Rent, Don't Buy: Arguably the Hamptons' tackiest abode, a...
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On the Market: The generally disappointing tenure of Braves'...
| The generally disappointing tenure of Braves' pitcher Derek Lowe has come to an end with his trade to the Cleveland Indians. Which means there's a new multi-million dollar home listing on the Atlanta real estate market. Naturally, it's got jock features such as a cigar room. [Curbed Atlanta] |
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The Printed Page: Inside Diane von Furstenberg's Phenomenally Cool Penthouse
| Photo by François Halard/Architectural Digest Oh boy, Architectural Digest has just dropped its March issue, the magazine's gut-busting (influential) tribute to celebrity homes. In it: a 10-pager on Diane von Furstenberg's glassy aerie next to the High Line in Manhattan. Despite the fact her friends thought she was nuts for moving to the Meatpacking District—"Everybody told me when I came to this neighborhood that I was crazy—that it was full of drag queens, that it smelled awful because of all the butchers"—the reigning queen of the wrap dress and, more recently, home-goods designer bought two redbrick Victorians in 2006 and had WORKac—two guys that formerly worked for Rem Koolhaas—conjoin them with an 80-foot concrete staircase made sparkly by 8,000 Swarovski crystals. Her personal penthouse sits atop her design studio and flagship, and it's filled with "just odds and ends, all the things that have happened throughout my life," says von Furstenberg, who believes she is more "bohème" than "bourgeoise" despite the fact that she once used to live in a "baronial Park Avenue apartment." "When I was young, I lived like an old woman, and when I got old, I had to live like a young person." Arch Digest has only released a few images to the Web—see the bedroom shot below. Photo by François Halard/Architectural Digest · All Architectural Digest coverage [Curbed National] · Diane von Furstenberg's Fashionable Manhattan Penthouse [Arch Digest] |
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On the Market: Of the plethora of pedigreed properties...
| Of the plethora of pedigreed properties popping up in SoCal recently, here's a bit of starchitecture in Pasadena. Specifically: a new-to-market 6,000-square-foot Wallace Neff-designed Mediterranean that's got oodles of marble. Ask is $4.995M. [Curbed LA] |
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Globe Trotting: Investors in Dubai have come to...
| Investors in Dubai have come to consider the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, a distressed property. Thanks to an economic crunch in formerly white-hot Emirate, units in the building are trading at just 60 percent of their 2010 values. [NYT] |
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Small Spaces: Inside a 250-Square-Foot Maximalist Manhattan Apartment
| Photo: Richard Perry/The New York Times For $1,350 per month, Gray Burton, a publicist for online private sales site Gilt Groupe, rents a minuscule, 250-square-foot studio apartment on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Where some in his situation might have opted for extreme minimalism to cope with the lacking space, Burton took the opposite approach. The Rhode Island School of Design grad has stuffed his tiny apartment full of collected furniture, plates, glassware, chandeliers and much, much more, found in thrift shops, local antique stores, and through relentless eBay trolling. The New York Times called entering Burton's apartment "like stepping into a Fabergé egg," and the paper has a few more photos and the full write up on these tiny, decked-out digs. · Living Small, Decorating Large [NYT] |
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Celebrity Real Estate: All Hail the Eli Manning/Tom Brady Real Estate Deathmatch
| With Super Bowl 46 looming, and two legendary—or soon-to-be-legendary—quarterbacks going head to head, it seems only fitting to decide this contest in the realm of the familiar: real estate. Today, Curbed assigns five football-themed awards to Tom Brady or Eli Manning, based on their home records; that is to say, their real estate investments. Brady's the man of extravagance and Manning's got the southern charm; see who comes out on top below. ↑ Best Rookie Season (aka Best Childhood Home): This one goes, hands down, to Manning, whose childhood home in New Orleans (above) was not only a breeding ground for football talent, but also an impressive piece of classical architecture. Sure, Eli's father, the legendary QB Archie Manning, paid for this place, but it stacks up well against Tom Brady's more typical San Mateo, Calif. house. Score: Brady 0 - Manning 7 Photo: Boston Globe ↑ Most Touchdowns (aka Biggest Buy): WIth the help of his supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen, who pulled down $45M last year, Brady just bought an $11M plot of land in the blockbuster real estate town of Brentwood and spent nearly the same amount on the house, which is just nearing completion. That blows Eli Manning's New Jersey condo out of the water, but we wonder how much Gisele had to do with this victory. Score: Brady 7 - Manning 7 Click the image above to view the full photogallery. ↑ Best Passer (aka Best Flip): Eli hasn't had much experience playing the real estate game, but Brady is a seasoned pro at this point. Despite not having any official business in New York, the New England QB purchased a high-floor pad in Manhattan's blockbuster Time Warner Center in 2004 for $14M. After renting the place out at $50K per month for years, he sold to Robert Stiller, Vermont's wealthiest man, for $17.5M. Score: Brady 14 - Manning 7 Click the image above to view the full photogallery. Photos: Steve Hulbert/Electronic House ↑ Best Equipment: Now, in the world of football, competing over who has the best pads and cleats is frowned upon. In the real estate game, the right features can make or break a property and for a quarterback there might not be a better home feature than Eli Manning's home theater setup, with motorized shades, Crestron remotes, and a hidden bar. The Giants QB can comfortably review game tapes in his 3,000-square-foot Hoboken, N.J. condo for hours without lifting more than a finger. Score: Brady 14 - Manning 14 Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Best Playbook (aka Best Investment): Of course, in this category, Brady benefits from his prolific investment strategy. In this case, he played developer, buying a limestone mansion in Boston's Back Bay and converting it into condos. The Patriots hero paid $6.23M for the building, an unknown sum on the conversion, and is now looking to sell the triplex penthouse for $10.5M. That unit alone should cover his investment if it sells at that price, but that's discounting the millions he made selling off the other units. Still, we're only awarding three points, as this one has yet to be decided. FINAL SCORE: Brady 17 - Manning 14 · Eli & Peyton Manning's childhood home [Active Rain] · Tom Brady and Gisele Near Completion on $20M SoCal Spread [Curbed National] · NFL Lockout May Force Players to Sell Some Pricey Real Estate [Curbed National] · Trophy Homes of a Young Brett Favre and Fellow Pigskin Princes [Curbed National] · Inside Outside Tom Brady and Gisele's Listed Loveshack [Curbed National] |
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Globe Trotting: Spotted in Lisbon's D. Pedro IV...
