HEAVENLY VIEWS
An architect’s retreat in Ligonier priced at $1.5 million
Pittsburgh architect Louis Astorino is known for designing the pope’s personal chapel in Rome. But the views — 12 miles on clear day — are just as heavenly at his 22-acre hilltop retreat in the Laurel Highlands.
Mr. Astorino says his daughter Christine’s love for the French countryside inspired the name and design for Lavender Fields, the family’s second home and vacation getaway at 387 Fisher Lane, Ligonier.
“You can see as far as the Laurel Mountain ski slopes from here,” said real estate agent Kate Balzer of Piatt/ Sotheby’s International Realty (www.sothebysrealty.com or 1-702553-5825).
She is the listing agent for the property with six bedrooms, six baths, two powder rooms and 7,171 square feet of living space. It is priced at $1,499,000 (MLS 1429745).
The house is a short drive from ski slopes and the Rolling Rock Country Club, but surprisingly close to the shops and restaurants in Ligonier’s
Diamond.
“My wife Jean used to walk there all the time,” Mr. Astorino said.
As visitors approach on the long private road, the house’s distinctive green cedar shingle roof comes into view. The rear of the property faces west and includes slate patios, an inground pool, a wisteria arbor, an English boxwood garden and endless vistas.
The architect oriented this house so that every room gets sun at some point every day. He got the idea from Frank Lloyd Wright and Fallingwater, Wright’s masterpiece in Fayette County.
“We were the architects chosen for the first restoration of Fallingwater,” he said. “The reason it is on top of the waterfall and not looking at it is because he wanted every room to get sun at some point in the day. That is the genius of the house.”
Warm, wide-plank pine floors run throughout the home, which has a separate guest suite off the kitchen and master suites on the first and second floors.
“The mirror over the fireplace in the second-floor master bedroom is a one-way mirror with a TV behind it,” Mr. Astorino noted.
The large, open kitchen features a wood-burning brick pizza oven.
“That was the kind of thing the family all did together,” said Mr. Astorino. “We would make the dough and pizza and it was a wonderful thing to do together.”
Off the kitchen is a great room with dining and living areas, two fireplaces and flat-screen televisions hidden by tapestries. Mr. Astorino said the space’s proportions follow the golden ratio, an ancient design formula based on nature that is pleasing to the eye. The Parthenon in Athens, Greece, was supposedly designed according to its ratio of 1 to 1.618.
The house has five fireplaces, all gas- and wood-burning. The furnishings could be purchased with the house. “Everything is negotiable,” he said.
The mostly unfinished basement includes a wine cellar with room for
1,100 bottles and a bar-coded inventory system.
“I would use it for entertaining for business,” said Mr. Astorino, who sometimes had his clients stay over night.
“I am retired now for three years so it is time to move on.”
The property has become a gathering place for the extended family. “It is very difficult to give up the house, but our family has grown.”
The Astorinos have two children and four grandchildren with one more on the way. “Two of our grandchildren are in college,” he noted.
“We loved every season there. I never had a bad moment there in 20 years. It is just a heartwarming place.”