Villa Leopolda - Most Expensive House in France
Villa La Leopolda is a famous and luxurious palace of Villefranche-sur-Mer on the French Riviera.
Villa La Leopolda is located on the heights of Villefranche-sur-Mer and Beaulieu-sur-mer, at the place called Col de Caire, between Nice and Monaco.
It has panoramic views of Cape Ferrat and the Mediterranean Sea.
It is surrounded by a park of 8 hectares, planted with more than 1200 trees of various species (olive, cypress, lemon, orange and plum) and requires for its maintenance more than fifty gardeners.
History
In 1902, the property was acquired for a symbolic franc by King Leopold II of Belgium, already owner of a large part of Cape Ferrat. He built a villa with a central turret that he christened Leopolda.
In 1915, his successor, Albert I of Belgium, transformed the estate into a temporary hospital for the martyrs of the Great War.
In 1919, Therese Vitali, Countess of Beauchamp acquires the villa. She made many improvements: construction, in 1924, two pavilions connected by a semicircular portico, transformation of outbuildings in annex villa, redevelopment of gardens.
The known owners
1902: Leopold II of Belgium;
1909: Albert I of Belgium;
1919: Thérèse Vitali, countess of Beauchamp;
1929: Ogden Codman, American architect who completely remodeled the building to give it in 1931 its imposing dimensions of today;
1951: Izaak Walton Killam, Canadian financier;
1955? : Dorothy Walton Killam, his wife;
1950s: Gianni Agnelli, Italian leader of Fiat, and his wife Marella;
1985: Edmond Safra, Syrian businessman;
1999: Lily Safra, widow of Edmond Safra
Recent events
In the summer of 2008, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov bought the villa for 390 million euros and paid a guarantee of 39 million euros. He finally renounces this purchase after the reversal of the global real estate market related to the subprime crisis. Mikhail Prokhorov then seeks to recover his security deposit. But on March 1, 2010, the tribunal de grande instance of Nice rejected his request.
The owner of the villa, Lily Safra, decides to donate the money collected to several charities and various medical research organizations. On this occasion we learn that the amount of the sale was 370 million euros for the villa and 19.5 million euros for furniture. The judgment is confirmed by the Court of Appeal 2011 and the Court of Cassation in 2012.
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Villa Leopolda - Most Expensive House in France
Antilia - Most Expensive House in India
Antilia is the largest and most expensive "single family home" in the world. This high-rise is located in Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra. The Antilia building belongs to the richest man in India, the billionaire and petrochemical entrepreneur Mukesh Ambani, and is named after the mythical island of Antilia. The building was inaugurated in November 2010. It is 173 meters high and has 27 floors with a special ceiling height; a normal skyscraper of this height would have between 40 and 50 floors.
Design
The design is from the architectural firm Perkins and Will from Chicago. The architecture of the building is inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The idea for the house came Ambanis wife Nita in 2005 during a visit to Mandarin Oriental New York. The view from the 1,300 m² spa area on the 35th floor over the Central Park in combination with the modern Asian interior impressed her so much that she commissioned the same companies for the construction of Antilia, who were responsible for the design of the hotel: Chicago-based architecture firm Perkins & Will and interior design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates (with 13 offices worldwide). The construction was started by the construction company Leighton Holdings and later by another company.
Cost of the building
According to a spokesman Ambanis, the construction costs are 50 to 70 million US dollars.
Many media reported that the house would be the first home in the world to cost US $ 1 billion, making it the most expensive private home in the world; an article quotes the sum of 2 billion, where it is questionable whether this really meant US dollars. A comparison with what is currently the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, whose construction costs are estimated at $ 1.5 billion, suggests that the cost of Antilia was misappropriated, and rupees and dollars exchanged.
Building description
The Ambani family with their three children has a living space of approximately 37,000 square meters. This is more than the area of the Palace of Versailles.
The actual core apartment of the Ambani family will be on the top four floors. Mukesh Ambani's mother Kokilaben Ambani lives in the house. The family is said to have 600 full-time employees available to house staff, some of whom live in the building.
The "family house" is equipped with all sorts of amenities, such as a small cinema with a capacity of 50 seats on the eighth floor, three to four floors with hanging gardens (with open air area and lawn), a panoramic platform overlooking the Arabian Sea and the Skyline of Mumbai.
The "health floor" will include a swimming pool (there are several in total), jacuzzi, solarium, a dance and a yoga studio, fitness rooms, a spa area and an "ice room". In this cooling chamber snow can snow from the ceiling to cool off from the tropical heat in Mumbai.