| Spotted in Lisbon's D. Pedro IV square: "Frozen Trees," an installation consisting of 2,400 IKEA plastic bag dispensers, all repurposed into a stunning light display. The series of 30 LED-illuminated towers was dreamed up by LIKE Architects. [Inhabitat] |
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CurbedWire: Fendi Casa, C. Wonder Expand; Pitcher Matt Cain Lists
| Photo via Apartment Therapy NYC—Fendi Casa, the Italian luxury brand's home line, will soon be sold through OC Concept Store. [Editor at Large] SAN FRANCISCO—Matt Cain has listed his midcentury four-bedroom for $1.795M. The Giants pitcher bought the place for more than $2M in 2008. [Curbed SF] WASHINGTON D.C.—Celebrity developer Donald Trump has plans to convert an old post office into a 250-room luxury hotel, complete with high-end restaurants. No word yet on how much of the space will be ridiculously gilded. [Curbed DC; previously] NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF.—New fashion and housewares label C. Wonder will open its first West Coast store at the Fashion Island mall in 2012. As befits the brand's retro/preppy-meets-Palm Beach aesthetic, the store will be located across from a koi pond. [CurbedWire Inbox; previously] |
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Blockbusters: February doesn't always equal slow in...
| February doesn't always equal slow in the Hamptons: a Southampton estate has just sold for $38M, quickly becoming a contender for the year's biggest sale. The "too many amenities to mention" include five fireplaces, media and billiards rooms, a gym, a custom wine cellar, a separate staff wing. [Curbed Hamptons] |
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That's Rather Hideous: Fine Med-Style Bones Marred By Monster-Size Mess Inside
| Click here to view the full photogallery.Photos via Estate Storys From the outside, this 13,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style mansion in Thousand Oaks, Calif., looks like a lovely place to live. After all, it perches on 22 acres of the valley with a pool, lots of patio space, and views of greenery galore. Step inside the Ron Firestone-designed palace, though, and the scenery takes a drastic turn for the tacky, what with upholstery fabrics in every shade of beige and rose, over-the-top passementerie, and sconces dripping with crystals and tassels. The seven-badroom, 7.5-bathroom mansion, which was built in 2004, is asking $13.995M. Let's hope the guys who buy it have some spare cash left over to give those good-lookin' bones a well-deserved makeover. · 2700 White Stallion Road, Thousand Oaks, Calif. [Estate Storys via Homes of the Rich] |
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Magazine Living: Grin and Bear It...
| The all-American characters of Gary and Elaine have wormed their way into households aplenty thanks to the ingenuity of Molly Erdman, whose Catalog Living blog points to styling curiosities within catalogs. Here now, Erdman does the same for shelter magazine photos. "There's also a bear lying on its back holding a votive in its paws—do you want to do that, too?" Martin asked, removing a pine cone from Gareth's mouth. Photo: Traditional Home |
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Martha Wire: Decorating diva Martha Stewart has some...
| Decorating diva Martha Stewart has some strong opinions about modern technology. The media mogul and former swimsuit-model sexpot hates the touchscreen BlackBerry (it's "hideous," she says) and also believes the iPad is too slow. [All Things D via The Jane Dough; previously] |
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Celebrity Real Estate: Sofa Coppola her husband, Phoenix frontman...
