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Michael “Flea” Balzary no longer has any need for his funky architectural digs tucked away in the La Crescenta foothills. The Red Hot Chili Pepper bassist has now officially listed the pedigreed property in the unincorporated community near Glendale, asking a hefty $9.8 million for the one-of-a-kind refuge he picked up for $4.3 million almost four years ago. — Dirt.com
Flea purchased the Michael Maltzan-designed complex, which includes an outdoor movie pavilion, redwood cabin, and smaller two-bedroom house Richard Neutra designed for his secretary Dorothy Serulnic, from artists Lari Pittman and Roy Dowell in June of 2018. Engel Studios, Cameron Carothers... View full entry
At present, Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando is building Kim’s Palm Springs home, which she describes as “concrete, gray-toned, and really zen,” while Kengo Kuma, who designed the National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as LVMH’s Japan headquarters, is creating a glass-and-wood lake house for her in an undisclosed location, where Kim travels every Fourth of July. — Vogue
The Palm Springs home and new Kuma design will offer some competition to the pricey portfolio her ex-husband has been building with his recent $57.3 million acquisition of an Ando-designed Malibu home that was custom-built for investment manager Richard Sachs in 2013. Tadao Ando Interview... View full entry
Lloyd's of London (SOLYD.UL) is considering whether to remain in its flagship City of London headquarters and may make a decision this year, the commercial insurance market said on Tuesday. — Reuters
The news comes just over a month after the death of its Pritzker-winning architect in London at the age of 88. A Lloyd’s spokesperson pointed to the shifts in workplace culture brought on by the Coronavirus as significant factors behind the potential change. The insurance giant's... View full entry
The opulent Sicilian castle featured in the third installment of The Godfather franchise has just gone on the market. For a cool €6m prospective buyers can expect 22 bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a wine cellar, an artist’s studio, a library, a private chapel and 2.1 acres of parkland. — The Art Newspaper
The fate of the sizable art collection located inside the house remains an important (and much more valuable) question as so far only the in situ works that exist in the house have been confirmed included in the sale. The manse was commissioned as a collector’s de facto private museum by a Baron... View full entry
Together, ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Voxel Architects, along with general contractor and NFT collector Gabe Sierra, are introducing the first ever ‘MetaReal’ mansion that includes a real-world home and a virtual counterpart in the metaverse. The virtual home will live within The Sandbox metaverse.
The buyer of the NFT asset will also acquire ownership rights of the physical home, set to be completed in Miami in Q4 of 2022. This is the first time something like this has been done.
— Forbes
The company picked the up-and-coming virtual design firm that has rapidly gained a reputation for its metaverse designs hosted by platforms like Decentraland. Under a licensing agreement, the real estate entity leases its name from the -year-old auction house, which itself has dabbled rather... View full entry
Two patrons of former Texas Tech University professor Robert Bruno’s famous Ransom Canyon are up in arms over the fate of one of American architectural history’s most significant self-built structures. Texas Monthly is reporting that plans for the corten steel creation have caused an outcry of... View full entry
Chinese authorities have taken over the Gensler-designed, under-construction Evergrande Guangzhou Football Stadium, commissioned by indebted property developer Evergrande, which was due to become the world’s largest football stadium by capacity, according to Reuters. — Global Construction Review
The Chinese government will either sell or take over the stadium via the state-owned Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group. As reported by Reuters, construction on the stadium has been halted for at least three months, in which Evergrande has been struggling to meet repayments on over $... View full entry
An excellent example of the New Formalist style is now available for the relatively low price of $4.3 million. Local news outlets are reporting the recent addition of Minoru Yamasaki’s Michigan State Medical Society to the real estate market in East Lansing. Image courtesy Michigan State... View full entry
The sole example of Frank Lloyd Wright-famed Usonian style in the greater Houston area has been sold for $2.7 million to a pair of unnamed buyers. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Wright’s coveted William Thaxton House was able to lure a new owner at a reduced price. The home had been on... View full entry
Lower Manhattan’s 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed rental tower instantly recognizable for its one-of-a-kind undulating surface, is for sale with an equally eye-catching price tag. — The Real Deal
Owner Brookfield Property Partners and Nuveen, the real estate arm of insurance company TIAA, have put the 76-story building on the market for $850 million. At the time of its opening, the approximately 900-unit tower was the tallest residential building in North America. The building... View full entry
The supertall Central Park Tower, the latest addition by Extell Development to Midtown Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, had more recorded sales in October, including two full-floor aeries. But both of them, like other recent transactions in the new building, closed well below their asking price. — The New York Times
Of all the recent sales at Central Park Tower, just one was made around the asking price. At the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed luxury skyscraper, which boasts the highest roof in the Western Hemisphere, The New York Times reports three recent apartment sales well below their listed prices... View full entry
Worries about the giant developer’s ability to repay its debt and a total of $300 billion in liabilities have put global investors on edge. Beyond the company itself, there are worries about a potential spillover into the rest of China’s real estate industry or economy. — CNBC
Evegrande missed another round of payments last Monday, setting it back again ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled $47.5 million interest payment. Investors are blindly looking for a government bailout, but financial experts remain uncertain as to its prospects. The company says it plans to go forward... View full entry
A private residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright has hit the auction block in St. Joseph, Michigan, joining a host of other Wright homes that have entered the real estate market in the past year alone. Listed just shy of $2 million, the Harper House was last seen for sale 25 years ago and... View full entry
U.S. home prices surged 19.7% in July, once again posting the biggest jump in more than 30 years. The record gain in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values nationwide followed a 18.7% jump in June and was the 14th straight month of accelerating price increases. — Bloomberg
A measure of prices in 20 cities posted a 19.9% gain in July, up from 19.1% the previous month. Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the highest year-over-year gains, with 32.4%, 27.8%, and 25.5% increases, respectively. “The last several months have been extraordinary not only in the... View full entry
The Lovell Health House, as the behemoth on Dundee Drive came to be known, remains a dumbfounding sight. It occupies a steep slope at the edge of Griffith Park, plunging three stories from street level. [...] It is a monumental yet unreal creation—a silver-white vessel that seems to have docked at the top of a canyon. — The New Yorker
Neutra's 1929 home has and was featured in the classic 1997 film LA Confidential. Wirth's eponymous gallery first established a presence in Downtown Los Angeles in 2016 and is set to expand to a second site soon with some help from Selldorf Architects, who has designed seven of the gallery’s... View full entry