The skyscraper is said to have three helipads, including its own air traffic control zone in the airspace above the skyscraper.
The bottom six floors of the house serve as a parking garage with 168 parking spaces for the family and for guests. On the seventh floor is the in-house auto repair shop for the maintenance of the vehicle fleet. Another floor serves as a rescue floor. There will also be guest apartments in the house. The construction of the building is designed to withstand an earthquake up to magnitude 8.
Above the six parking floors there is a floor with a large lobby with nine elevators, numerous lounges and storage rooms. Two elevators drive to the park floors, three to the guest quarters, two elevators to the Ambanis living area and two elevators are provided for service. From the lobby, a wide double staircase leads down to the grand ballroom with stage, which is the height of two normal floors and whose ceiling is covered with crystal chandeliers all over. There is also a large kitchen that is the same size as the ballroom and can serve hundreds of guests.
A basic design element in the construction of the building was the consideration of the Indian Vastu Vidya principle. The strategic placement of materials, rooms and objects should positively influence the flow of energy through the building. The interior will carry distinct Indian features and come mainly from India. Moreover, the materials in the different floors should not be repeated.
Location
The building is located on Cumballa Hill on a 4532 m² site in Altamount Road (officially called S. K. Barodawalla Marg Street), one of the ten most expensive streets in the world, in an upscale residential area in South Mumbai. There are some Bollywood celebrities and economists living in this street, and some consulates are also there. The land prices are moving upwards of $ 10,000 per square meter. The property on which the building stands, belongs to a foundation for orphans and was not for sale.
Parallel to Altamount Road is the more well-known Pedder Road. Mukesh Ambani had previously lived on Altamount Road, the first skyscraper in India, Usha Kiran.
Public reactions
At the beginning of the construction period, Indian journalist Praful Bidwai called the division between rich and poor obscene and said that there was growing outrage over such absurd issues.
"Critics emphasize that the house is being built in a city where millions of people have no roof over their heads and do not know what to feed on." (Hasnain Kazim, Spiegel Online)
Previously, the Ambanis lived in a 22-story (Sea Wind) skyscraper, which they had spent several years refurbishing to tailor to their individual housing needs. According to numerous press releases published in 2011, Ambani was not drafted after the house was completed because critical voices argue that the architecture does not correspond to the spiritual Indian architectural theory Vastu. Nita Ambani contradicted these messages in 2012.
Perkins and Will
| Address | 410 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 312 755 0770 |
| Fax | +1 312 755 0775 |
| Website | https://perkinswill.com/ |
Hirsch Bedner Associates
| Address | 3216 Nebraska Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404 USA |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 310 829 9087 |
| Fax | +1 310 453 1182 |
| Website | https://www.hba.com/ |
Leighton Holdings
Leighton Holdings changed its name to CIMIC Group.
| Address | Level 25, 177 Pacific Highway, North Sydney, New South Wales 2060 Australia |
|---|---|
| Phone | +61 2 9925 6666 |
| Website | https://www.cimic.com.au/ |
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Antilia - Most Expensive House in India
Fair Field - $249 million Large Private House, Hamptons, Long Island, New York, USA
Fair Field was built in 2003 and is one of the most expensive houses in the USA and one of the biggest houses in the USA. This large beautiful house is located in the Hamptons, Long Island, New York. The floor area is approximately 5,900 sqm (64,000 sq ft) and the house has a value for tax assessment purposes of $249 million. The house is owned by billionaire Ira Rennert.
1. Rennert's Fair Field estate is one of the biggest houses in the United States.
Rennert's house spans on the area equivalent to nearly an 1.5 acre of land (62,000 square feet according to Crain's). And the property area itself is huge, covering 63 acres of land of prime Hamptons Atlantic Ocean beachfront.
The house is also one of the most expensive. This beautiful mansion, according to the Fiscal Times, is worth $248 million and, one real estate agent told Crain's, it would be listed for sale for about $500 million now.
2. There are not one but actually several various houses on the estate area.
In addition to the biggest main house, there's also two pool houses and a play house at Fair Field area. Altogether, all the buildings cover an area of more than 110,000 square feet.
3. The biggest house has somewhere between 39 and 18 bathrooms, and between 29 and 21 bedrooms, depending on who you ask.
By most reports, the estate has 39 bathrooms and 29 bedrooms, but Zillow website, which collects many real estate data using many possible public records, counts 18 bathrooms and 21 bedrooms.
The confusion in this question could stem from whether researchers counts the rooms in just the main house, or all buildings on the whole property.
4. The house has 12 chimneys.
In a story about Ira Rennert's fight with his Hamptons neighbors in 2012 about the flight path of his helicopter, Mother Jones noted 12 chimneys, presumably leading to 12 fireplaces.
