build a new house while keeping this one as a fun guest house or party pavilion.
nickarmadillo says
Great looking place, but just imagine what they spent on blinds!
Roundhouse Sarah says
Wow, I’m lovin this post! What is it about Atlanta? The architect who designed my round house lived in Atlanta. I also know of another MCM round house in Atlanta that was bought and restored around 2005. Hopefully this house finds appreciative owners, I know first hand it takes a lot of love ( I’m having my flat roof worked on for the third time today : ( wish me luck this time! No more leaks!)
I love the quirks, the irregular floor bc honestly they aren’t filling in square rooms more like triangle wedge rooms so laying it out haphazardly was the easiest way to do it. Those kitchen cabinets! Lol was that really necessary? And the sink in the bedroom is super quirky, I love it!
One thing I can probably say for sure is that this house is probably really dark inside. Mine feels dark at times and they don’t have clerestory windows to let light into the center and the screen porch all around is going to diffuse the light as well.
How delightful though, I love seeing round houses and comparing their layouts. The link to my story on this page says my house is made up of round and square wings which may sound really confusing to some. It’s really an all circular home like this one, that someone down the line added onto in the back. It’s a bedroom and laundry room and isn’t shown on the house tour link.
Wendy in St. Louis says
LOVE this house! The section of the porch with the plants is great, as is the amazing build in vanity/sink in the bedroom.
I got a chuckle out of the double fridge set up, one with a left opening and one with a right opening door to simulate one giant fridge. I wonder if originally there was a Foodarama there? They were made into the 60’s, but I am not sure they were that wide. Sub Zeros would be too tall. Maybe twin Revcos?!
Janet in CT says
It really is an amazing house. I do think that the white countertops are newer replacements. The hood over the stove is small and it looks like there is a filler next to it so I believe that the hood was once a huge one twice as wide and probably much lower than the one there now. The dishwasher appears to be eighties so I would bet there was a very big commercial type range there originally which stands to reason if they did alot of entertaining. The range looks much newer too, so it stand to reason that the countertops were replaced when the old range was removed. The fridges appear to be quite recent so I agree there was a big old fridge there at one time. Hotpoint made a huge double door one that was counter depth so there are alot of possibilities other manufacturers made some extra large refrigerators too. This kitchen was definitely made for alot of cooking! I would love to have seen it in its original state. And wouldn’t the house/kitchen and yard have been perfect for a wedding reception!
Chad says
It’s a week or endangered round buildings. This isn’t a house, but the 1962 illustration at the top is just dreamy. I kinda want to have it framed. http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/02/city-shouldnt-sell-visitors-center-short/
Let’s hope for the best for both of these buildings. Even if someone wants to build a mansion on the site, the house looks like it could serve well as a guest house or secondary pavilion.
And turning the visitor’s center building I shared into a restaurant (which the the city plans to build on the site anyway) is a no brainer.
Jana (Berniecat) says
ooooh! If I had that porch I would never come inside. What a wonderful example of architectural history and reflection of the architect’s unique vision.