Archinect - News

Wealthier communities are cracking down on the size of megamansions

2024-08-12T19:37:00-04:00

The fight to curtail so-called megamansions was picked up recently by Realtor.com. They say the colloquial square footage "horse" has "already left the barn," adding the caveat that the typical American home size has increased by 150% between 1980 and 2018.

Some other choice takeaways include Paul Goldberger telling a Hamptons community meeting in May: "We want to be East Hampton, not Levittown-By-the-Sea." (The growth of estates there began back in the Gilded Age, however.) Zoning regulations in wealthy enclaves such as this tend to focus on a design's aesthetic features and proportions relative to its lot size. The phenomenon of "Iceberg Houses," e.g., where much of the home expands below grade, is another area of scrutiny as more scrupulous planning ordinances begin to take hold.

A millionaire's scheme to build a home for his art collection inside a public park is drawing ire

2022-01-20T13:37:00-05:00

A Mexican multi-millionaire is building a replica of his northern Mexico mansion to serve as a museum for his art collection, an endeavor criticized because it is funded in large part with public money.

The millionaire in question, Mauricio Fernández Garza made his fortune selling beer and petrochemicals, which facilitated the collection of art and ancient fossils now valued at around $120 million. Garza was the three-time mayor of the tony Monterrey suburb where the house is located when plans to use public funding to fund up to 60% of what is essentially a vanity project. Garza’s original plan cost around $18 million before being reduced in scope to around $9.7 by new mayor Miguel Treviño, who defeated him in his latest bid for the position.

The mansion is named after a character in literature and was itself the apparent subject of a 2008 book about its owner’s transformative effort to mold a private residence to his liking. The result of that process is now being dismantled and reinstalled in a large public park nearby — including four 14th and 16th-century ceilings totaling $50 million acquired in a deal with his successor.

Wealth is cemented at the top as starchitects continue to see gains

2021-11-22T14:32:00-05:00

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new list from therichest.com has ranked the world’s top ten architects in terms of their total net worth.

Big A architecture remunerates extraordinarily well for some, with the total list’s net worth nearing three-quarters of a billion USD.

Norman Foster took the top spot with an estimated net worth amounting to $250 million. The outspoken 86-year-old has had a windfall of big development contracts in the past few years, which has helped him maintain the position he has held for parts of the last two decades.

Frank Gehry came in a distant second with around $100 million in total worth. Gehry was followed quickly by Moshe Safdie, who also hit the $100 mark, although it was not clear which methodology was used to delineate the two (some publicized estimates have Safdie’s worth significantly higher at around $150 million). Oculus designer Santiago Calatrava was the only other architect to hit the nine-figure plateau. His estimated net ...

Interview with the man who designed Putin's (allegedly) billion dollar palace

2021-02-28T14:42:00-05:00

Architecturally speaking, it’s not the biggest or best project I made. It’s nice neoclassicism – that’s what was asked for. As an architect, I build what the customer wants...But aesthetically speaking, it is very correct considering historical proportions. It is not kitsch...It's not overdone, but naturally it is rich, as it was supposed to be. And we used fantastic materials. I was proud of my job.

Christian Esch chatted with Lanfranco Cirillo an architect who has spent decades providing Moscow’s super rich with villas and Italian-inspired designs.

Study finds higher greenhouse gas emissions from high-income homes

2020-07-23T19:35:00-04:00

The homes of wealthy Americans are responsible for about 25% more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than low-income households, according to a new study released Monday by University of Michigan researchers.

The study, writes Smart Cities Dive's Jason Plautz, found the GHG impact of U.S. homes is lowest in Western states and highest in Central states, and the carbon footprint of wealthy neighborhoods can be as much as 15 times higher than lower-income areas. CoreLogic, a database of tax assessor records was used to analyze the carbon footprint of roughly 93 million homes, Smart Cities Dive reports.

An influx of new tech millionaires further balloons Silicon Valley's housing crisis

2019-03-29T15:50:00-04:00

As the tech companies Uber, Airbnb, Lyft and Pinterest prepare to go public, thousands more instant millionaires are expected to flood the market in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. All the while, the middle class and working poor are scrambling for shelter.

A satirical look at the homelessness and housing crises by McSweeney's

2018-05-10T16:09:00-04:00

Homelessness in America has reached crisis levels and I am determined to do everything in my power to fix the problem as long as it doesn’t involve changing zoning laws or my ability to drive alone to work or, well, changing anything, really. I’m more than happy to give a hungry man a sandwich once a year and then brag to my friends about it as long as he doesn’t sit down anywhere in my line of sight to eat it. Same goes for hungry women because I’m also a feminist.

A superb piece satirizing the homelessness and housing crises by McSweeney's writer Homa Mojtabai. From a privileged and entitled point of view, Mojtabai highlights extreme issues on how problems are being "solved". This is of course an exaggeration—but by how much?

