I don’t know about you, but I love architecture.  And I love our current house. It’s a 1958 California Ranch with a huge living room with open-beam ceilings. 

Lovely, isn’t it?

We like homes that are unique, not cookie-cutter, bland, boring, or uninspired. The architecture that was prevalent post-war (WWII that is), from the Bauhaus movement to the late 60’s embodied something different. Homes were designed to bring the outdoors in, be built with the minimum of materials (thus the birth of post and beam architecture), affordable, sustainable (yes, architects like the Eames, Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Ruocco, et al) were thinking of all that. The whole Case Study project was designed to see who could come up with an affordable house that provided lots of light, brought nature indoors (or felt like it), used affordable materials, and could last a long time. 

Most people when looking for a house or home (I’m assuming and could be wrong) look for things like the neighborhood, schools, size of the house, are there enough bedrooms and bathrooms, and other comforts – “There’s a pool? That would be nice to have during the Summer..” (or the opposite reaction).  I don’t think most people really care about having something unique, inspired, magical almost. 

The saying is “Home is where the heart is.” Okay, I get that. But what if your heart wants more than a house that looks like every other house on the block? As a disclaimer, there are actually neighborhoods that were built in the late 50’s to mid-60’s that are very cool homes, in LA, the Bay Area, San Diego and other spots. They are truly cool homes, and I could live in one of those quite happily.  

But I present to you the coolest home (in my book at least) ever. Cameron’s house from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. 

The last photo is of the famous garage where the Ferrari goes crashing out the back window into the ravine below. 

It’s in Illinois just north of Chicago, in the same neighborhood Michael Jordan lives in. It’s glass, steel and wood. And it’s for sale. 

Problem is it’s expensive ($1.3 million), though it’s cheaper than before, and it’s in Chicago-ish, though I do love Chicago (which is weird since I’m a native San Diegan). It’s been on the market a few times, but never any interest. Not because it’s Cameron’s house, but because people for the most part don’t get it. We do (that’d be my wife, kids and I). To us it’s pretty much the perfect home. We see it and it speaks to our hearts. 

So if IBM, Motorola or McDonalds (they have an innovation lab south of Chicago) offered me a job, I’d have to get this house — hopefully the owners (they’re the second owners btw) would be open to an offer from a family who gets their house. 

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