5. The biggest house has a dining room with a length of 91 foot.
Bases on a baseball field have the same distance between them.
6. Playhouse has 10,000 sq ft area and includes a two-lane bowling alley and a basketball court.
That's according to 27East Southampton news site and Crain's. The owner is widely reported in the news to be reclusive, so it's not easy to guess who the owner plays with in his 10,000 sq ft playhouse space. Oh, and there's also two squash courts, two tennis courts, and a billiards room.
7. The house has its own theater for 164 seats.
At this place it's possible basically stage a Broadway production.
8. Rennert's estate taxes for this house alone are enough to pay for a couple of other houses.
The complex has $483,000 property taxes in 2008, according to Curbed Hamptons, it's more than $40,000 in a one month. CNBC reported, last year the taxes were up to $649,000, and as CNBC puts it, this amount is enough for buying at least two houses, but located in most other parts of the USA.
9. The garage have the capacity for 100 cars.
10. $150,000 is the cost of the hot tub.
In addition there are three swimming pools.
11. The owner has repeatedly ticked off his Hamptons neighbors with his grand future plans for the estate of Fair Field.
Back when Rennert constructed the house in the 1990s, local neighbors found the house "audacious," according to New York Magazine. Neighbors fought the building "tooth and nail."
And also they weren't pleased when Rennert tried to build on the estate his own private museum with an area of 10,000 sq ft .
Curbed reported, the owner owns $0,5 billion worth of art. Perhaps the reason his Hamptons neighbors were extremely ticked off with those future plans? Rennert reportedly broke ground for another new building for a museum without seeking any permission from the local community.
Neighbors were also peeved when the Fair Field owner tried to expand his swimming pool house. Rennert requested permission in 2013, to add an area for Pilates studio building and, yes, one more bathroom, as addition to one of Rennert's swimming pool houses. The neighbors were reportedly completely fed up with the possible number of local zoning rules Rennert had already scooted around.
27 East quotes the words of one neighbor: "I don’t even object to the square footage, it’s a question of principle."
Finally, that home additional space was never built.
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Fair Field - $249 million Large Private House, Hamptons, Long Island, New York, USA
Kensington Palace Gardens - Some of the Most Expensive Houses in the World, London, UK
Kensington Palace Gardens is a street in Kensington, west central London, home to some of the most expensive properties in the world.
A tree-lined avenue half a mile long in the heart of embassy land, Kensington Palace Gardens is often cited as the "most exclusive address" in London, according to real estate agency Knight Frank. It is one of the most expensive residential streets in the world, and has long been known as "Billionaires Row", due to the huge wealth of its private residents, although in fact the majority of its current occupants are either national embassies or ambassadorial residences. As of mid-2012, current market prices for a property in the street average over £22 million.
Location and access
About 1,000 m long, north-south, this avenue connects Bayswater Road to Kensington High Street. The southern part of the street is called Palace Green
At each end of the street is a checkpoint filtering the entrance of vehicles. Pedestrians can move freely but it is forbidden to take photographs.
Origin of the name
The name of the avenue evokes the old kitchen gardens of Kensington Palace, on the site of which it was built in 1843 by James Pennethorne.
History
The map of Kensington's palace and gardens designed by John Rocque in 1736 shows a long rectilinear alley at the site of the current road. With the exception of the Royal Palace, the area is then entirely occupied by gardens.
Opened in 1843, the street takes its current name around 1870. It is often nicknamed Billionaires Row, the path of billionaires. It belongs to the Crown Estate.
Remarkable buildings and places of memory
The street has a dozen embassies and diplomatic residences but also properties belonging to very special individuals from around the world.
No. 6-7: Embassy of the Russian Federation.
No 10: owned by John Hunt, king of real estate.
No. 11: residence of the French Ambassador, purchased in 1944 by Ambassador René Massigli (1888-1988), hero of Free France.
No 12: property of the King of Saudi Arabia.
No 12a: Embassy of Nepal.
No. 15, 15b: London residence of US and British entrepreneur Leonard Blavatnik.
No 15a: house bought in 2015 by Chinese businessman Wang Jianlin.
No 18: London residence of Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal.
No. 20: property of the Sultan of Brunei.
No 21: Embassy of Lebanon.
No 25: Embassy of Slovakia.
Palace Green
No. 1: Grade II listed house built by architect Philip Webb in 1870 for George Howard, a painter and future 9th Earl of Carlisle, whose name is associated with the Holland Park Circle Art Group; the house is divided into apartments in 1957.