Where the street has no claim: Presidio Terrace in San Francisco bought after no one paid the street's taxes

2017-08-10T12:33:00-04:00

Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders. Now they’re looking to cash in — maybe by charging the residents of those mansions to park on their own private street.

When the annual $14 city tax bill for the street on Presidio Terrace went unpaid for a little over thirty years, the frustrated municipality held an auction to recoup its lost monies. A savvy couple who live in the decidedly less swanky South Bay snapped it up and now are causing all of the exclusive residents of the street to pay much closer attention to civic matters.

Holing up in hoity-toity hovels: doomsday architecture for the super-wealthy

2017-01-24T17:25:00-05:00

Trump is President, the climate is chaos, and the wealth gap is starting to qualify as its own national canyon. So if you've got vats of money and are afraid of all the people who don't, what do you do? Build doomsday architecture to survive the collapse of society! In this piece for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos investigates the luxury bunkers of folks who realize that they'll probably need to plan to take the family of the pilot of their private jet with them, for, you know, maintenance issues (sigh):

Hall led me through the garage, down a ramp, and into a lounge, with a stone fireplace, a dining area, and a kitchen to one side. It had the feel of a ski condo without windows: pool table, stainless-steel appliances, leather couches. To maximize space, Hall took ideas from cruise-ship design. We were accompanied by Mark Menosky, an engineer who manages day-to-day operations. While they fixed dinner—steak, baked potatoes, and salad—Hall said that the hardest part of the project was susta...

A new NIMBY-ism in America's foremost mansion district

2016-12-05T16:46:00-05:00

This windswept outcropping, peering over the Atlantic, was a Gilded Age haven where the wealthy built mansions known by their names, not addresses: The Elms, Marble House and, most famous of all, The Breakers... Newport has cared deeply about appearances ever since. So when large steel beams rose high in the air between the city’s most storied thoroughfares, framing a mansion that will have an unusual, many-sided shape and a flat roof, neighborhood residents and observers were aghast.

More on the architecture of the mega-rich:

As a new class of super rich investors displace the traditional elite, average Londoners are pushed further and further outside the city limits

2016-08-31T14:01:00-04:00

London’s traditional elite, such as lawyers, architects and academics, are being pushed out of their enclaves in Mayfair, Chelsea and Hampstead by an influx of global super rich investors, causing a chain reaction of gentrification across the capital, according to research by the London School of Economics. An influx of ultra-high-net worth overseas buyers is leading the old elite to sell up and move from London’s most exclusive postcodes and buy in areas they previously considered undesirable

While it may be hard to sympathise with the "traditional elite", these displacements set off a chain-reaction, as the affluent middle class moves into neighbourhoods that were once working class. In turn, lower-income Londoners are forced out of the city all together.

For more on the state of London's housing crunch, check out these links:

Princely pests: new study reveals wealthier homes tend to host more insect species

2016-08-04T13:58:00-04:00

When it comes to cleanliness, common sense suggest wealthier homes are at an advantage. Live-in maids and cleaning services should, ostensibly, help create antiseptic, exclusively human enclosures. Yet new research shows there’s a correlation between socioeconomics and the presence of bugs in the home: more affluent neighborhoods host a greater number of species than lower-income areas.

If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense: more green space means more plants that harbor insects. In fact, socioeconomics impacts diversity across the board, with higher affluence associated with more birds, bats, reptiles, etc.

Humans don’t live aside “nature”, but are an integral and influential force in ecology. Despite all our pesticides and cleaning products, our homes are entangled in a mesh of bacteria, fungi, plants, insects, and animals. According to the study, the average home hosts about 100 species of arthropods, ie. insects and spiders

"Our houses are really permeable and dynamic,” s...

800 feet high and rising

2016-06-08T13:14:00-04:00

By living above 800 feet, Estis and Enkin are two members of an unexpectedly exclusive group in Manhattan. In my estimation, no more than 40 people currently live above that line, scattered among just three buildings... As my elevator descended and my ears popped, it occurred to me that I would almost certainly never take in such a view again. And in fact, maybe nobody will, if these apartments wind up becoming empty investments.

In this elegantly observed and exquisitely written piece, Jon Ronson not only takes in the view of Manhattan at 800+ feet with visits to Trump World Tower, One57, and 8 Spruce Street but looks toward the future of a nation divided by an increasingly intractable wealth gap.

Real estate of the priciest kind:

The self-segregation of America's wealthiest class

2016-05-12T13:16:00-04:00

For years now, people have been talking about the insulated world of the top 1 percent of Americans, but the top 20 percent of the income distribution is also steadily separating itself — by geography and by education as well as by income. This self-segregation of a privileged fifth of the population is changing the American social order and the American political system, creating a self-perpetuating class at the top, which is ever more difficult to break into.