| Sofa Coppola her husband, Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars, have just dropped $9.85M on a lovely townhouse in NYC's West Village. Amazingly, the property had been on the market for just 10 days before the couple swooped in; must have been that 2,000-square-foot urban garden that was the selling point. [WSJ via Curbed NY] |
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On the Market: No Right Angles: Otherworldly Dome Homes Here On Earth
| Click here to view the full photogallery. While most listings of this world feature walls that lie perfectly perpendicular to floors, certain architectural marvels take the UFO-like shape of a perfect half-sphere. Often these "dome homes" come with promises of energy efficiency, and nearly all are modestly sized yet manage to make the most of their 360-degree circular views. For example, somewhere between Vegas and L.A. in Newberry Springs, Calif., is this, a home designed by prolific and versatile Southern California architect Harold Bissner, Jr. and completed in 1968. Inspired by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station nuclear plant in northwestern San Diego county, the property now belongs to local semi-celebrity Huell Howser, who's hosted a TV travel show for the past two decades. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom main house features a dome formed from concrete and bent-fir beams and grounded by glass walls; inside, a conversation pit keeps things centered around a fireplace. There's also a one-bedroom guest house, a lake, 60 acres of untarnished land, a three-car carport, a rooftop observation deck on top of that dome. The property has been lingering on the market at its initial $750K ask. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Sited on a hillside on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, this five-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,600-square-foot dome home enjoys breathtakingly uninterrupted water views. A nice deviation from the Mediterranean mega-casa, the place is asking $1.7M. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Here now, a 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom residence in the central-Arizona town of Dewey. Built in 2004, the home is asking $185K (with discounts for cash buyers), and, according to the listing, it's not only "unusual" but energy efficient, as well. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Nestled in the dense woods of New Paltz in upstate New York, this house, dubbed "Domespace," is a 2,300-square-foot, three-bedroom escape and the only French kit home of its kind to be constructed in the country. The entire structure, set on a 28-acre lot, rotates at the push of a button and boasts 40-foot ceilings at the peak, a spiral staircase, and eco-friendly bamboo flooring. It's listed for $1.2M. ↑ Finally, a much smaller sight to behold: a 320-square-foot stucco dome house in dusty Taos, N.M. Constructed from a kit akin to a Tinkertoy set, it's entirely solar powered and boasts sweeping views of the mountains. Even the brokerbabble manages to emphasize the positives: "Full length double-paned glass doors. Finish interior plaster and exterior stucco to your tastes." It has, until relatively recently, been asking a meager $74K but it seems to have been delisted. · A Dome Home That Wasn't Inspired By a Nuclear Plant [Curbed National] · Buy a House at the Very Top of a Volcano For Less Than $1M [Curbed National] · Here, Buy a Dome Home Smack in the Middle of the Desert [Curbed National] · Upstate New York's Out-of-This-World Spinning Saucer House [Curbed National] · Minuscule Desert Dome Home With a Justly Minuscule Price [Curbed National] |
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Launches & Releases: Domino Will Officially Be Reborn in Newsstand-Only Form
| As Curbed first predicted a couple of weeks ago, Condé Nast is, in fact, brewing up another iteration of the dear-departed home and decorating magazine Domino. Among speculation about e-commerce sites and quarterly pubs emerges the truth: the reincarnation of the beloved shelter book will take the shape of single-issue special editions entitled Domino Quick Fixes, which will "be full of Domino’s best home decorating stories, focusing on easy, often inexpensive changes that make a big difference—from quick spruce-ups of dowdy furniture to more involved DIY projects like painting stairs or reorganizing a home office." The first edition will be sold on newsstands (as decorator Danny Seo predicted) from April 17 through July 16 (for $11 a pop), and a second sedition is planned for fall. Not as exciting as a full-on monthly rebirth, of course, but other national magazine brands (such as Esquire, for example) have had success with low-frequency supplementary print products sold at high price points. Staffing costs are low, and you only need to sell a few to make money—and that's before ad revenue. And while the idea of a beefed-up digital version of Domino would be nice, it's arguable that a online product would be untenable within Conde's current digital capabilities (the excellently run Wired and Glamour sites being the exception). Regardless, something suggests that true fans of the brand will be pleased nonetheless. (No word yet how former Domino I editor Deborah Needleman, who seemed suspicious about Domino II's prosperity, will take the news.) Here's the release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONDÉ NAST TO PUBLISH DOMINO QUICK FIXES SPECIAL EDITION On Newsstands Nationwide, April 17, 2012 NEW YORK, NY, February 7, 2012 – Condé Nast will publish a Domino special edition entitled Quick Fixes, it was announced today by Thomas J. Wallace, editorial director at Condé Nast. Domino Quick Fixes will be full of Domino’s best home decorating stories, focusing on easy, often inexpensive changes that make a big difference – from quick spruce-ups of dowdy furniture to more involved DIY projects like painting stairs or reorganizing a home office. Domino Quick Fixes will be available on national newsstands from April 17 through July 16, 2012, for $10.99. A second special edition is scheduled for the fall. “This special edition of Domino is another example of Condé Nast’s objective to bring brands to life across multiple platforms, and give consumers more of what they love in new and exciting ways, said Mr. Wallace. “Domino Quick Fixes will be a treasure trove of useful and creative information, and a must-read for any Domino fan.” Domino Quick Fixes will join other past Condé Nast branded special editions, including: Gourmet Holiday, Vogue Best Dressed, Vanity Fair Hollywood Scandal, and Glamour 1,000 Dos & Don’ts to Dress by Forever, among others. Condé Nast is home to some of the world’s most celebrated media brands. In the United States, Condé Nast publishes 18 consumer magazines, four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices, all of which define excellence in their categories. The company also owns Fairchild Fashion Media (FFM), whose portfolio of brands serves as the leading source of news and analysis for the global fashion community. Condé Nast has won more National Magazine Awards over the past ten years than all of its competitors combined. Visit CondéNast.com and follow us on Twitter @CondeNastCorp. · Is Condé Nast Brewing Up Another Iteration of Domino? [Curbed National] |
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Cool Chart Thing: Here, a Guide to the Presidential Candidates' Housing Plans
| Chart via Zillow The folks over at Zillow Blog brilliantly assembled the housing strategies of the 2012 presidential candidates into the chart above. Obama's plan is pretty much diametrically opposed to the general stance held by GOP frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, and it's no surprise that his endorsement of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (which would allow homeowners to refinance at less than 4 percent) hasn't been sitting well with Republicans. Below, find the enlargeable chart; head to the WSJ Developments blog for further elaboration. Click to expand! Chart via Zillow Click to expand! Chart via Zillow · What are the Presidential Candidates' Positions on Housing Plans? [Zillow via Inman News] · New Obama Housing Plan Not Winning Republican Fans [WSJ] |
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Martha Wire: Decorating doyenne Martha Stewart has entered...
