Stainless Steel House For Sale

Noted architect Arthur Cotton Moore built it for himself and his wife six years ago.

The 4,000-square-foot house at the tip of Benoni Point (above) sits on the Tred Avon River, about 50 miles from Washington, D.C.

The Moores are selling because the drive in and out of D.C. has gotten old.

It turns out that while you can run a virtual empire like bookofjoe from a little town like Charlottesville, in the middle of nowhere, architecture's not like that; said Moore, "You have to view things, you have to go to sites."

The couple have already moved to an apartment in the Watergate complex but they've left their furniture in the house to make it more marketable.

Empty, the steel house is probably like being inside a refrigerator or nicely finished storage container with windows.

The house might not be the easiest sell in the world: in an article about it in 2000, Washington Post writer Ken Ringle wrote, "James Bond's arch-villain Ernst Blofeld would feel right at home among its sinuous curves, corrugations and antennas."

I don't know about you but I'd prefer Bond's house to Blofeld's.

Fred A. Bernstein of the New York Times wrote, also in 2000, that Moore's house was "almost his undoing."

Putting together the 77 stainless steel girders, many of which were curved and "usable only if correctly formed to within one-sixteenth of an inch" required "more than nails," Bernstein said.

He wrote, "As Mr. Moore's wife, Patricia, observed: 'Other people have a family doctor; we have a family welder.'"

Here's a link to Sandra Fleishman's April 2 Washington Post article about the house.

Here's a link to the listing, which states the price is $3,850,000.

Hey, Arthur Cotton Moore is living in an empty apartment.

He's going to be 70 years old this year; each heartbeat could be his last.

Offer him $3 million cash and I'll bet you've got yourself a steel house.