Tag: house

Not So Little Italy

Vast “Italian style” oceanfront mansion in Orange County, CA relaunched for sale for £42.7 million; it has failed to sell at prices as high as £53 million

An 18,000 square foot barn of a residence described as “the finest oceanfront home in SoCal” has been relaunched to the market this month at a price 20% lower than when it was first listed in 2013.

Built in what is somewhat ambitiously termed an “Italian palazzo style” and featuring Spanish tile roofing, five imported European fireplaces and “terrazzo flooring evoking those in The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades”, 2585 Riviera Drive stands on an acre plot in north Laguna Beach’s private Irvine Cove community. It is one of twelve oceanside homes in a gated, 24-hour-a-day guarded community and enjoys “spectacular views” of the Pacific and access to a private beach.

Constructed to the designs of the Warner Group over a period of eight years and completed in 2010, the house offered occupies half of a larger plot owned until 2002 by Joan Irvine Smith, a woman whose family had at one time been the main landowner in the area. It features not only 5 bedroom suites and 9 bathrooms but also a screening room with bar, a 10,000 bottle wine cellar with tasting room and a 6-car garage with hydraulic lift.

Within the grounds stands a guest house that was designed to be “a scaled back replica of Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut” and a 53-foot brass and glass waterfall made from materials salvaged from a Los Angeles bank. There are also 100-year old olive trees, a rose garden and a pool with cabana and spa.

An aerial shot of the site during construction

The house today with the ocean beyond

Owned by businessman Ronald K. Loder, the founder of RKL Consulting, and his wife Yolanda, 2585 Riviera Drive is for sale with Maxine Laube of Surterre Properties. Of it, in 2013, Mr Loder remarked:

“My wife and I love traveling to Northern Italy, particularly Bellagio and the lake country, where we’ve always admired the architecture… [But] I wouldn’t want [our house] to be construed as Tuscan in any way… Even though we built an Italianate palazzo, we wanted the flavor [sic] of mid-century design around us”.

“We wanted people to know they were stepping into an oceanfront property the moment they arrived”.

The Numbers – 2585 Riviera Drive, Laguna Beach

June 2002 – Land subdivided into three plots; 2585 Riviera Drive sold for sum of $10.5 million (the equivalent of £11.1 million, $14.3 million, €12.7 million or درهم52.5 million today).

July 2013 – Placed for sale for $65 million (the equivalent of £53 million, $68.2 million, €60.5 million or درهم250.6 million today).

May 2017 – Relaunched for sale for $55 million (£42.7 million, €49 million or درهم202 million).

June 5, 2017
Sail Away

Georgian house in Emsworth, Hampshire complete with its own private dock for sale for £3.4 million

A symmetrical, yellow brick early 19^th century house complete with its own private dock has gone on sale for £3.4 million ($4.4 million, €3.9 million or درهم16.1 million).

Grade II listed Wharf House in the small town of Emsworth stands in gardens of 0.72 acres and comes with a dock with a 45-foot capacity. It has tidal access to the Emsworth Channel, which leads to Chichester Harbour, and comes with a private slipway.

Wharf House itself provides 5,231 square foot of accommodation over four floors and features 3 reception rooms, an orangery, 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. A double garage and garden room are to be found within the grounds and there is potential to add an outdoor pool.

Agents Strutt & Parker describe the property as: “A rarely available Georgian gem”.

June 1, 2017
Mucking Up A Manor

“Grand” Grade II* listed Midlands manor for sale for just £350,000; it comes with a 49-seat cinema and several unexpected catches

Where there’s muck, there’s money and a late 18^th century Midlands manor house currently for sale for just £350,000 ($451,000, €402,000 or درهم1.65 million) provides an example of the tale of the progress and decline of industrial wealth in once Great Britain.

Built in 1757 for a family of Black Country industrialists, Wordsley Manor in Wordsley, near Stourbridge has been owned by the Firmstone family and their relatives since around 1850. A red brick built, four floor “small mansion” that extends to 7,464 square foot in total, the building has been Grade II* listed since 1976 and was expanded in the 19^th century with the addition of two service wings.

