Perched on a forested hillside in Aspen, this amazing architect-designed house offers generous views of the Elk Mountains, and because the house was built in 1973, before so much development of Aspen, the picturesque scenery is almost unparalleled. The spacious residence spans 6,857 square feet, with seven bedrooms and six bathrooms plus two half-bathrooms. Set on 2.29 acres, with a gorgeous mountain-facing lap pool and spa, the property is asking $22.8 million. It’s repped by Steven Shane at Compass.
The residence was originally designed by Robin Molny, a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice who was one of the early urban planners for Aspen. It is known to architecture buffs as the Ford Schumann House, after the person who commissioned it. Schumann’s father had been a president of General Motors, while his mother was the daughter of one of the founders of IBM. Schumann himself was a music and art devotee who also worked for the family charitable foundation.
Robin Molny designed the house at the midpoint of his architectural career and it demonstrates everything he learned during his five-year apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, adapted to the high mountain terrain of the Aspen valley. A house like this must be designed to make the most of the outdoors while keeping inhabitants feeling warm and cozy inside. A typical Wright trick is to make for a small, secluded foyer, which leads down a hall to a wide, expansive living room, making the effect that much more impressive. This is something Molney employed here. However, unlike Wright’s typical ribbon windows, Molney here pulls out all the stops with an enormous glass wall that takes in an immense mountainous panorama. Just outside the glass wall is the lap pool deck, which further extends the living area, also adding water reflections inside the room. The master suite, which is just off the living room, offers its own wall of windows and views.
Interestingly, the property sold just a year ago for $3.8 million. The house has been extensively renovated and modernized since then, with additional bedrooms and bathrooms carved out of the space and a new kitchen and baths added. Some of the bedrooms look on the small side but the renovations were extensive enough, the seller hopes, to increase the price by six times.
Unique traits of the house include a modern adobe style and angled rooms and walls. Prior to the recent renovation, the house had been renovated several times, including the addition of a master suite and a stair tower with extra rooms for guests, an office, studio, fitness, and entertaining.
So often in the area, one sees a strictly modern house with no real warmth, or a very traditional Rocky Mountain log house with the cliché antlers everywhere. This one wins points for straddling the line between modern and traditional. Our take? Considering the current eye-watering prices for Aspen real estate, this is an updated, turnkey property with impeccable architectural credentials and staggering views, so indeed a worthy offering.