| Decorating doyenne Martha Stewart has entered the realm of the home office with a new branded line of organizing products (notebooks, desk organizers, etc.). The collection, produced by Avery and sold at Staples, is designed with female business owners in mind; in other words, people who like "pretty things,” Stewart explained. [The Jane Dough] |
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Industry Perils: The 10 Most Depressing Quotes in Salon's Architecture Story
| This weekend, Salon runs a piece dramatically titled "Art in Crisis: The architecture meltdown." In it, journalist Scott Timberg talks about how architecture—as a profession and a societal need—has largely tanked along with the economy in recent years. Although "architecture will never die completely," here are some dry stats: nearly 14 percent of architecture post-grads can't find jobs, nor can 9.2 percent of experienced architects between 30 and 54. At one point in the piece, architect Barbara Bestor draws a parallel between struggling to make it in the field and being an immigrant worker. (A point that Architizer's Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan takes issue with: "As a young graduate wracked with debt myself, I chose to take a job outside of traditional architecture, faced with the endless hierarchical cycle of internships and stipends," she writes. "[...] I can say with a certainty that, like the decision to take on student debt, it was entirely my own. Immigrant workers—who, yes, work long hours for meager wages—are not doing so for the 'passion' of the job. [...]") Below, please find the most utterly depressing, disheartening, and defeatist quotes from Timberg's 3,200-word op-ed: · "Gehry, whose Walt Disney Concert Hall has become an iconic part of downtown Los Angeles and whose widespread fame led him to a gig designing jewelry for Tiffany, complained recently about the lack of work in the States and grumbled that he wishes he could move his staff to China, where there are more opportunities." · "Thom Mayne, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect (the field’s top prize) who has gone from one of the field’s rebels to one of its most successful, joked grimly about the need for a party for depressed architects." · "After working hard to break into what seemed to be a burgeoning profession, unemployment was like being buried alive." · Gensler, the nation’s biggest firm, laid off 750 of a staff of about 3,000; British Pritzker-winner Norman Foster laid off a quarter of his." · "A former architect has become one of the best-loved baristas in Los Angeles; another runs the Coolhaus ice cream truck." · "It's the new English major." · "A lot of the profession [...] has spent years in denial." · "'These days, “We are making less than a cleaning lady,' [Olivier] Touraine says, sitting in Wurstkuche, the high-design gastropub that serves the architecture students of SCI-Arc." · "Others buy cheap land in developing countries and design self-funded projects of their own to give clients a sense of forward motion. 'It’s completely staged.'" · "'I’m almost more surprised when I hear people are still together,' says Touraine, who recently separated from his wife. 'It’s like having two guinea pigs in the same cage—night and day, you bring the stress back.'" · The architecture meltdown [Salon] · Salon Examines Architecture in Crisis, but are Architects “Very Much like Immigrant Workers?” [Architizer] |
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CurbedWire: Sofia Coppola Lists in NYC; New Leadership at Glass House
| Photo via Elle Decor/Pinterest NYC—Sofia Coppola is Curbed NY's gal of the moment this week. The screenwriter and director has not only bought a pretty new townhouse, but she's listed her loft in Manhattan for $2.75M as well. [previously; The Real Estalker via Curbed NY] NYC—Opening at the Museum of Modern Art in mid Feb: Foreclosed, Rehousing the American Dream. The exhibition brings together five architect-led teams who have re-imagined five particularly foreclosure-prone sites across the country, taking into account land, housing, and infrastructure. Jeanne Gang, one of this year's winners of the MacArthur Genius Grant, is among the contributors. [Editor at Large; previously] NEW CANAAN, CONN.—Philip Johnson's Glass House, a National Historic Landmark, has a new director: Henry Urbach. He was formerly curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. [UnBeige] |
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Sign Up For the Newsletter; Win $100 to One Kings Lane!: A reminder that those who sign...
| A reminder that those who sign up for Curbed's House of the Day newsletter will put themselves in the running to win a nifty $100 gift card to One Kings Lane. Hurry—giveaway ends Monday morning; check out the site's current offerings over here. [previously; One Kings Lane] |
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Refrigerators Reborn: Dutch designer Dirk Vander Kooij, fresh...
