bubbleinfo.com

Auntie Agent has been a great friend to the blog, so when she told me about her friend Ray getting this new listing of a 1915 classic in University Heights, I had to take a look.

It is open Sunday, February 26th from 1-4pm:

High in the Hollywood Hills, designed by http://www.whipplerussell.com/

From W Magazine:

Located on 12-acres of quiet ranchland and adjacent to the buff-colored stone canyon bluffs directly east of Boulder, Colorado, the site for this project was unique in that its orientation was not about distant views, it was about directing energy inward and creating a peaceful intimacy within the site itself.

Architect here: http://www.sbdesign-pc.com/

From the Contemporist.com:

This contemporary residence is designed to seamlessly open unto the panoramic coastal ridge-top site via expansive operable glazed walls. The glazed transparency is balanced and the home is anchored in place by substantial cut native sandstone walls. The architectural design evolved from our client’s desire for a home that is a tranquil place for living, art and retreat.

The project site is located on a ridge in the foothills of Carpinteria, ten miles down the coast from Santa Barbara. The program asked for a master suite, one guest room, a study for two, a more contained den and an informal open living space they could share with their children and grand children.

Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve never seen a kitchen photo, have you?  Hat tip to JS for sending this in, from the U-T:

A luxury bankruptcy home in La Jolla once featured in TV commercials has been sold for almost a third of its original asking price of $45 million, based on details from the property’s listing agent on Wednesday.

PHOTOS: http://hurwitzjamesco.com/property.php?lng=en&id=9

Beverly Hills-based Bob Hurwitz said “The Razor” property, considered by designers as an architectural marvel, has closed escrow. The buyer, an East Coaster, paid $14.1 million in cash, added Hurwitz, of the Hurwitz James Company. More details are expected to be released on Thursday.

Public records show about $34 million was spent building the 11,000-square-foot estate, which has never been occupied. Construction began in 2002 and was completed in 2008. The original sale price was set at $45 million but has consistently been slashed according to the market and even more when it became a bankruptcy property.

The Razor house, 9826 La Jolla Farms Road, was originally set to be sold at a Sept. 27 auction, but that was canceled because there were no qualified bidders.

The auction was then rescheduled to Nov. 10, with the starting bid shaved to $13.9 million from the $16 million set in September. The property again could not be sold because none of the bidders came close to what the bank would accept, at least $17 million, according to the listing company.

The oceanfront home is the bankruptcy estate of Jimmy Donald Cooksey Jr., according to public records. It is the work of San Diego-based architectural designer Wallace E. Cunningham, named one of Architectural Digest’s Top 100 Designers.

From Forbes.com:

Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill listed his 6,744-square-foot apartment at 15 Central Park West for an astonishing $88 million in November, promising to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.

Now comes news that Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the 22-year-old daughter of the Russian billionaire Dmitriy Rybolovlev, is buying the condominium. Rybolovleva is studying at an undisclosed U.S. university and plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York. According to a source familiar with the sale, she paid the full asking price of $88 million, setting a record for highest individual transaction in New York City history.

Here is the official statement from her representatives:

A company associated with Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of a well-known businessman Dmitriy Rybolovlev, has signed a contract to purchase an apartment at 15 Central Park West, New York. The apartment is a condominium currently owned by the Sanford Weill Family. Ms. Rybolovleva is currently studying at a US university. She plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York. Ms. Rybolovleva was born in Russia, is a resident of Monaco and has resided in Monaco and Switzerland for the past 15 years.”

The apartment, in one of the toniest postwar buildings in Manhattan, has 10 rooms, including 4 bedrooms, a wraparound terrace of more than 2,000 sq. feet, 4 bedrooms and 2 wood-burning fireplaces.

“This sale is an outlier. It works out to be about $13,000 per square foot, the highest on record, for anything, that has ever occurred,” says Jonathan Miller, the chief executive of real-estate appraiser Miller Samuel. “What is ironic is that when Sandy Weill bought it for less than half this amount, he paid the highest price per square foot to date in that building, around, $6,400 per sq. foot. He is again setting a record.”

The previous New York City record had been set back before the market crash when investor Christopher Flowers paid $53 million for a townhouse at 4 East 75th Street. He resold the property on Aug. 15 for just over $36 million.

Read the rest of this entry »