Collecting Architecture

Felix Salmon submits:

When I was guest-blogging here back in September, I said that "architecture is not collected in the same way that art is: if it were, we wouldn't be reading about important residences being torn down so that larger McMansions can be built on the lot." Well, it seems that things might be changing, in the wake of a wonderful restoration in Palm Springs of a Richard Neutra masterpiece, which will be auctioned at Christie's in May. Reports Ed Wyatt:

The California homeowners who undertook that restoration hope Neutra’s masterpiece will play a role in a third movement: promoting architecture as a collectible art worthy of the same consideration as painting and sculpture.

The Neutra house takes fine-architecture auctions to a whole new level. Marcel Breuer's Wolfson Trailer House, in New York state, carries an estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million; Pierre Koenig's Case Study House No. 21, in LA, sold for $3.1 million; Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale sold for $5 million; and Mies van der Rohe's legendary Farnsworth House, in Plano, Illinois, sold for $7.5 million.. By contrast, Neutra's Kaufmann House is estimated at $15 million to $25 million.

These numbers say a lot about the market for modernist architecture. Those prices might be higher than the sums that similarly-sized properties in the same location would fetch. But clearly location trumps architecture, when it comes to price: the Farnsworth House is a much more important piece of architecture than the Kaufmann House, by a much more important architect, but it is worth much less money simply because it's in Plano rather than Palm Springs. And one of the main reasons why the Maison Tropicale sold for so much money is that it's portable – it ships in six containers – which means that it can be plonked down in any location its owner desires.

Interestingly, auctions, which are generally considered decidedly déclassé in the world of real estate, seem to be the vehicle of choice for offloading houses of great architectural merit. Most important paintings are sold privately, rather than at auction; it seems to be the other way around in the world of architecture. The obvious reason is that there's simply no equivalent, in the world of architecture, to the private dealers who dominate the art world. Realtors always specialize in a certain location: they service buyers who want to live in a certain place, rather than buyers who are interested in owning an architectural masterpiece. And gallerists have no experience at all in selling property.

But if architecture really does become more broadly collected, that will surely change. An auction is not the best way to sell a house: what you really want to do, as a seller, is be able to wait for the perfect buyer to come along – someone who both appreciates the architectural merit of the house and wants to live in that location. With an auction, by contrast, you don't have the luxury of being able to wait like that. It's worth noting that Christie's isn't going to sell the Kaufmann House until May: they're giving themselves a fair amount of time to scare up potential buyers. Let's hope that the house sells for a lot of money: if it does, that will give owners of other important buildings every incentive not to tear them down.