No. 2: Embassy of Israel; former home of the novelist William Thackeray (1811-1863), the author of Vanity Fair, who died there in 1863; this house, built in the years 1860-1862 for the novelist, is a Grade II listed building since 1969.
No. 4: Embassy of Romania.
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Kensington Palace Gardens - Some of the Most Expensive Houses in the World, London, UK
One Hyde Park Penthouse - $237 million Penthouse in the Most Expensive ($3.37 billion) Apartment Building in the World
Reuters reported, luxury penthouse apartment at One Hyde Park, a contemporary ultra-luxury residence selling to an unnamed buyer for a record price of $237 million.
Candy & Candy developer confirmed the sale of the duplex luxury penthouse with an area of 16,000 sq ft, it's one of four penthouses in the complex, billed as the most expensive apartment building in the world, with the price of more than $3.37 billion.
While the developer had no possibility to confirm the penthouse sale price, professional real estate specialists have valued the finished luxury penthouse, according to Candy & Candy, at $295 million.
One Hyde Park complex has been setting real estate price records in London and in the whole world since the complex launched in 2011. In 2011, residences in the building, which includes 86 luxury apartments, were selling for $11,270 / sq ft. This is nearly three times more than the typical price of London real estate in the luxury segment.
Now, the square foot costs $10,102, according to Candy & Candy, though some units were sold for $12,360 / sq ft.
The apartment building made newspaper headlines that same year when Rinat Akhmetov, Ukrainian oligarch, paid $216 million for a luxury penthouse in One Hyde Park.
So what's it like to live in One Hyde Park, the most expensive apartment building in the world?
Located in Knightsbridge, One Hyde Park complex, is adjacent to the Mandarin Oriental hotel and Hyde Park. The complex has 86 residences, and 17 apartments are listed as primary residences.
There are a lot of perks, and among othes, there's an entertainment suite, a stainless steel ozone pool, a spa, and a golf simulator run by the Mandarin Oriental.
Also there are basement parking, valet service and car-cleaning, and temperature-controlled wine cellars.
One Hyde Park is a place with apartments which belong to Arab sheikhs, Chinese billionaires, and Russian Oligarchs, as well as London's businessmen and celebrities.
Security level in the apartment complex is insane. There are guards with training from British Special Forces, bulletproof glass, and panic rooms.
One Hyde Park complex was created through a commersial joint venture between the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and the Candy brothers, high-end real estate developers.
Vanity Fair reported "the best apartment of all", the triplex in the complex was sold to the Sheikh for $64 million.
Most Expensive Houses in the World - One Hyde Park Penthouse - $237 million Penthouse in the Most Expensive ($3.37 billion) Apartment Building in the World
Ellison Estate - $200 million 10 houses medieval Japanese design complex, Woodside, California
Ellison Estate is a 23-acre estate in Woodside, California. Ellison Estate was designed after medieval Japanese 16th-century imperial palace.
Larry Ellison, Oracle founder, in 1995 first purchased this property for $12 million. It took $200 million and nine years to create the design and complete renovation for the Woodside home. The project was completed in 2004 and includes 10 houses, a tea house, a man made lake, a koi pond and a bath house.
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Ellison Estate - $200 million 10 houses medieval Japanese design complex, Woodside, California
Blossom Estate - $130 million four houses in Palm Beach, Florida, USA
The hedge fund titan Ken Griffin purchased four houses situated side-by-side with 8 acres of total area. The purchase price in 2012 was nearly $130 million.
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Blossom Estate - $130 million four houses in Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Witanhurst - Most Expensive Private House in London, UK
Witanhurst was built between 1913 and 1920 by the English soap magnate Arthur Crosfield and covers a total area of 90,000 square meters, on which more than 65 rooms (25 bedrooms) are distributed.
Witanhurst is the most expensive private house in London and after Buckingham Palace also the biggest house in London. The value of the property is estimated at 421 million euros. The owner, Andrei Guriev, is ranked 28th on the list of the richest Russians.
The ballroom of the luxury house is more than 21 meters long. But the painting and gilding of this one room took six months.
There is also a spa area with swimming pool and massage room. The basement of the palatial dwelling is said to be 40,000 square meters. Under the forecourt in front of the main house is allegedly a whole village.
Address: 39 Highgate W Hill, Highgate, London N6 6LU, United Kingdom
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Witanhurst - Most Expensive Private House in London, UK
Xanadu 2.0 - Bill Gates' House, Seattle, Washington
Melinda and Bill Gates' house (nicknamed Xanadu 2.0 in reference to the character of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane) is a famous 6100 sqm Pacific lodge style home, domotised by Microsoft and built for Bill Gates (founding CEO of Microsoft). It is located on Lake Washington, near Seattle, Washington.