| Dutch designer Dirk Vander Kooij, fresh out of school at the Design Academy Eindhoven, reworked a "disused industrial robot" to produce chairs. That doesn't sound all that impressive until you figure out that the raw material is ground-up refrigerators and that the machine can produce 4,000 units a year. [Co.Design] |
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Linkage: Developer's PR Building; Zero Gravity Coaster; Heart NY
| Photo: Contemporist · Angular "tourist information center" for China's largest developer. [Contemporist] · A zero gravity roller coaster could open in 2013. [Architizer] · Repurposed nuke film studio takes $550K chop. [Curbed LA] · It'll take $21M to fix up this $15M hotel. [Curbed Atlanta] · Ovechkin's new house has sink for Penguins fans. [Curbed DC] · Times Square gets a big heart. [Architizer] |
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House of the Day: A Simple Cabin on 160 Acres of Spectacular Big Sur Coastline
| Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got. Click here to view the full photogallery. Location: Big Sur, Calif. Price: $1,750,000 The Skinny: Occupying "the heart of Bixby Creek watershed, which ancient redwoods have called home for millennia," this expansive, 160-acre private forest is the ultimate in off-the-grid getaways. Currently occupied only by a rustic cabin, the acreage was once graced with a massive redwood house, presumably destroyed by fire, as only the grand stone hearth remains. Five minutes from the beach at Bixby Bridge and 20 minutes from downtown Carmel, this highly desirable property is asking just $1.75M, a price that reflects the time, money, and effort that would be necessary to build a new home on this remote plot, but certainly not the views, which look to be worth many, many millions. · Bixby Canyon [Coldwell Banker] |
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On the Market: Live in the Former Digs of Legendary Decorator Sister Parish
| When Jackie Kennedy moved into the White House and set about redecorating to her considerable taste, she tapped interiors queen Sister Parish, a partner of Albert Hadley, to assist. Her odd first name, descended from a childhood nickname, caused some confusion in the press at the time, as one headline declared "Kennedys Pick Nun to Decorate White House." The child of a well-to-do New York family, with help and a house in Dark Harbor, Maine, Parish took up decorating after moving out of the city to Far Hills, N.J. In order to maintain close contact with potential clients, she kept this one-bedroom maisonette as a pied-a-terre. Since Parish died in 1994, the apartment has been modified by the current owner, with decor by Mario Buatta, and few remnants of the Parish past. Recently listed for $3.5M, this first-floor flat on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue comes with the heady maintenance bill of $11,195 per month—although some decorating junkies might consider that reasonable for the pedigree. Head to Curbed NY for the full photogallery and floorplan. · Kennedy White House Designer's Former UES Flat Hits Market [Curbed NY] · 960 Fifth Avenue [BHS] |
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Globe Trotting: A Tour Through Australia's Most Utterly Ridiculous Closet
| Click here to view the full photogallery. Finally, a worthy contender to that $5M Chanel-inspired closet in Dallas; although far more modern, this Queensland, Australia number shows no shortage of extravagance. The five-bedroom, three-bedroom contemporary was built in 2010 and has amenities galore, from the home theater to the second butlers kitchen to the built-in barbecue outside to the seemingly endless plane of travertine marble to the private balcony off the master wing to the obvious: floor-to-ceiling windows throughout. That all takes a backseat to the walk-in closet/master bath combo platter, a space so large it takes three separate photos (the first three in the gallery above) to view in full. The place is asking just under $3.5M; do have a look. · 12 Vine Street, Queensland, AU [Luxury Portfolio International via CNBC] · Come Take a Tour Through a $5M Closet Inspired By Chanel [Curbed National] |
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Firehouse For Rent: Here's a listing sure to suit...
| Here's a listing sure to suit those who love a) fireplaces and b) sultry newsmen: a converted firehouse in NYC's East Village that's asking $23,500 a month. Although it's unremarkable on the inside, the new owner would be in cahoots with Anderson Cooper, who owns his own firehouse across town. [Curbed NY] |
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On the Market: Five Listed Alternatives to Winter's Favorite TV Show Houses
| Click here to view the full photogallery. With most primetime TV shows awakened from the midseason slumber, now seems an apt time to explore their real estate—or at least properties that resemble their real estate. After all, except for the spooky old house from American Horror Story most actual sets are not actually on the market. Take the sprawling shingle-style estate of Madeleine Stowe's Victoria Grayson in the ABC hit Revenge. It may be located in Wilmington, N.C., quite a ways away from East Hampton, N.Y., where the show takes place, but it's also decidedly not for sale. Yet lovers of the show who happen to have a cool $30M lying around can invest in their own version of Grayson Manor with the Southampton place above, which has trappings befitting of any evil-eyed socialite: gambrels galore, 10 fireplaces, imported French fireplace mantels, hand-painted walls, a staff apartment, a custom wine cellar with a vaulted ceiling, and a tennis court, all over 13,400 square feet of regal interiors. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ The NBC comedy New Girl chronicles the escapades of Zooey Deschanel's Jess, who finds solace from a breakup in a Los Angeles loft occupied by a bunch of guys. The space has what you'd expect, from the exposed brick to the commercial-style bathroom to the basketball hoop. Channeling a similar vibe on a much swankier scale is a new-to-market quadruplex penthouse loft in the Los Angeles Arts District. The two-bedroom, 4,300-square-foot unit, which boasts its own elevator, was once leased by Nicolas Cage and now belongs to fellow actor Vincent Gallo, who's asking $2.599. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Musically inclined Glee primarily takes place within the hallways of the fictional William McKinley High School, supposedly located in Lima, Ohio. Yet thanks to the celebrity-stalking ways of the location-scout blogger I Am Not a Stalker, the world now knows that the home of Kristen Chenowith's high school dropout April Rhodes is actually located in Encino, Calif. Something that appears very similar: this 1953 Encino Mediterranean with four bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms over 4,600 square feet. It's been listed for some four months and asks $1.775M. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ While the exact location of Christina Applegate's Reagan and Will Arnett's Chris in the new NBC comedy Up All Night isn't apparent, the show hints at the San Francisco Bay Area with references to both Oakland and Catalina. From the looks of things, the young parents reside in a ranch with strong midcentury influences: large expanses of floor-to-ceiling glass, a large, tiled fireplace, stone walls, and beamed ceilings. This three-bedroom house, built in 1963 in San Francisco's Diamond Heights neighborhood, sports the same kind of feel, with original cabinetry in the kitchens and baths, nostalgic light fixtures, and board-and-batten siding. The property has most recently been listed for $1M but seems to have just gone into contract. