Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Adobe Design Is Rescued From Total Disrepair

When Richard Poe first saw Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pottery House in 2016, it was in a desperate state. The previous owner hadn’t maintained the Santa Fe, New Mexico, residence, and their pack of 27-some-odd dogs, none of which were house-trained, says Richard, had left the home a mess. Richard, who had fallen in love with Santa Fe during visits when he was younger, was seeking a country property in the area when the home came on the market. 

What others viewed as a burdensome undertaking, he saw as a unique work of genius worth bringing back to life. "I took one step past the front door and knew it was the home I wanted to own and the project that I wanted to tackle," he remembers.

Richard had been a fan of Wright since boyhood and was intrigued by the idea of owning the 1943 design because it was meant for his hometown of El Paso. (The original client’s divorce ultimately prevented construction there). But that it was ever built was the doing of developer Charles Klotsche, who was attracted by the design’s intent to reflect the Southwest with its proposed adobe construction.

With oversight from the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship, Klotsche erected the home in 1984 as the centerpiece of his new Santa Fe development, doubling the plan and arranging it east to west rather than north to south, as was originally intended. Perched on a hill, its curved facades and interlocking concentric circles—experiments for Wright, and American home design—capture sweeping views of the desert landscape and the San Miguel Mountains.