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:
Jen says
Wow—neat floor in the kitchen, but like everybody else, I am in LOVE with that enormous wrap-around porch!
kimmeth says
OMG! I am soooo in LOVE! I would love the wrap-around porch – my “indoor” kitties would be in heaven!
Mary Beth says
What a beauty – the slate floors are perfection with the wooded landscape. Glad to see the washer dryer right there in the kitchen – a very European approach to function. Our circa 58′ ranch had the same set-up. I was always puzzled when people would question this as it made perfect sense – bright light ( under cabinets), plenty of counter for folding and Mom could keep an eye on the meatloaf at the same time!
Maryanna says
The link above doesn’t show any of the photos of the house, and only advertises it as a customizable lot. Did they change the listing that fast?
pam kueber says
Maryanna, I changed out the obeo.com link (which they told me was not necessary, really) and put in an online house tour instead. I think that all the photos there are pretty much replicated in our slide show, too, though.
George says
I’m from Atlanta and I know this house. It was owned by an old friend of the family. I’m a contractor and even did some work in it back in the late 90s or early 2000s. The interesting thing is that they never put carpet anywhere in it but instead had linoleum floors in the bedrooms and other living areas: everywhere that they didn’t have tile and stonework or hardwood.Pretty neat modernistic house. I parked right under that carport when I did the work. It’s up on a hill overlooking a vast panorama of Atlanta.
Diane in CO says
Amber Rhea, that is a wonderful article you linked us to! Thank you.
Amber Rhea says
More about this wonderful house, from the daughter of the architect, and including quotes from the owner. http://saportareport.com/blog/2014/02/revisiting-a-round-house-papa-designed/
Mary Elizabeth says
Amber Rhea, what a good link. Wish we knew this much about every house we saw here.
Keith says
Isn’t this the house they used as the police HQ in the first Need for Speed movie
Kelly Wittenauer says
Keith,
If you were thinking of the one in “Fast & Furious” – it isn’t the same one. That one had the house around the outside, with the patio in the center. It also featured in the movie “Hanging Up”. I love that house & have tried, unfortunately without success, to find out more about it.
Catherine says
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the movie house seems to have been demolished. I did a little google search and found this:
http://www.iamnotastalker.com/2012/09/05/the-lapdfbi-headquarters-from-the-fast-and-the-furious/
I simply do not understand these decisions, and never will.
Mary Elizabeth says
Beautiful house. The main living space may have been used for intimate chamber concerts. The focus is on the piano area. The owners may have also had catered dinners, which would explain the overabundance of kitchen cabinetry. You need lots of plates, glasses, tablecloths, serving dishes, food warmers and whatever.
I liked that the laundry was in the kitchen. Some people prefer not to have that arrangement, but I would find it convenient.
My eye was also drawn to the curved end table connecting the (bamboo?) sofa and loveseat, and to the use of squared blocks (like the fireplace and the lamp on that table) to integrate the round and square shapes in the house. And Sarah is so right that the random floor pattern was the best layout for the space. Really phenomenal vision.
Maryann Roy says
Absolutely amazing ! So much potential in this beauty!