Comprising of 3 reception rooms, 7 cellar rooms, 4 bedrooms and just 1 bathroom, dilapidated Wordsley Manor is – giving explanation for its extremely low asking price – in need of complete renovation. It comes, however, with an unexpected bonus: Where bedrooms previously existed on its second floor, there is currently an art studio and a quirky 49-seat cinema with a Christie organ, box office and projection and switch rooms.

Architect Christopher Firmstone and wife Joan have been occupants of Wordsley since inheriting it in 1991. They have attempted to maintain the house but in 2011, Mr Firmstone told the Birmingham Mail:

“I took it on and sorted it out as best I could. Most people would have run a mile, but I had a real sense of attachment to it [he spent his childhood there also]”.

“I spent a bit more than I could afford on it, but I was unable to do everything that needed doing”.

In 2013, the couple followed in the footsteps of relatives who had sold off much of the surrounding land for housing in the mid 20^th century and agreed a deal with a firm of developers named David Alexander Homes. In exchange for yet another parcel of the former estate’s grounds – that was subsequently marketed rather cheesily as a residential complex named “To the Manor Bourne” – a £400,000 ($512,000, €460,000 or درهم1.88 million) payment is to be made towards the restoration of Wordsley Manor.

In their sales brochure, agents The Lee, Shaw Partnership state: “Best and final offers must be made for Wordsley Manor by 5.30pm on Tuesday 27^th June”. They add: “Only cash purchasers” need apply.

May 30, 2017
Anything But A Steel

Renovated Pacific Heights, San Francisco residence with Danielle Steel as a neighbour for sale for sum 652% higher than it sold for in 1994

A buyer wishing to live just to the north of Danielle Steel’s architecturally striking ‘Spreckels Mansion’ home can now purchase 1994 Jackson Street in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights.

For sale with agent Malin Giddings, the 5,490 square foot, 4-storey detached house offered includes not only 4 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, but also a bar, wine room, exercise room, elevator and barbecue. It comes with a 2-car garage, two balconies and a garden and is curiously described as having a “re-scripted aesthetic” that “caters to the 21^st century family while incorporating the best finishes of yesterday and today”.

Built in 1940 and completely reconfigured by Ken Fulk – an “incredible… sprightly… design guru” with a client list ranging from Napster’s Sean Parker to Bebo’s Michael and Xochi Birch, according to Vanity Fair – £8.40 million ($10.75 million, €9.62 million or درهم39.50 million) is sought for the house.

Indicative of the sharp rise in prices in the neighbourhood since it became popular with the titans of Silicon Valley, 1994 Jackson Street sold for $6.25 million in 2008 (the equivalent of $7.10 million, £5.55 million, €6.35 million or درهم26.09 million today) and $1.43 million in 1994 (the equivalent of $2.36 million, £1.84 million, €2.11 million or درهم8.67 million today). Plainly, now, this is a house that’s anything but a steal.

Prior to renovation – 1994 Jackson Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94109, United States of America as it was presented when sold in 2008

1994 Jackson Street today

The house is set just beneath Danielle Steele’s ‘Spreckels Mansion’ (2080 Washington Street)

Danielle Steel and her palatial home

1994 Jackson Street (viewed from the side)

The house has been made-over by San Francisco “man-about-town” Ken Fulk

He is famed for having designed homes for amongst others Michael and Xochi Birch

The staircase of 1994 Jackson Street

The house’s main reception space

The dining room

The kitchen

A colourfully carpeted entertaining area

A recreation room with a bar

The master suite has a bedroom area, sitting area, dressing room, balcony and bathroom

Another of the four/five bedrooms in the house

The view

A floor plan of the space

May 27, 2017
Robert Adam

With such a name, this suave gent just had to design landmarks. University of Westminster educated and Hampshire based Robert Adam (born 1948) followed his more famous namesake (1728 – 1792) and became a designer of “progressive neo-classical style buildings” in 1975. He won “the richest prize in architecture” in January 2017 and counts the Sackler Library at the University of Oxford, a “miniature Baroque mansion” at Eastwood Farm – complete with a lion on the roof – in Herstmonceux, East Sussex and the “KGB proof” Ingliston House on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey amongst his notable works.

(more…)

May 27, 2017
Basement It Like Beckham

Former Algerian Embassy in Holland Park for sale for £30 million; the detached stucco house needs complete renovation and counts David and Victoria Beckham as neighbours

The former Embassy of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria in Holland Park, W11 has just been placed for sale for the sum of £30 million ($39.1 million, €34.9 million or درهم143.7 million).