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Perched on a prime Central Park block of Manhattan's Upper East Side, this duplex befits any true fan of the PBS hit Downton Abbey. It may be far from North Yorkshire, but it does have a staff apartment, complete with its own living room and kitchenette, not to mention five staff bedrooms on the second floor. The cost of living this butlered lifestyle: $27.5M. Head to Curbed NY for four additional Downton-worthy apartments. · New Hamptons TV Show Won't Actually Be Filmed in the Hamptons [Curbed Hamptons] · The Hamptons Beach Houses on the TV Show "Revenge" [Hooked on Houses] · A Jaw-Dropping Estate With an Equally Mind-Blowing Ask [Curbed National] · Vincent Gallo Selling Former Biscuit Lofts Penthouse [Curbed LA] · 4520 Libbit Ave., Encino, Calif. [Redfin] · April's House From "Glee" [I Am Not a Stalker] · DECORATING INSPIRATION FROM REAGAN AND CHRIS'S MIDCENTURY MODERN HOME ON NBC'S UP ALL NIGHT [Casa Sugar] · Diamond Heights: Realtor Looking For Million-Dollar Embrace On Turquoise Way [Curbed SF] · 40 Turquoise Way, San Francisco [Redfin] · Five Manhattan Dwellings For the Downton Abbey Fan [Curbed NY] |
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On the Market: The Opulent, Luxe Mansions of Down-on-its-Luck Detroit
| Click here to view the full photogallery. With the national economic downturn added to an auto industry already in decline, Detroit, Mich. has certainly seen better days, but there is perhaps no better place to scoop up an opulent Gilded Age mansion for less. After all, the long-gone industrial titans built some lavish abodes here, like this utterly amazing 5,300-square-foot manse on Van Dyke Place in the city's West Village. Built in 1901, the place boasts six bedrooms and untouched—if somewhat worn—historic details. Though the house is said to have once served as a restaurant, the existing kitchen looks more than a little bare bones, with just a couple of porcelain sinks and cracked tile flooring. Normally, that is to say in a city not quite so hard done by, this place would be asking several million, even with the condition issues. Thanks to a foreclosure proceeding, this stunning bit of history is listed for just $145K, down from $375K a year ago. ↑ The grand homes in the suburbs have fared better than most, in both price and condition, like this extravagant Tudor in Grosse Pointe Shores. Listed for $1.295M, the seven-bedroom spread was built in the 1920s by the department store-funded Webber family. That price is quite a steal when you consider the family spent the equivalent of $6M building the luxuriant pile. Highlights include exceptional hand-carved woodwork and a barrel vaulted ceiling in the living room. Photo: Susan Tusa/Detroit Free Press ↑ Built in 1922 for industrialist Charles Van Dusen, this brick manse is one of the most expensive in Detroit proper, but here you'll get a lot for your $750K. The house encloses 10,400 square feet, with seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, extensive woodwork, some potentially original tiling, and grand entertaining rooms, including a bordello-like billiards hall. That price means a big profit potential for the flippers, who purchased in 2008 for just $242K. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ The leafy Indian Village neighborhood is home to this grand columned mansion, built in 1904. Here, the history has been messed with a bit, both in color and style (see the kitchen), but the price, at $429K, is downright amazing for 11,000 square feet of luxury. The eight-bed, six-bath manse sits on more than an acre of gated greenery, with nanny's quarters and formal gardens. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Also in Indian Village, and asking substantially less, is this brick Colonial, with seven bedrooms and 5.5 baths on 0.36 acres. Aside from the tile in the kitchen, the house is exceptionally well turned out, but not well enough to overcome the housing slide in these parts. The price is $275K, a $75K discount on what the owners paid back in 2002. · 649 Van Dyke Street [Realtor.com] · Van Dyke Place Mansion: (Decaying) Interior Decadence [Curbed Detroit] · Amazeballs Bank-Owned Mansion For Jaw-Dropping Price [Curbed Detroit] · Opulent 1920s Home for Nephew of Department Store Founder [Curbed Detroit] · 1830 Balmoral Drive [Zillow] · 1771 Seminole Street [Zillow] · 2450 Burns Streets [Zillow] |
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Unpaid Intern Wire: In the Times Appraisal column today,...
| In the Times Appraisal column today, an 18-year-old whines about not get any commission from—things like, oh, say, $30M apartments. He represents a larger sector of the unpaid real estate intern contingent, "an ambitious group willing to do anything, earn nothing and wake up early on a Sunday to fluff the couch cushions at your open houses." [New York Times] |
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The Printed Page: Regarding Diane von Furstenberg's glassy penthouse...
| Regarding Diane von Furstenberg's glassy penthouse aerie overlooking the High Line in Manhattan: hallelujah, Architectural Digest has posted the full story online. The additional photos—particularly of von Furstenberg's Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann table that's surrounded by multi-colored Franz West chairs—are a real don't-miss. [Architectural Digest; previously] |
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Linkage: Transparent in Mexico City; Trump Endorses Mitt; Gallo; More!
| Photo: Contemporist · A glassy mansion in Mexico City. [Contemporist] · Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine's Hollywood Hills home. [Arch Digest] · Mitt Romney endorsed by real estate giant Donald Trump. [Zillow Blog] · Shock actor/director Vincent Gallo selling in Downtown L.A. [Curbed LA] · A tour of Denver's modern architecture. [Build Blog] · Red buildings from the Dezeen archive. [Dezeen] · The country home of French stylist Aurélie Lécuyer. [Remodelista] |
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Globe Trotting: A Casual Caribbean Compound on Virgin Gorda for $19M
| Click here to view the full photogallery. Consisting of three separate villas totaling 24,000 square feet, the beachfront compound known as Aquamare has enough space to sleep 36 people in seaside luxury. Fronting directly on a glorious white sand beach, the estate enjoys views to the west that encompass the islands of Drake's Channel and glorious sunsets. Broad windows and sprawling outdoor spaces make the most of those views, but the beachfront infinity pool is the crown jewel of this property. The entire parcel and the three houses are available together for $19M, but buyers who are not quite sold on the idea of a Caribbean compound can purchase one of the 8,000-square-foot, five-bedroom mansions individually for $5.8M and up. · Aquamare [Coldwell Banker] |
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Amenities Alert: Available in a new NYC condo...
