That’s right, Howard Rachofsky’s ORIGINAL house for just a hair over one million dollars! We are not talking about the magnificent Howard Meier art house he created on Preston Road, nor the contemporary family delight he created with his lovely wife, Cindy, at 5911 Glendora which is listed with Claire Dewar of Briggs Freeman Sothebys and is, in fact, under contract as we speak. That home was listed for $2,695,000 and was reduced to $2,450,000, hence the hot buyer. You snooze, you lose.
And it is not the glorious Rachofsky House at 8605 Preston Road built in 1996 just north of Northwest Highway, the home that is a complete collection of art from the lawn to the architecture by renown architect Richard Meier:
The Rachofsky House is the private home and contemporary art collection of Cindy and Howard Rachofsky. The house aims to offer a unique experience with contemporary art and architecture through Richard Meier’s building, the rotating installations inside and the outdoor sculptural works, most of which are site-specific.
Howard is a lawyer and former Wall Street hedge fund tyke. In 1986, Financial World magazine called him one of the 100 highest-paid people on Wall Street, even though he was working from a Dallas office. A lot of the money he made was invested in art, contemporary art, as well as philanthropy, which he then loaded and displayed in the Preston Road estate which he unveiled like a canvass in 1996. For a year, Howard lived there — the home has only one or two bedrooms.
But before he built Preston Road, he lived off Forest lane at 6406 Forest Creek. The home, which was built in 1980, is listed with Paula Scofield of Ebby Halliday Realtors. And it is stunning. One one-third of an acre in a lovely, tucked-away development – not gated — the home has 4,057 square feet with four or five bedrooms, four full baths, an open floor plan, dramatic “noir” kitchen, bar, wine closet, art atrium, a huge master with two dressing areas and lovely spa bath, split bath bedrooms — recall, in the 1980’s we thought kids could actually share bathrooms. I know, what the hell were we thinking?
The home has been significantly updated to include five-inch white oak plank floors, a center courtyard, lush landscaping, mosquito mist system, sprinklers, gorgeous refinished black bottom pool with waterfalls, an outdoor fire pit, large patio for entertaining, and hot tub.
The fact that this home has such great bones and was built by an artistic perfectionist who was one of the highest-paid dudes on Wall Street when he was building it makes me want to delete this post, run over there and plop down a contract. Asking is $1,050,000 and worth every penny.
