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The late Dick Clark's rockin' estate in Malibu is back on market with big discount

The late Dick Clark's rockin' estate in Malibu is back on market with big discount

When "America's oldest teenager" Dick Clark listed this hilltop beach property in Malibu almost exactly two years ago, media reports had some fun with its resemblance to "Flintstones" architecture. (And yes, they're having fun with it yet.)

The home, which still hasn't sold, has just been marked down; it's now half a million dollars less than its original $3.5 million asking price.

(Click here or on a photo to go to a slideshow. | And click here to see the listing on Yahoo Homes.)

Listing agent Diane Carter of Coldwell Banker tells Yahoo Homes that the residence in Malibu, California, was built as a "romantic getaway" for Clark and his wife, Kari, in 1988. He died not long after the house went on the market in 2012, and now his widow owns it.

It's a "great value right now for what's going on in Malibu," Carter said. The house sits on a huge 23-acre parcel surrounded by protected land and trails.

In fact, it's that protection that dictated the home's unique look. The architect, Phillip Jon Brown, told CNNMoney that the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy didn't want Clark erecting any home on the promontory, but Clark "dug in his heels and said he was going to build a house there."

"I came up with the idea that if the house looked like a rock formation, the park conservancy would let us build on top," Brown told CNNMoney. "They liked the concept."

The payoff, Carter tells Yahoo Homes, is a property with views that are unheard of, even in ritzy Malibu: 360-degree vistas that take in the Pacific Ocean, San Fernando Valley and Boney Mountains too. Privacy is virtually assured by the remote location, which requires a three-mile drive along a canyon road. There are "no people on top of you," Carter said.

Of course, a new buyer will have to make peace with that distinctive architecture, which one blogger memorably deemed "almost cochlear" in places. Then again, architect and writer Witold Rybczynski defends the design as less like Fred Flintstone and more like Frederick Keisler ("Blob architecture, before the fact"). By Malibu standards, the house isn't big -- just one bedroom and two bathrooms in perhaps 2,500 square feet of living space. Carter says exact square footage is hard to determine because of the curvilinear design.

The home just returned to the public Multiple Listing Service after some time off the market because of an area fire, Carter said.

Also on Yahoo Homes:

Suzanne Somers' amazing Palm Springs estate, complete with tram
"Flintstones" architecture
Seashell home undulates with Carmel landscape