Bill Gates' house was completed in 1996, it was an avant-garde prototype of a connected home.
History
Bill Gates buys the land where he built his home for $ 2 million in 1988, as well as several surrounding homes for a total of $ 14.4 million in order to keep his land from prying eyes.
The house was built between 1988 and 1996. The plans are the work of architects James Cutler and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (who also built a house for Steve Jobs in Woodside (California) and contributed to the design of Apple Stores). The total cost of construction of the Bill Gates' house is $ 60 million. 300 workers work on the construction of the estate, with some 100 electricians. The house is built with 500 years old Douglas fir. Part of this timber was recovered from a barn while demolition.
The guest house ("Guest House", 175m²) is the first building of the property to come out of the ground. The couple lives there for the end of the contructions. Bill Gates wrote his book The Road to the Future (The Road Ahead, 1997) in which he describes the Guest House with precision (Chapter 10: Plugged in at Home). This chapter describes a home-based lifestyle made possible by new technologies. The guest house is essentially a prototype of an experimental connected house that tests technological ideas before integrating them into the entire building under construction.
In 2004, the house hosts the National Governors Association Day. At a 2009 auction, a visit to Melinda and Bill Gates' house was sold for $ 33,000. In 2015, the value of the property was estimated at $ 154 million by the County Administrative Services and the annual property tax exceeds $ 1 million. Bill Gates writes there the majority of his book The Road Ahead.
Concept
The idea of building a monumental house develops in the mind of Bill Gates from the moment he gets married and becomes a father in the 1980s. His intention is then to build a house on the west side of the hill in Washington to enjoy the sunset and the view of the Olympic Mountains. To illustrate the link with Xanadu, Gates explains that with the change of radio channels, William Randolph Hearst, bothered by the roulette to change the frequencies (tuner), had installed as many radio sets as there were channels to listen - each set tuned to a different channel - and all connected to a single station from which the frequency change was made with buttons and no longer with the wheel. The founder of Microsoft inscribes his house with the same intention of innovation.
At the time of its construction, the technological offer of the Bill Gates' house is very advanced. Guests carry a chip, when a subject enters a new room, automatically adjusts temperature, music and brightness. The music follows the guests from one room to another. The house has a number of screens whose total value is estimated at $ 80,000. Like music, screens personalize the guests' experience by displaying their favorite works of art. This image distribution system project is to be linked to the Corbis photo and film buying and selling company (founded by Gates in 1989) which is interested in the dissemination of images via the Internet even before the NCSA Mosaic browser does popularized this practice from 1992 to 1993.
Description
Bill Gates' house is embedded in the side of the cliff against which it is leaned. Its reinforced concrete foundations far exceed the standards of stability dictated by the building codes of the city. The sand from the lakeside beach was imported from Hawaii according to a trainee at Microsoft. Each year, a barge from Saint Lucia brings new sand.
Bill Gates' house has four floors, 7 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, an underground garage can accommodate more than a dozen cars, a reception room for more than 120 people, a theater, a swimming pool (5 meters by 18, an underwater audio system, and an underwater tunnel that communicates between indoor and outdoor pools), a library, a cinema, a tennis court and a golf course, an artificial river, a boat garage and a computer room.
Bill Gates' house also has a gym of 230 m² with a trampoline above which the ceiling height is 6 meters ("rumor" trampoline validated by Gates in 2017). The dining room is 92 m² and can accommodate 24 people. Bill Gates' house has 6 kitchens.
The 195 m² library includes a reading room under a dome. At the base of this dome is written a phrase from The Great Gatsby novel: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." The Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci bought by Bill Gates for $ 30.8 million is considered to be kept within the house. The library also includes two secret swivel shelves, and one of them hides a bar.
Prizes
1996: National Honor Award by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for the Guest House (without naming the name of its owner although this was obvious to all).
1997: Honor Award for Design Excellence by AIA Pennsylvania.
Cutler Anderson Architects
| Address | 135 Parfitt Way SW, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, United States |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 (206) 842-4710 |
| Fax | +1 (206) 842-4420 |
| Website | https://cutler-anderson.com/ |
| contact@cutler-anderson.com |
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
| Address | 8 West Market Street, Suite 1200, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18701, United States |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 570 825 8756 |
| Fax | +1 570 825 3744 |
| Website | https://www.bcj.com/ |
| bcjwilkesbarre@bcj.com |
Most Expensive Houses in the World - Xanadu 2.0 - Bill Gates' House, Seattle, Washington
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