This grand estate in Beaufort County, S.C., was designed in 1939 by America's foremost architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. He named it Auldbrass, adapting the name of a historic plantation, although nothing is now planted here but live oaks and cypress trees.

Commissioned by Leigh Stevens, a business consultant, Auldbrass is made up of a series of family quarters, staff cottages, farm buildings and barns, built on some 300 acres of South Carolina's lowcountry, a region defined by rivers and tidal marshes.

For Auldbrass, Wright reconfigured the traditional Southern plantation. He removed the formal symmetry that created a sense of domination which enforced a hierarchy among the residents. All buildings were at the same elevation, and no single drive led visitors to a grand entrance.

Wright, a fan of geometry, worked various Euclidian shapes into his designs at Auldbrass.

The sloped walls reflect the angles of the similarly-inclined oak trees.

Frank Lloyd Wright also custom-designed furniture, echoing the hexagonal floor plan of this country retreat.

A 1941 newspaper story in the Charlotte Sunday Observer, reporting on the still-under-construction home, referred to Wright's design as the "crazy plantation," and published photos of models walking through the angled rooms (referring to one lass as "nearly cross-eyed from the views"). It so angered the owner, Leigh Stevens, that all further photography and visitors were banned.

Wright died in 1959, before construction could be completed; his client, Leigh Stevens, died three years later. Stevens' daughter, Jessica Loring, then ran the estate with her husband. They managed to make a slight profit from raising corn and soybeans, while continuing repairs and upgrades to the infrastructure of the plantation - or in eliminating some of the changes made to the buildings by Stevens' third wife that ran counter to Wright's designs.

In 1979 the Lorings sold Auldbrass (which was later sold to a group of local hunters for use as a lodge).

The furniture designed by Wright, to suit the hexagonal shape of Auldbrass, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Three decades ago Auldbrass had fallen into disrepair - a costly white elephant that no one, it seemed, was willing or able to save.

Hollywood producer Joel Silver, behind such successes as "The Matrix" series, bought the property in the mid-1980s. "When I got it, it was ready for the bulldozer," he told CBS News' Charles Osgood. "It was pretty much barely alive. And it's taken almost 30 years to kind of bring it back to where it is now."

A rendering of the restoration of Auldbrass by Wright's grandson, Eric Lloyd Wright.

With the aid of documents from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, the Avery Architectural Library of Columbia University, and other sources, and with the help of contractors and descendants of people who had worked and lived on the site, Silver aimed to not only restore Wright's vision but complete it.

A terrace off the main family quarters.

The grounds of Auldbrass.

"Architecture is a very expensive hobby," Joel Silver told Charles Osgood. "And I found early on that if I could make successful movies that made a lot of money, that I would be able to benefit from that, to utilize those funds to explore other things, architecture being one of them."

The woodwork featuring designs inspired by an arrowhead and feathered shaft.

The living room.

A guest cottage.

An ornamental roof pendant, made of wood but painted to appear like patinated copper.

The pool.

This rustic stone lantern in the garden of Auldbrass was originally from Japan's old capital of Kyoto.

Today the architect's vision endures, from the smallest detail to the grandest, with nature as its inspiration.

It's a magical location, even if you have to watch your step around some of the locals.

Silver maintains Auldbrass as Wright intended: as a private retreat, opening it to the public on occasion to raise funds for the Beaufort County Open Land Trust.

For tickets to the open house on November 7-8, 2015, click here.

By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan