Architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Final Project Is A Surreal Wood, Stone, And Glass Villa To Stay At In Ohio

Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright has left his imprint across America's modern look and feel, most famously with Pennsylvania's Fallingwater, a house often considered one of America's best works of architecture. But Wright is behind over 500 buildings that stand across the country, some of which you might have already admired without realizing it, like the striking mansions of Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood. Before his death, Wright left one last architectural treat for the design-minded to dote on. It's a house called RiverRock, and you can actually stay in it overnight.

You'll find Wright's final project in the charming Cleveland suburb of Willoughby Hills, Ohio. It bears Wright's signature blend of integration with nature, clean lines, and wide-open, breathable interiors, with a combination of wood, stone, and glass materials. Notably, though, its construction wasn't complete until 2025 — over 60 years after Wright's death, and the fact that Wright had no involvement in the construction itself has sparked some debate about to what extent it can be considered true to his vision. Nevertheless, the completion of RiverRock means that you now have the chance to stay in a beautiful house that derives from Wright's blueprints and experience firsthand the architect's eye for a living space that's harmonious, elegant, and meditative.

Though known for some grand works like the Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright also designed some smaller residences called Usonian homes. One of these Usonian homes can be found in the funky Pennsylvania town of Ohiopyle. They were intended to be affordable to the middle class, characterized by simple materials, open spaces, and having a single story. They were also built on pastoral land, essential to Wright's unity of architecture with nature. All of these features are evident at Ohio's RiverRock, the home Wright designed on his deathbed.

More precisely, Wright died in 1959, and the designs for RiverRock were found on his drawing board posthumously, named simply "Project #5909." Wright designed the house on the request of Louis Penfield, one of his previous contractors. One feature integral to Wright's blueprint is a site-specific poplar tree. Even though the site remained available after Wright's death — and the tree has been standing ever since — the house didn't begin to actually materialize until 2023, under the ownership of Sarah Dykstra.

Since the building was completed without Wright's oversight, not everyone accepts it as a Wright design to a tee. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation said to ArtNet, "Although it is true that the RiverRock drawings were some of Wright's last, the current construction varies from the actual plans designed by Wright" due to building codes and materials. On the other hand, Dykstra told the construction team that if they needed to make any deviations, to "do so under the 'skin' so the house will look exactly the same," she shared with News-Herald. All of Wright's delicate touches are there, from the sprawling glass windows to the specific orientation of the home, allowing sunlight to land right on the junction of wood and concrete during the start of spring and fall.

When you book a stay at the RiverRock house, you book the whole property: 2,000 square feet, with three bedrooms, one full bathroom, and one partial bathroom. Inside you'll find heated floors, a wood-burning fireplace, and views encompassing the property's 30 acres of woodlands in Willoughby Hills. It's one of Frank Lloyd Wright's taller buildings, with higher ceilings intended to accommodate Louis Penfield's 6-foot-8-inch stature, Smithsonian reports. You'll also find that, in alignment with Wright's philosophy of integrating with the surroundings, the stone used in the building comes from the Chagrin River nearby — hence "RiverRock."

You can experience RiverRock intimately by booking it for an overnight stay on the RiverRock website and temporarily become an inhabitant of one of Wright's "living works of art," as Debbie Dykstra, Sarah Dykstra's mother, described in News-Herald. The house's location of Willoughby Hills is around a 35-minute drive from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Guests at RiverRock are provided with coffee and tea; you can buy other food and drinks from the local Giant Eagle Supermarket, about seven minutes away by car. At RiverRock, you're also only about 25 minutes away from some must-visit Cleveland gems, like the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cultural Gardens. Plus, surrounded by woods and close to the river, you get a symbiotic blend of nature and society, in the way that Wright so cherished.