| Available in a new NYC condo building: a juice bar, 24-hour vegetarian organic room service, a spinning room, cranial-sacral therapy, and nutritional counseling. Despite this, Curbed NY has some concerns, starting with the fact that "sleeping lofts created along inside walls in some cases have limited ceiling heights, making them not suitable for basketball players." [WSJ; Curbed NY] |
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Designer Digs: In honor of New York Fashion...
| In honor of New York Fashion Week, Zillow Blog has collected info on five homes that have inspired fashion moguls over the years. They include Vera Wang's new purchase and James Perse's midcentury modern manse in Los Angeles. [previously; Zillow Blog; previously] |
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House of the Day: A Trad Georgian Mansion in the Heart of Tony Georgetown
| Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got. Click here to view the full photogallery. Location: Washington, D.C. Price: $6,500,000 The Skinny: Located in the Irish Hill enclave, just steps from the epicenter of D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood, this stately Georgian is one of a handful of detached mansions in this posh section of town. Sprawling over 8,000 square feet, with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, the four-story home was built in 1916 by "a prominent doctor" and features a rear patio, garden, and an exceedingly rare garage, a coveted feature in parking-starved Georgetown. Those unique features, along with the generally excellent condition of this brick manse, have driven the price up to $6.5M, making it one of the top ten most expensive properties on the market in Northwest D.C. To assuage any potential buyers remorse, there's an enormous master suite, occupying "the majority of the second level" and including an exercise room, study, and renovated master bath. · 3301 North Street NW [Sotheby's] |
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From Curbed Marketplace: Inside the Staggering Walls of Manhattan's Priciest Co-op
| Here now, From Curbed Marketplace, highlighting an intriguing real estate listing from the many thousands of properties found in the Curbed Marketplace. Browsing the Marketplace and spot a property worthy of being featured? Send it to the tipline. Click here to view the full photogallery. Very recently the Manhattan real estate world welcomed yet another record-setting newcomer: the Fifth Avenue co-op of songwriter Denise Rich. The 20-room unit, designed by the definitive '20s and '30s NYC architect Emery Roth, is stocked with seven bedrooms, 11 baths, a grand salon with views of Central Park, striated marble floors, a dining room that seats 22, a media room, a pro recording studio, a chef's kitchen on top of two additional kitchens, a private gym, and a rooftop terrace in addition to wrap-around terraces throughout. With essentials like these, it's truly hard to understand why Rich, who told the New York Post that she doesn't "have the need for this type of space," is trying to unload this palace. Listed for a mindblowing $65M, the co-op is officially the priciest in the city—and that, obviously, is quite a badge of honor. Have a look above. · 785 5th Ave# 17-18 [Zillow] · New $65 Million Listing is City's Most Expensive Co-op [Curbed NY] · Denise Rich selling NY's most expensive co-op for $65 million [New York Post] |
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CurbedWire: Places to Watch the Ticker Tape; Success at Arch Digest
| Click to expand! Photo via Co.Design ZARAGOZA, SPAIN—Spanish architect José Javier Gallardo Ortega has completed a bold new zinc-cated children's psychiatric center that somewhat resembles Bart Simpson's spikey hair. a small antidote with a flashy new children’s psychiatric center in suburban Zaragoza. “The red color is a symbol that makes [patients] visible … that robs us of prejudice … that emphasizes the social work … [and] makes us more sexy!” Ortega says. [Co.Design] NYC—Eli Manning may not dominate the real estate scene, but there's plenty of swank real estate from which to watch his team's domination. Curbed NY rounds up eight places to watch tomorrow's Giants victory parade. [previously; Curbed NY] BOSTON—Boston Magazine has just launched a home blog called Roost. [official site via Stylelist Home] PALM BEACH, FLA.—Architectural Digest won the award for Condé Nast's best business turnaround at the company's annual publishers meeting last week. "It’s not just this phenomenon of the big AD100 issue,” publisher Giulio Capua told WWD. “There’s a lot momentum that is building for the brand and a lot of excitement in the community that is really starting to see what AD is going to be.” He later added: "I feel very, very bullish about 2012." [WWD, sub req'd] |
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Celebrity Real Estate: With the Grammys on the horizon,...
| With the Grammys on the horizon, Zillow has compiled a list of some of the most influential houses in music history. Highlights include the tiny bungalow where Bruce Springsteen wrote his game-changing record "Born to Run" and the Seattle mansion of ill-fated grunge man Kurt Cobain. [Zillow Blog] |
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Reopening Mies: Villa Tugendhat, a 1930 masterpiece by...
| Villa Tugendhat, a 1930 masterpiece by the legendary architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is set to reopen in in the Czech Republic after a two-year, $9M renovation. Preservationists can rest easy knowing that 80 percent of the original features are intact; the team even found one of the home's original bathtubs, missing for decades, in a house nearby. [Arch Record via @Knoll_Inc] |
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The Munster Mansion: A diligent Texas couple has spent...
