The Bubble House Sold, Some Don’t Love Its Design

We are excited to announce that Jonathan Miller, who has long authored the most authoritative report on the residential real estate market, is partnering with The Real Deal. Below, you’ll find his Housing Notes column, which will now run on our site several times a week. In addition, Miller’s quarterly report for New York City, which he published through Douglas Elliman for more than three decades, will now be “The Real Deal report, prepared by Jonathan Miller.” Miller’s data venture, Streetmatrix, which provides hyperlocal data, will provide statistics to TRD Data subscribers.

— TRD editors

Bubble house sold for first time in 50 years

This house was marketed for the first time 50 years back in 2025, asking $5.75 million, and just closed for $4.99 million.

It’s probably not a coincidence that the home’s construction coincides with the moon landing, but the windows also call to mind portholes — a nautical motif that was also popular in the 1960s.

During my Manhattan 8,000+ appraisal career, I walked by the “Bubble House” many times on East 71st Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As an armchair architect who knows just enough about the topic to be dangerous, I’ve never associated the name “Bubble House” with the property itself. But when Curbed interviewed me for this story — Is This the End for the Bubble House? — the reference brought the house back to mind. I personally think of the bubbles and the pink stucco as ugly, not for any architectural significance. But again, I have no architectural street cred. The Bubble House architect, Maurice Medcalf, completed the new design of the 1901 townhouse in 1969 at the height of the space race.

Interestingly, the house is not landmarked, so there is no requirement to keep the oval windows and pink stucco facade, and I’m guessing those bubbles won’t stick around, especially because there are no screens.

Last Friday, the agent closed on the sale:

to a family that wasn’t hunting for an architectural oddity. They will “very likely” take out the windows, he says. After all, “the majority who came in were planning on restoring it to a more traditional façade.”

And the best quote of the Curbed piece:

Then there were the windows, which spin open from a central point, making them impossible to screen from bugs, among other concerns.

Not typical market feedback for a townhouse listing!

Stone House at 130 East 64th Street saw premium

When I spoke about the Bubble House above, I remember appraising a townhouse in the area about a decade ago for a sale. The architect Edward Durell Stone designed it, best known for the General Motors Building, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and 2 Columbus Circle, which is often voted one of the ugliest buildings in NYC.

I thought about this house, but I couldn’t initially remember the address, only the architect, oddly enough. I describe 130 East 64th Street, on one of my favorite townhouse blocks on the Upper East Side, as a 1960’s renovation (actually 1956). It was originally a traditional 4,850-square-foot townhouse built in 1899, which received a stack of white-painted cinder blocks in front of it, among the renovation highlights. My colleagues in the appraisal industry call these “why me” appraisals because that’s what you say to yourself when you walk up to a property like this — you just know there are no comps. And a buyer can’t remove the facade since it is protected in perpetuity by an easement.

What was surprising about the sale back in 2015 was that many people seemed to be rabid fans of Edward Durell Stone, and the home sold for a premium above the typical townhouse market at the time — not above the asking price, though. The townhouse sold for $6,850,000, still considered a premium a decade ago, even though it was initially listed at $9,995,000.

The Manhattan townhouse market 1Q26

For a refresher, I took a look at my most recent Manhattan townhouse data and a slice from 2015.

The seemingly runaway price growth observed in the first-quarter numbers is evident in the 69.4 percent annual increase in median sales price. These metrics are taken from my 1Q26 Manhattan Market Report, completed at the end of the first quarter. (This report will be referred to as The Real Deal Manhattan Market Report beginning in 2Q26).

The townhouse price skew was largely due to the 29.9 percent rise in average sale size, combined with the quirks of the varying quality of properties available for sale. Townhouse buyers do not want new construction, but are attracted to gut rehabs if the upgrades are consistent with the original architecture and the exterior walls remain.

Looking back in time

The median price of a Manhattan townhouse in 2015, when the “Stone House” last sold, indicated it was priced well above market and larger than the average sale size at the time. This pattern, along with market feedback from brokers and buyers, indicated that the architect associated with the townhouse added a premium to the market value (despite the upgrade), likely due to his famous international portfolio.

That was not the case with the “Bubble House.”

Final thoughts

Bubble House: Maurice Medcalf’s redesign didn’t translate into brand equity with buyers; the design read as idiosyncratic and dated rather than collectible.

Stone House: Edward Durell Stone’s name and institutional work (GM Building, Kennedy Center, 2 Columbus Circle) created a fan base that supported a pricing premium and buyer enthusiasm for preservation.

The actual final thought — Some Random House.

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