Archinect - News

$2 Billion Powerball winner splashes $25.5 million on Hollywood Hills mansion

2023-03-09T13:58:00-05:00

To say the last few months have been life-changing for Edwin Castro would be putting it mildly. In November, he bought a winning Powerball lottery ticket at a Mobil gas station in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena. Last month, he finally claimed his record-shattering prize, taking home a $997.6 million lump sum before taxes. Less than 30 days later, he’s the proud owner of one of the flashiest new mansions in the star-studded Hollywood Hills.

Castro purchased the mansion for $25.5 million, a discount from the property’s initial ask of $29.95 million. According to the Los Angeles Times, this is the most expensive sale in the Hollywood Hills this year and one of the neighborhood’s priciest ever. The home was built in 2022 by luxury development company Roman James Design.

Hollywood Hills home of Powerball Lotto winner Edwin Castro. Image screen grab via The AgencyRE.

It stands three stories tall, with more than 13,000 square feet of living space, including five bedrooms and six bathrooms. It features a range of extravagant offerings, including a game room, wine cellar, movie theater, gym, sauna, infinity pool, and more.

Video courtesy of The AgencyRE.

Wood and concrete comprise the mansion’s façade. Its interior is defined by open-concept, indoor-outdoor spaces that allow for a seamless connection between the living spaces and the exteriors. This transparency also provides panoramic views of Los Angeles.

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Oppenheim Architecture unveils images of their crystal quartz-inspired luxury towers in Australia

2021-03-04T16:27:00-05:00

The Miami-based architecture, interior design, and planning firm Oppenheim Architecture shared images of their latest luxury mixed-use project, the Jewel. In February 2020, we connected with firm founder Chad Oppenheim for a Studio Snapshot interview. During the interview, we discussed the firm's work and design ethos. "The practice is much more about creating a platform for expression," he shared.

"We started by doing projects in up and coming areas and using architecture as we way to extract the best return on investment for our clients," shared Oppenheim. "Further down, we wanted to see how architecture can be as elemental as possible. Little by little, we were brought onto projects on spectacular sites, and we wanted to make the most out of them – bringing feeling and emotion as part of our ethos."

Archinect Feature: Searching for the Elemental and Straight-Forward With Oppenheim Architecture. The Ayla Golf Academy and Clubhouse in Aqaba, Jordan. Photo by Rory Gardiner.

Staying ...

Manhattan apartment glut reaches 13,000 units

2020-08-14T13:40:00-04:00

The number of vacant apartment buildings in Manhattan continues to grow as the effects of a recent construction boom and the COVID-19 crisis converge within the city's real estate market.

CNBC reports that the number of apartments for rent, or listing inventory "more than doubled over last year and set a record for the 14 years since data started being collected," highlighting the fact that the number of new leases signed over the last year has fallen by 23%.

Previously on Archinect. "Condo-boom hangover: More than a quarter of NYC's new units remain unsold." Photo: Maciek Lulko/Flickr

Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, the real estate appraisal firm that authored the study cited by the report, tells the CNBC, “The outbound migration is higher than the inbound migration right now."

While talk of excess supply in the city's real estate market has been on the rise in recent years, with most critics citing the region's overdevelopment of luxury high-rise apartments and condominiums...

Charlap Hyman & Herrero envision a concrete house topped by a swimming pool

2020-06-05T16:41:00-04:00

A concrete and wood home situated above the hills of Los Angeles designed by architecture and design firm Charlap Hyman & Herrero is currently under construction.

The "small concrete villa," according to the designers, is "submerged into a hillside" and is designed to appear as "a bridge spanning two large cylinders, pierced by a tree that extends through the roofline."

Organized along along a central "narrow plan" hallway that "unfolds as a sequence of distinctly shaped indoor and outdoor rooms," the home offers a stylized and severe interpretation of the California hillside home typology.

Previously on Archinect: "The Dazzling Work of Charlap Hyman & Herrero is What Happens When a Furniture Designer and Architect Team Up"Image courtesy of

The home is organized so that this hallway, lined with concealed storage spaces, links the opposing ends of the home, including the aforementioned central courtyard space.

The courtyard, according to the architects, orients the house toward its m...

An impossibly thin Chaparral roof tops this California Brutalist home

2020-05-21T15:58:00-04:00

Architect and industrial design firm Marc Thorpe Design has unveiled renderings for a 5,000-square-foot home in Los Angeles that is topped with a wide, flat roof studded with scrubby brushes and sand.

The so-called Case Study 2020 is situated in the Hollywood Hills and is designed as "a tribute to the Case Study Houses of the '50s and '60s," according to the architect's website.

Constructed of board-formed concrete, steel, wood, and glass, the indoor-outdoor home features sleek, monolithic geometries as well as a series of compartmentalized interior spaces that are lit by skylights.

Organized along living, sleeping, and "gallery" zones, the home is conceived as "an act of physical and perceptual invisibility." The home features solar water harvesting as well as perfectly recessed lighting and an L-shaped exterior swimming pool.

Construction on the home is slated to begin sometime in late 2020.

Ruling could force developer to demolish top 20 floors of Manhattan luxury tower

2020-02-17T11:10:00-05:00

Developers SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America may be forced, under a recent New York State Supreme Court ruling, to tear down the top 20 stories of a nearly-completed 56-story luxury residential skyscraper in New York City designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects.

The New York Times reports that last week, New York Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry found that the property at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the city’s Upper West Side was being developed in excess of its allowed zoning. The judge ordered the New York City Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit for a tower currently under construction at the 200 Amsterdam Avenue site, as part of this revocation, the portions of the building that exceed the allowed zoning envelope for the site will have to be removed.

Previously on Archinect: “Stepped NYC tower designed by Elkus Manfredi heads toward completion.” View of the 200 Amsterdam tower. Image courtesy of 200 Amsterdam.

The exact building height and density allowe...

Passionate about housing? Here are 9 employment opportunities currently featured on Archinect Jobs

2019-09-26T13:30:00-04:00

Are you interested in designing housing? If so, we've got you covered. Ranging from high-end residential projects to mixed-use housing and community-focused housing initiatives, these nine firms are seeking the right candidates to join their team.

Guggenheim Architecture + Design Studio seeks an Intermediate Designer/Architect
Location: Portland, OR
Candidates should have a degree in architecture or interior design from an accredited college and a minimum of 3 years relevant work experience in a design-focused office. Responsibilities include developing and modifying design concepts, production drawings and construction documents according to established standards both collaboratively and independently as well as Assist in design research, building & systems programming, site and building analysis.

bcWORKSHOP seeks an Architectural Designer
Location: Washington, DC
The buildingcommunityWORKSHOP ([bc]) is a nonprofit community design center see...

High-end homes are going biometric

2019-06-24T19:11:00-04:00

Little by little, new biometric technologies are making inroads into the domestic sphere.

The Wall Street Journal reports that digital fingerprint lock and facial-recognition systems have become a fact of life for some of the wealthiest homeowners and now come standard for many high-end developments.

The Diller Scofidio + Renfro-, Rockwell Group-, and Ismael Leyva Architects-designed 15 Hudson Yards tower, for example, comes equipped with fingerprint scanner technology, according to the article.

Meanwhile, 2000 Ocean, a TEN Arquitectos-designed condominium tower in Miami, goes one step further by using a "passive facial-recognition system" in its lobby to alert the concierge that you have arrived. "Once you are in the elevator," the project's developer, Shahab Karmely of KAR Properties, told WSJ, "you have to use facial-recognition or a fob to get to the private landing of your unit." Karmely adds, "It’s a different level of security. You can leave your fob behind, someone can ...