Offered by estate agent Anthony Sharp, the 9,490 square foot, Grade II listed detached stucco house includes accommodation over five floors and was built in 1862. One of remaining Italianate villas designed by brothers Francis and William Radford, 54 Holland Park is described as being “in need of full modernisation” and as having “scope to create a magnificent family home”.

The buyer will count David and Victoria Beckham as near neighbours. They paid £31.5 million ($41.1 million, €36.6 million or درهم150.9 million) for 23 Holland Park in 2013 and finally took up residence there in July 2016 after completing an £8 million ($10.4 million, €9.3 million or درهم38.3 million) renovation that included, amongst other things, a vast subterranean redevelopment.

May 20, 2017
A Highly Priced Hall

Queen Anne house in South Yorkshire for sale for punchy sum of £1.2 million

An architecturally striking four-storey Queen Anne house in South Yorkshire is for sale for £1.2 million ($1.6 million, €1.4 million or درهم5.7 million) in spite of standing on a small plot that is overlooked by its now converted former outbuildings.

Originally built circa 1720 and Grade II listed since 1968, The Hall at High Hoyland, near Barnsley is built of coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and has a stone slate roof. It has many original features, provides 4 reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and has gardens to both front and rear.

The Hall is offered by the England Residential Estate Agency.

May 19, 2017
Spirit & Speed

Chelsea studio house built for “spiritual artist” Arild Rosenkrantz and later home to the extremely eccentric lesbian heiress and powerboater ‘Joe’ Carstairs for sale for £8.95 million

“Spiritual seeker” and artist Baron Arild Rosenkrantz (1870 – 1964) was born in Denmark, studied in Rome and married his Scottish cousin, Louise Mackenzie, in 1901. His commissions included ceiling panels at Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair and illustrating the Danish edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery Adventure and now a Chelsea home built for him is for sale for £8.95 million ($11.5 million, €10.6 million or درهم42.4 million).

Designed by the Maidenhead based architect Clifton Robert Davy (1879 – 1929) and Grade II listed since 1997, red brick built, 4-storey 5 Mulberry Walk is described as being of a “stripped Classical Mannerist style”. It features the artist’s initials on the rectangular profile downpipe and was his home from when it was finished until 1922.

Baron Arild Rosenkrantz and one of his works

Marion ‘Joe Carstairs’ once remarked: “I was never a little girl. I came out of the womb queer”; of her biographer Kate Summerscale added: “She was blithe, bold, courageous, unself-conscious, imperialist, impervious to social change”

Subsequently sold to the eccentric and extremely masculine heiress Marion Barbara ‘Joe’ Carstairs (1900 – 1993) for £3,000 in the early 1920s (the equivalent of just £167,000, $215,000, €197,000 or درهم791,000 today), 5 Mulberry Walk became the party venue for the “fastest, artiest, gayest, not to mention the most alcoholic and drug-addicted set in London at the time”. Carstairs – a lesbian described as “usually dressed as a man, having tattooed arms, and loving machines, adventure and speed” – remained there well into the 1930s and even had a name plaque for a doll she was obsessed with, ‘Lord Tod Wadley’, placed on the building’s door.

Extending to 3,163 square foot in total, 5 Mulberry Walk is currently divided into two apartments. The first, a ground floor studio with a 32-foot wide garden, has 1 bedroom whilst the second covers three floors and has 4 bedrooms. Each has a large artist’s studio space and in total there are 2 kitchens, 3 bathrooms and a roof terrace as well.

5 Mulberry Walk, which is most definitely ready for modernisation and reconfiguration internally, is offered by Russell Simpson.

May 14, 2017
Staging the Dollars

Prominent banker attempts to sell San Francisco mansion for a sum 205% higher than it achieved in 1993; it comes with an outdoor theatre

Built in 1904 of brick on a wood frame and subject to a seismic upgrade in 1994, 3444 Washington Street in Presidio Heights, San Francisco was sold for $15.2 million in 2006 (the equivalent of £11.8 million, $18.4 million, €13.9 million or درهم55.8 million today) and before that for $5.9 million in 1993 (the equivalent of £7.8 million, $10 million, €9.1 million or درهم36.7 million today). It is currently owned by the banker David A. Coulter and his “social entrepreneur” wife Susan Weeks Coulter and has recently been placed for sale for £14 million ($18 million, €16.5 million or درهم66.1 million).

