The construction of this and other so-called giga-mansions underscores a new gilded age in the United States and especially in LA. [...]
The splurge comes amid a housing shortage that has fuelled a homelessness crisis, with 57,000 people without permanent shelter in LA county [...]. The Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez compared the city’s hilltop mansions to giant tombstones marking the death of humility.
— The Guardian
The Guardian takes a peek into the world of ultra-luxury real estate developer Niles Niami whose latest endeavor—the sprawling Bel Air hilltop giga-mansion with its four swimming pools, 20 bedrooms, movie theater, and nightly club aptly called The One—frequently makes the news for being America's priciest home. Clocking in at $500m, the property is still waiting for a billionaire buyer.
9 Comments
I am wondering if Steve Lopez's, "the death of humility" is a typo for "the death of humanity?"
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Waiting for a buyer? Or a population of settlers?
I'd argue this story has humanity (at least, some of its worst tendencies) all over it. Unfortunately.
How does someone as dumb as this developer pull off such a stupid stunt?
The architect is Irish-born Paul McClean who has done award-winning stuff in the past and pretty much pioneered the wide-open movable walls look in LA for the beautiful people. Here is one of his smaller efforts.
https://www.architecturaldiges...
$500M? That just doesn't sound right. What is the cost/sqf for the construction. $500M is enough to build a large mid rise building in NYC with that amount.
That could be accurate. (Not in any sense 'right,' but accurate.)
There's a penthouse floor of a building in West Hollywood that the developer is asking $100M for. But, fridge and stove are included, so you'd save there....
You don't know how much it pisses me off that the high end residential architecture is wildly affected by "market" rather than the actual construction cost. The regular folks are forced to get the ugly 2x4 vinyl houses. I wish the modernism houses that we consider old stuff from last decade can be a normal option for the market. A mass produced modern machine for living in Corb's vision. But those houses are usually multiple Mils either custom made or developed in ultra rich area like Beverly hills or such. If you want to shop a normal modern style house with reasonable price connected to actual construction cost, you are out of luck.
As the dude would say "let me go find a cash machine..."
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