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David and Gladys Wright House Saved from Demo, For Now

Just days after the David and Gladys Wright House—the Phoenix home built by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright for his son and daughter-in-law—appeared on the Curbed Preservation Battles Map, the The Arizona Republic is reporting that the structure is set to be approved as a city landmark and that the would-be developers have abandoned their plans to demolish the house—for now anyway. The developers are still planning to sue the city of Phoenix, which they claim was not forthright about the landmarking process prior to the purchase of the property. Preservationists might be breathing a sigh of relief, but the New York Times figured out the true intentions of one of the developers, Steve Sells. According to Arizona law, a property can only be protected by landmark status for three years, so Sells says: "I'll move in, invite everybody to come in and take their pictures, and I'm going to wait three years...then I'm going to knock it down to recoup my losses."
· Owners scrap plan to raze Wright house [The Arizona Republic]
· Buyers of a Wright Home in Phoenix Reconsider a Deal 'Too Good to Be True' [NYT]
· Mapping 12 of the Country's Endangered Historic Buildings [Curbed National]