The guys at Co.Design marvel over a Belgium’s House Bern Heim Beuk, a chic, modern, truly “ultimate treehouse” that has “a giant tree plunging through the roof.” While the Ghent-based architects wouldn’t respond to questions about the project, the press release probably says it all: “House. A small site. A small house. The small budget.” [Co.Design]
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Click here to view the full photogallery. With Facebook shares set to begin trading, well, right around now, it only makes sense to take a look around Silicon Valley, where Facebook’s IPO is set to ignite the real estate market. According to recent reports, sellers in the Palo Alto area have been anxiously anticipating the flood of newly minted millionaires and speculators have already driven prices up by 10 percent. For all the conjecture, only now will we find out if these Facebook kids have a taste for luxury real estate. To make things a little easier on them, we’ve picked out five of Silicon Valley’s finest—or at least most expensive—properties, starting with this, the Buck Estate. Built in 1934 for a wealthy San Francisco industrialist as a summer retreat, the English country-style residence lies less than eight miles from Facebook headquarters and features the sort of old world finishes that are hard to come by, even for the super wealthy. Currently listed for almost $11M, the 16,900-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion could use some (presumably expensive) TLC on the inside, but otherwise looks fit for a king, as well it should, because the Buck Estate was modeled after “Hampton Court in Middlesex, England, a 16th century royal family residence.” Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ For even more seclusion, we head to the hills of Portola Valley, Calif., where the Villa Lauriston has been languishing on the market, awaiting just this sort of flood of cash. Currently listed for $15.95M, a discount of more than $4M off its 2010 asking price, the villa was built for San Francisco businessman and noted perfectionist Herbert Edward Law and once home to William Randolph Hearst’s attorney, who is thought to have burned the “Rosebud” papers in the basement furnace. The 1926 stone structure, with seven bedrooms and ten baths, sits on 28 private acres of hillside. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ For something much more modern, befitting a social networking exec, this Swatt Miers-designed contemporary mansion, listed for $19.8M and set on a hilltop in Atherton, checks all the boxes. Known as the Oz Residence, the house sits on 2.6 treed acres and utilized the finest materials in its construction, like Honduran mahogany and African walnut. Partly inspired by the Museum of Modern Art, these sleek accommodations include five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and 9,300 square feet of living space. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Though designed and built in 2008, this Atherton estate doesn’t skew quite as modern as the last one, but still carries the sky-high listing price of $15.8M. Built from stone with Post and Beam influences, the 8,100-square-foot main house includes five bedrooms and 4.5 baths, while the grounds are complemented by a broad stone patio with swimming pool and dense plantings that ensure privacy. Luxury finishes abound, with French limestone lining the fireplaces, mahogany windows and doors, and 10-inch-wide plank floors of white oak. The one-acre lot is also home to a one-bedroom guest house and an in-law apartment. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ For the thrifty member of the nouveau riche looking to score a deal on their next mansion, this Woodside spread might be just the thing. The 13,000-square-foot French-style estate was built in 1929 and recently listed for as much as $21M, with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms on roughtly five acres of land, nine miles from Facebook HQ. Le Soleil, as the property is known, is set to be auctioned off to the highest bidder on June 14, which makes this a good fit for a Facebooker, provided one of his or her colleagues doesn’t swoop in and pay the “buy it now” price of $12.95M. · Facebook’s Market Debut [NYT] · Facebook Effect: Palo Alto Home Prices Up, Inventory Down [AOL Real Estate] · 125 Northgate Street [Zillow] · 5050 Alpine Road [Christie's] · 92 Sutherland Drive [Gullixson] · 390 Stevick Drive [Gullixson] · 320 Harcross Road [Concierge Auctions]
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On the Market: As Facebook Shares Begin Trading, Homes for New Billionaires
The penthouse of yet-unfinished midtown building One57 just sold for somewhere in the range of $90M to $100M, making it the biggest deal in the history of Manhattan real estate. Aside from being extraordinarily wealthy, the buyer is apparently “a very nice family” as well as “someone that people would recognize,” according to the building’s developer. Curbed NY has a look at the penthouse floorplan. [New York Times via Curbed NY ]
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Blockbusters: The penthouse of yet-unfinished midtown building…