"Geographic segregation dovetails with the growing economic spread between the top 20 percent and the bottom 80 percent: The top quintile is, in effect, disengaging from everyone with lower incomes."

In related news:

These super-rich parents are building bespoke houses to homeschool their children

2016-02-19T17:46:00-05:00

The [Taylor] family is part of a small subset of affluent homeowners who home-school their kids—but not for typical reasons of wanting to provide religious instruction or because they don’t like the public schools nearby. Instead, they say they can create their own optimal learning environments by buying or building homes in which almost every room is a classroom. [...] “When you do a house from the ground up, you do it for how your family lives. Home schooling for us is a lifestyle”

More at the intersection of space and education:

U.S. to start tracking secret buyers of luxury real estate

2016-01-18T11:32:00-05:00

"Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties." "The initiative is part of a broader federal effort to increase the focus on money laundering in real estate."

$500,000,000 spec house under construction in LA

2015-11-11T22:29:00-05:00

"Nobody really reads books," Niami says, "so I'm just going to fill the shelves with white books, for looks." Stepping past the nightclub's outdoor lounge area where circular banquettes will seem to float next to a two-story waterfall, he says: "I really think that this house is going to do a lot for L.A. Anybody who lives in the area is going to be proud to be near it."

Go ahead and hate!

About half of the tennis court had to be built on pilings to account for the land's contours. This niche will have a covered viewing area and a fire pit.
The infinity pool for the guesthouse, which, when built, will be 5,000 square feet itself.
The motor court and the main house's entrance hall; a fire display will greet guests as they step inside.
The gigamansion's main guard gate (there will be a separate area, with monitors, for keeping an eye on the whole estate).
The property will be surrounded on three sides by a moat and other water features, which will make the whole thing appear to be floating.
The "sky deck," as Niami refers to it, will have a putting green, a bar, a lounge area, and covered loggias.

New York's Megatowers: Nothing but 'Vertical Money'?

2015-03-19T12:45:00-04:00

Among this new breed of towers, design elements not directly tied to profit are often downgraded or eliminated as overall costs climb. [...] With today’s mathematically generated super-spires, it’s best to paraphrase Mae West: “Architecture has nothing to do with it.” [...] much as the new super-tall New York condos may serve that same general purpose, these are no works of art. If, as Goethe posited, architecture is frozen music, then these buildings are vertical money.

Related: Too Rich, Too Thin, Too Tall?

Here’s a Map of Where the World’s Richest People Live

2015-03-10T13:23:00-04:00

To put that number in perspective, these folks make up the upper 0.002 percent of the world’s 7 billion inhabitants and hold over $20 trillion of its money.

Ever wondered where the world’s richest live? Here's a map (and a list) of the top 20 nations hosting the globe's 173,000 folks that have more than $30 million in net assets.

Tech-Tycoon Loses Forced to Keep Beach Open

2014-09-30T11:34:00-04:00

San Mateo County Court Judge Barbara Mallach has ruled against Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla in a lawsuit over public access to Martin’s Beach. According to the ruling, Khosla will be required to seek a permit from the California Coastal Commission before locking gates at the beach, as well as to consult with the community to determine changes to the property and public access to the beach.

The secluded Martin's Beach in San Mateo County has been a cherished spot for locals for decades. When Khosla purchased his 53-acre property there in 2008, he locked the gate to the beach, closing off public access. This is just one example of a long history of wealthy property owners trying to privatize beaches. But in the state of California, everything below the mean tide line is public. Still, since access paths sometimes have to be maintained by adjacent property owners, things tend to get complicated.

A few months ago, we posted about the case as it was developing. We mentioned the LA Rangers, an awesome group of urban vigilantes who lead tours on how to access beaches that have – often illegally – been marked as private. Check out their work here.

Buy Condo, Then Add Parking Spot for $1 Million

2014-09-10T13:17:00-04:00

A new development, 42 Crosby Street, is pushing the limits of New York City real estate to new heights with 10 underground parking spots that will cost more per square foot than the apartments being sold upstairs. At $250,000 a tire, the parking spaces in the underground garage cost more than four times the national median sales price for a home, which is $217,800, according to Zillow.

The best thing about this article was the NYT pop up ad for luxury condos in Chelsea.

International Elite Using New York Real Estate to Stash Money

2014-07-01T17:47:00-04:00

According to data compiled by the firm PropertyShark, since 2008, roughly 30 percent of condo sales in large-scale Manhattan developments have been to purchasers who either listed an overseas address or bought through an entity like a limited-liability corporation, a tactic rarely employed by local homebuyers but favored by foreign investors [...] “The global elite,” says developer Michael Stern, “is basically looking for a safe-deposit box.”