Offered by Linda Mayne of Mayne & Company, the 9,074 square foot “Georgian-style residence” comes with not only 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms but also an outdoor amphitheatre complete with terraced seating and an al fresco kitchen with a barbecue. The 4-storey building was last remodeled in 2008 and also includes a media room with wet bar and views of the Golden Gate Bridge, a wine cellar with capacity for 1,600 bottles, a lift, staff quarters and a 2-car garage.

Susan Weeks Coulter and her husband David A. Coulter (left and right)

3444 Washington Street, Presidio Heights, San Francisco, California, CA 94118, United States of America

The garden features an amphitheatre complete with terraced seating

The view from the house

Property taxes on the house were a not insubstantial sum of £154,959 in 2015 ($199,685, €182,686 or درهم733,690). Mr and Mrs Coulter attempted to sell 3444 Washington Street in 2008 but subsequently withdrew it from the market after reducing their then asking price from $17.5 million to $12 million (the equivalent of £13.6 million to £10.6 million, $19.9 million to $13.6 million, €16 million to €12.4 million or درهم64.3 million to درهم50 million today). They also own reportedly bought a penthouse at 55 East 72^nd Street in New York in 2012.

Pennsylvania born, Carnegie Mellon University educated Mr Coulter, currently a special limited partner at Warburg Pincus, was previously vice chairman of JP Morgan Chase & Co. from 2001 to 2005. He was chairman and CEO of Bank of America Corporation for two years from 1996, but was unceremoniously fired when that organisation was “eaten alive” by Hugh McColl’s NationsBank in October 1998.

https://vimeo.com/212072933

May 13, 2017
A Fashionable Bargain

£39 million summer house on Lake Geneva that was designed by one of the architects of the Eiffel Tower to be sold at auction without reserve

Built in the Belle Époque style on the north shore of Lake Geneva, Château de Promenthoux is a 13,988 square foot house on a plot of 9 acres. It has been on the market for £38.8 million (CHF 50 million $49.9 million, €45.7 million or درهم183.5 million) but is now to be sold at auction on the 15^th June “to the highest bidder” by Concierge Auctions.

Couturier Jean Philippe Worth (1856 – 1926) commissioned Stephen Sauvestre (1847 – 1919), one of the architects of the Eiffel Tower, to build Château de Promenthoux as his summer house in 1896. The son of the “father of haute couture”, Charles Frederick Worth (1825 – 1895), opted for a building that featured Meillerie stone pillars and brick walls covered by dark wood and an interior dominated by parquet flooring, paneling, velvet wall coverings and soaring ceilings.

The private harbour of Château de Promenthoux can accommodate numerous boats and is protected by two jetties built of Meillerie stone blocks and an outside break-weather

Original owner Jean Philippe Worth and his architect Stephen Sauvestre

Current owner Linda Durand

Now restored “with modern amenities”, the 4-storey house has 7 imposing reception rooms, 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 3 kitchens and separate accommodation for staff. It comes with a hydraulic lift, a gym, a sauna, the largest private harbour on Lake Geneva and also enjoys the most spectacular of views across the water.

Of why she is selling, current owner Linda Durand remarked:

The property has been in our family for almost two generations. I grew up here as a kid and then I remained in the property with my family and I raised my children here.

The property is a very large house that could be called a mansion, could be called a small castle. It’s so natural, it’s so remote, giving a big atmosphere of peace and quietness… Within just half an hour’s drive you can be skiing, sledging, cross-country.

The house is not a proper wooded house. Just the style it was given was the wood, which means the house was very safe. It is very solid, very, very well built… It was built as a family home but it could be used by an organisation for international purposes, for a consulate, by an embassy, a private club.

After discussing an auction, we decided it would be a different opportunity to sell the property in a certain time frame… We want to enable the property to continue to belong to someone in a certain time frame and not be on the market for maybe longer.

Situated within a district of Switzerland most famous for the production of white wine, Château de Promenthoux is 7.5 miles from Geneva and 27 miles from Lausanne.

May 13, 2017