The Iconic Rachofsky House Hits the Dallas Market for $23 Million

American abstract artist and architect Richard Meier said, “The purpose of the house is to provide a place of residence and respite…a catalyst for further contemplation of nature and art, and the science of bringing them together in harmony.”

As a writer, I typically avoid using the word “iconic,” but, in this case, I simply must. How else could a Dallasite possibly describe the Rachofsky House? Meier built the residence located at 8605 Preston Road in 1996, and, as of this week, it’s officially on the market for a cool $23 million.

What could be chicer than a 9,062-square-foot house with six bathrooms but only two bedrooms? It says, “We love to entertain, but please don’t stay the night.” Obsessed.

And entertain they DID.

Surely you’re familiar with the Rachofsky House already. She is an icon, a legend, and the beloved home of TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art. After a legendary 25-year run with founders Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, the fundraiser offered its valediction last year in spectacular fashion with a glamorous, caviar-filled Dallas night for the ages that raised a staggering $10 million for amfAR and the Dallas Museum of Art.

All good things must come to an end, though. If you’re no longer welcoming 500 guests to your home annually for a little black tie revelry, well, it’s time to put her on the market.

Unsurprisingly, the house itself is a work of art. For that reason, you might not “get” it, but the people who get art GET the Rachofsky House. Meier’s white, metal-paneled house looks suspended above a black granite podium. Outside, mature oaks frame a lagoon-like pond. Meier said the house unfolded “as a kind of procession through a series of zones.”

A glass-enclosed stairwell, floor-to-ceiling windows, a double-height living room, and a suspended study overlooking the grounds. There is almost a blurred line between where the house ends and the landscape begins. (The perfect backdrop for an art collection, don’t you think?)

Let it be stated that I’ve never read a more eloquent real estate listing before. Who is the anonymous scribe? I do not know, but allow a few quotes from the listing to dazzle you:

• The residence is “an invitation to realize beauty, to explore abstraction, and to become, in a quiet way, part of its evolving composition.”
• “It is light that emerges as the home’s most profound guide. As the day unfolds, sunlight moves through the space like a steady docent — casting shadows, illuminating details, and transforming familiar rooms into living, changing forms.”
• “More than a feat of architecture, the Rachofsky House is attuned to the understated rituals of daily life, delicately balancing public grandeur and private intimacy.”
• “When art is so often meant to be admired from a distance, the Rachofsky House invites you into the frame — tempering the boundary between observer and masterpiece.”

May my own obituary be so grand!

In thinking of the Rachofsky House and the legacy that Cindy and Howard created, I can’t help by think of Hamilton. In the musical, the ill-fated protagonist sings that legacy is “planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” I am so grateful that the Rachofskys got to see their garden in all its splendor.

May the home’s next stewards “rise up” with as much heart.