Kahn’s Esherick House Auctioned as Art

Louis I. Kahn’s Margaret Esherick House, completed in 1961 in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, and county-appraised in 2006 at about $300,000, will go on the auction block May 18. Richard Wright, the president of the auction house, Wright, expects the house to fetch $2 to $3 million, he told the New York Times. His own appraisal of the property came in at $1 million, if it were just a house. Except he is not selling a house, he explains, but a work of art. Wright first recognized the value of high design in 2006 with the sale of Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #21, his auction announcement relates.

“House of Dark Stucco, stained natural wood reveals for windows,” Kahn said of this, one of his few house designs. “The building will not look flat. The deep reveal of windows, entrance alcoves and second floor lower porches will give it an alive look at all times. The two parts of the building divided by the alcoves should offer subtle silhouette.” With its thick concrete exterior walls and detailed joinery in the apitong-wood interior, the one-bedroom house displays many elements Kahn would incorporate in his later, larger commissions, including his manipulation of natural light, articulation of server/served spaces, and smooth, logical flow throughout.