A Battle for Public Beach Access Continues

2014-06-19T17:56:00-04:00

"...these days, the future of this hidden beach on the San Francisco Peninsula is being fought in a courthouse 25 miles away, in a battle that has become the latest class-charged standoff involving a wealthy entrepreneur in this polarized part of California..."

The struggle being waged over Martin's Beach is just one in a long history of disputes over public beach access in California. While legally everything below the mean tide line is public, physical walk paths often have to be carved out of private property, something not perfectly accounted for in the law books. A similar case involved business magnate David Geffen in Malibu.

Meanwhile, on the activist side of things is The Los Angeles Urban Rangers, a group of urban explorers who develop tools and strategies to gain greater access to the city. One of their projects consists of leading tours along the Malibu coastline to "show you how to find, park, walk, picnic, and sunbathe on a Malibu beach legally and safely." Included in their tours are activities like "a public-private boundary hike, sign watching, a no-kill hunt for accessways, and a public easement potluck."

The limits of anti-gentrification politics: Brooklyn is getting poorer

2014-05-12T13:26:00-04:00

One problem with our obsession with gentrification as the end-all of urban equity issues is that it discourages us from talking about other important things happening in our cities. In some instances, gentrification has become such a dominating narrative that it has completely erased broader trends that we really ought to be concerned about. Case in point: Brooklyn is getting poorer.

London: rotting blocks of bullion in the sky

2014-02-01T20:49:00-05:00

A third of the mansions on the most expensive stretch of London's "Billionaires Row" are standing empty, including several huge houses that have fallen into ruin after standing almost completely vacant for a quarter of a century.

Robert Booth visits the North London street where billionaires can buy homes, never live in them, let them rot and still make millions

h/t @bruces

Expensive cities are killing creativity

2013-12-23T13:10:00-05:00

New York - and San Francisco, London, Paris and other cities where cost of living has skyrocketed - are no longer places where you go to be someone. They are places you live when you are born having arrived. They are, as journalist Simon Kuper puts it, "the vast gated communities where the one percent reproduces itself".

Vacation at a Fake Shanty Town With Luxury Amenities

2013-12-02T16:30:00-05:00

Are you interested in visiting South Africa? Interested in seeing the real South Africa? Interested in experiencing how the real people live? Interested in tasting the poverty and hardship of life in a shanty town? And—most importantly—are you fearful and white? Congratulations! You're a perfect guest for the Shanty Town at Emoya Luxury Hotel and Spa, where, for less than $100 a night, you can get the authentic experience of living in a shanty town—without the bothersome shanty dwellers.

Meet Zhang Xin, a Chinese real estate mogul who's richer than Oprah

2013-07-02T18:31:00-04:00

Zhang, a Chinese real estate developer, is the seventh richest self-made women in the world, worth $3.6 billion, according to Forbes. She's worth $800 million more than Oprah Winfrey, the world's best known self-made female billionaire. Not only does Zhang's rags-to-riches story mirror that of China itself, but it is Zhang who has shaped much of the country's modern urban landscape, with the logo of her company SOHO China, on the side of buildings wherever you turn in Beijing.

Galaxy SOHO, designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid for Zhang' SOHO China, was built in 2012 on a 50,000 square meter plot in central Beijing. It was Hadid's first building in Beijing.

The specter of ghost buildings in London

2013-04-06T11:33:00-04:00

The salesclerk at a Belgravia clothing boutique, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because she did not want to get in trouble, said that at some times of the year the area was virtually abandoned. “We’ll shut for the whole of August,” she said.

Earlier this week Sarah Lyall explored how some neighborhoods in London have become "So Exclusive Even the Owners Are Visitors". This is because the owners are increasingly, superwealthy foreigners from places like Russia, Kazakhstan, Southeast Asia and India, who are purchasing a residence either as an investment or as Yolande Barnes of the real estate firm Savills explains "It’s more like buying their own private hotel" for their occasional visit to London.

As Bruce Sterling (h/t) commented over at his blog "the Gothic High-Tech soulless barns of the offshored ultra-wealthy. A city that once thrived by financialization is seeing its citizens replaced by money. It would be even more interesting if the entities owning these structures were themselves financial instruments, and never human to begin with. Maybe these 'ultraprime' structures could be purchased and owned by quant algorithms, stockmarket style"

Norman Foster buys President Obama’s summer retreat, Blue Heron Farm, for $22 million

2011-12-05T15:53:00-05:00

Lord Norman and Lady Elena Foster of Thames Bank in Great Britain purchased the 28-acre “gentleman’s farm” in West Tisbury for a whopping $22 million last month, The Vineyard Gazette reports. According to the broker who handled the sale, the new owners do not intend to rent the property to the first family — or anyone else.