Click here to view the full photogallery. Photos via Contemporist Created by the Singapore-based firm MAPS Design, the Residences at the W Koh Samui are some of the most attractive beachside villas in the world. With more than a half mile of white sand beach, only 19 residences, and a remote location, there’s little chance of a crowd forming to spoil the paradise. The two- and three-bedroom homes are priced from 65M thai baht, or $2.07M, but there’s little sense in converting the prices to dollars. According to the official W website: “The residential units are not offered to individuals who reside in the United States, entities organized under the law of the United States, nor to persons or entities located in the United States.” It’s not quite clear why this is, but perhaps it explains why Facebook’s Eduardo Saverin, a Singapore resident, is looking to renounce his American citizenship. · The Residences [W Koh Samui]
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Globe Trotting: Sleek Villas on Chic Thai Island Off Limits to American Buyers
Seventy-four years after it was designed by Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret as a compact mountain retreat, the Refuge Tonneau has finally been built. Presented as part of the Cassina outpost at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, the Refuge was recreated from the original plans with the help of Perriand’s daughter. [Architect's Newspaper]
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Photo: desire to inspire · The not-so-evil “Vader House,” by architect Andrew Maynard. [desire to inspire] · Lady Antebellum singer Charles Kelley buys big in Nashville. [The Real Estalker] · Walter Gropius-designed hospital destroyed for redevelopment. [Arch Paper] · Virgin Atlantic’s new “Upper Class” cabin, by Pengelly Design. [Wallpaper*] · Another cool modern villa arrives in José Ignacio, Uruguay. [Contemporist] · The real estate market in Barbados has weathered the storm. [NYT]
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Linkage: The Vader House; Gropius Hospital Gone; José Ignacio; More!
Photo via Curbed Hamptons EVERYWHERE —Artist Ruben Toledo has been tapped to paint the surfaces of Ralph Pucci’s second furniture collection. [Editor at Large] LOS ANGELES —Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson” has put his seven-bedroom, 9,100-square-foot house on the market for $4.995M. The Med-style home is described as a “Tour de Force” in the brokerbabble, so there’s that. [Trulia Luxe Living] PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA —The mysterious French architect who’s somehow connected to China’s largest political scandal in decades—the one involving disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailai, who is accused of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood—has been found. Patrick Henri Devillers “reluctantly and quizzically opened his front gate to an unexpected and unwanted visitor on a recent night” and “belied the image that has been painted of him.” [New York Times]
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CurbedWire: Ruben Toledo for Ralph Pucci; "The Rock" Lists in L.A.
Lindsay Lohan will appear on the second season of Bravo’s Million Dollar Decorators, according to Hollyscoop, which snagged photos of the actress shopping with interior designer Kathryn Ireland at Los Angeles furniture and decor shop Kreiss. They bought a couple of sofas, armchairs, table lamps, and outdoor furniture. Perhaps to decorate her new rental? [Hollyscoop via If the Lamp Shade Fits; previously ]
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In today’s Deal Estate column over on Chicago Mag, Dennis Rodkin does a walk-through of Crate and Barrel founders Carole and Gordon Segals’ listed Winnetka, Ill. mansion. About the drapery-less living room, Carol says, “The room is infused with nature This is the way I’ve always lived.” [Chicago Mag via Curbed Chicago; previously ]
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Photo via LifeEdited In 2010, Graham Hill, founder of the eco-friendly design/architecture site TreeHugger, launched a competition to turn one of his tiny studios in downtown Manhattan into a chic, modern vision of what life lived in small spaces should look like. Three hundred entries, one winner (Romanian architecture student Catalin Sandu), one winning design (which ingeniously uses Murphy beds, expandable furniture, cleverly disguised storage solutions, and multifunctional tabletop pieces), and a $365K renovation later, Hill finally slept in the 420-square-foot space for the first time on last week, but he considers it more like 1,100—the space transforms to become a kitchen, bath, living room, dining room, office, master bedroom, and guest bedroom. “Looked at this way,” he wrote in an email to the New York Times, “you’re getting the functionality of an apartment almost triple the size. Granted, you can only use one space at a time and this requires a transformation but still…” Anyway, today the Times runs a lengthy profile of LifeEdited’s “apartment of the future—a “laboratory for small-space, sustainable and high-end living”—which is already planned for a residential building in a Las Vegas redevelopment project. Head over to view the slideshow and watch the video proposal of the project below. The Video: · Selling the Pared-Down Life [New York Times]
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Video Interlude: Inside the 420-Square-Foot "Apartment of the Future"