| A diligent Texas couple has spent nearly a decade turning their home in Waxahachie into a real-life version of the house from the '60s sitcom The Munsters. According to the official project site, the "instantly recognizable home [...] stands proud and shockingly accurate at over 5,000 square feet!" [Munster Mansion via Buzz Feed] |
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SPONSORED POST: Win a Dyson Hot Fan Heater & a Valentine's Day Dinner for Two
| Dyson is turning up the heat on an issue that many couples face — the battle over the thermostat. When one runs hot and the other cold, who comes out on top? With Valentine’s Day approaching, there’s a solution to the great climate divide. New technology from Dyson may help end temperature wars forever. The Dyson Hot™ fan heater can be set between 32 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit to heat or cool a room. An intelligent thermostat keeps it there. Answer our temperature survey after the jump for a chance to win a Dyson Hot™ fan heater and a Valentine's Day dinner for two. The Dyson Hot™: one step closer to domestic bliss. |
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"New Jewish Architecture": Today Curbed Philly explores a review...
| Today Curbed Philly explores a review of Gavriel Rosenfeld's latest book, Building After Auschwitz: Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust, and the "shaky thesis" that there's distinctly "Jewish" architecture. The argument against this has a lot to with Louis Kahn; head over for more. [Curbed Philly] |
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House of the Day: A Turn-of-the-Century Mansion on Storied San Fran Street
| Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got. Click here to view the full photogallery. Location: San Francisco, Calif. Price: $8,850,000 The Skinny: Commissioned by "a prominent lawyer and San Francisco Mayoral candidate" in 1894, this gray-and-white Victorian occupies a prized corner on one of San Francisco's best streets, a section of Broadway known as "Billionaire's Row." Compared to some of the other sprawling mansions on the street, this one is a bit cheaper, even at $8.85M, but still enjoys spectacular downhill views from the upper levels. Measuring over 7,000 square feet, this four-story manse boasts six bedrooms, five bathrooms, and yards upon yards of original details. Wood paneling and beamed ceilings line the entertaining rooms, where the furnishings lose the historic plot. The updated kitchen, too, is a less than convincing historic replica, though at this price point a renovation is never out of the question. According to our colleagues over at Curbed SF, this place has been on and off the MLS over the past few months. Perhaps the owners just aren't quite ready to part with it. · 2500 Broadway [Zillow] · Pacific Heights: Handsome Victorian Takes $650K Off the Top, Maybe, Almost [Curbed SF] |
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Occupational Hazards: Finally, something to rival Redfin agents'...
| Finally, something to rival Redfin agents' horror stories of walking in on homeowners, say, cooking ramen naked: walking in on someone who's been dead for five years. That's precisely what happened to a Milwaukee country employee who was on assignement at a tax foreclosure. The corpse was "nearly skeletonized." [JS Online via Jezebel; previously] |
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Riotous Rugs: A study by the psych journal...
| A study by the psych journal Perception suggests that certain carpets induce nausea. "The carpet image was not moving; the people were not moving, but they reported feelings of self-motion and motion sickness," said one psych professor about participants who looked at a black-and-white patterned rug for five minutes. The same was found in folks who stared at crushed-velvet rugs for five minutes. [MSNBC via AOL Real Estate; previously] |
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Website of the Day: Website of the Day: Moby Los Angeles Architecture Blog
| Ever the mysterious and mystique-filled Moby has added another trip under his fantastically tortured bachelor belt: he runs a blog! The musician and Wolf's Lair dweller has just launched Moby Los Angeles Architecture Blog, a bluntly named look at the "strange and beautiful architecture in los angeles." Some recent philosophical musings include: "it’s amazing that there’s so much free floating apocrypha in a city that was fairly sparsely populated up until 100 years ago" and "oh, and that a lot of houses in l.a were built by oddball film people and artists with utopian ideas and sporadic influxes of money)." Another: "i’m merely suggesting that my blog is relatively pointless. the architecture is anything but pointless, it’s great, even when it’s banal and mundane. it’s my blogging that is relatively pointless. or so i believe. i guess i should work on my syntax." (Moby doesn't use capital letters, by the way.) Read more on the blog. · Moby Los Angeles Architecture Bra [official site via UnBeige] · Moby's 10-Step Guide to Being a Fantastically Tortured Bachelor [Curbed National] |
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PriceChopper: Perhaps as a metaphor for its...
| Perhaps as a metaphor for its tiny size, the narrowest house in NYC went through the PriceChopper and emerged with a tinier price: $3.95M. The townhouse measures 98 inches wide, small even by city standards but behemoth in comparison to the record-setting 28.3-inch-wide abode that's soon to be built in Poland. [Curbed NY; previously] |
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Disney's Real World: Perched above a faux storefront American...
| Perched above a faux storefront American Main Street at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., is an apartment that Walt Disney once used in real life. In a Huffington Post interview, Disney's daughter says the space was a "very cozy, family place" with "all little things that [the Disneys] picked up when they were traveling around the country various times." [HuffPo via Architizer] |
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Housekeeping: Sign Up For Curbed's Newsletter; Win Some Cool Free Stuff!
| What better way to enrich yourself than by consuming a beefed-up portion of daily real estate and design porn? Sign up for Curbed's House of the Day newsletter and enjoy Curbed's House of the Day column and other top stories delivered straight to your Inbox each afternoon; plus, you'll be putting your name in the running for contests and giveaways from time to time. Translation: free stuff. Oh, and while you're at it, follow the site on Facebook and on Twitter. Sign Up For Curbed's House of the Day Email: |
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