Feature: Bigger & Better

Jean Penn

11/01/2004

Today’s affluent homeowners, according to top developers and builders, are stay-at-homes. And since they have the means to achieve their dreams, they build customized luxury homes that satisfy every extroverted and introspective desire–houses that are designed around elegant entertaining and relaxing, reading and displaying homeowners’ extensive collections and collectibles.

A detail from an I. Grace Co. project. (Click image to enlarge)

Unlike the well-heeled of previous decades, this demographic is shunning opulent displays of wealth and instead is favoring comfortable, secure, custo-mized environments that are meticulously tailor-made to fit their specific needs and express their individuality.

Regardless of where these homebuyers may be in their lives, and even if resale or leaving behind a legacy for family is not a priority, state-of-the-art home technology and amenities are must-haves in homebuilding these days, along with topflight security systems and a front-row view of Mother Nature.

And despite the expense–$500 per square foot is a modest approximation in New York and Los Angeles–bigger is still better for the five-star American dream home. More and more space is required for carving out those all-important private retreats within the home, as well as those must-have gender-specific and hobby/collection rooms. 

“It seems like people are trying to make their homes their world,” observes Sean Sweeney of Manhattan-based Sweeney + Conroy Inc., who, like many upscale homebuilders, is extending floor plans below ground level to accommodate the requests for extensive gyms, indoor swimming pools, home theaters and sport courts, from basketball to squash.

Homes occupying up to 6,000 square feet of living space were once considered capacious, but today’s megamansions are weighing in anywhere from 8,500 to 27,000 square feet and more. Dan McGhee, president of Los Angeles’ J.D. Group Inc., is currently building a 50,000-square-foot French Normandy— style home in Bel Air, designed by New York architect Robert A.M. Stern. Its 13,000-square-foot subterranean fun floor will house many of the aforementioned specialty areas, plus a bowling alley and wine cellar.

I. Grace Co. develops New York apartments for the likes of Donna Karan and the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. This Park Avenue home, once owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr., was designed by Mark Hampton. (Click image to enlarge)

Another example of the bigger-is-better philosophy is J.D. Group’s recent completion of a 40,000-square-foot Beaux Arts—style home set on nearly five acres in Holmby Hills, which abuts Beverly Hills. Clad in French limestone, the home boasts a ballroom that doubles as a grand dining hall for 150 guests, and a commercial-size kitchen with several thousand feet of cooking space, multiple wash stations and walk-in refrigerators and freezers.

High-end developers and builders are satisfying clients’ nearly insatiable need for more square footage by burrowing down or towering up. McGhee says 80 percent of the homes he builds include large subterranean floors. And to reach the subterranean floor’s squash court from the fourth floor, developers are incorporating commercial-grade elevators, which cost from $55,000 to $65,000. In fact, elevators are becoming a routine amenity.“In homes greater than 12,000 square feet, elevators are usually a necessity,” says Ed Weinlein, vice president for the Atlanta and Eastern divisions of development company Crescent Resources. Through the years, Weinlein has watched luxury homes in two Crescent developments in the Atlanta area–Sugarloaf Country Club and the River Club–nearly double in size from 6,000 to 22,000 square feet. Some homeowners, he adds, are even building elaborate and expansive replicas of their favorite British pubs.

Mansions in Sugarloaf Country Club, built by Atlanta-based Crescent Resources, are known for their grand Southern style and size. Some homes total 22,000 square feet. (Click image to enlarge)

Many home builders and buyers agree that incorporating an underground playground into the blueprints is oftentimes a means for the husband to show off his toys and trophies. Some subterranean floors include elaborate garages, brilliantly lit for displaying rare cars and exotic motorcycles, as well as wine cellars, which are often accompanied by dining facilities that can accommodate a wine-tasting dinner for 24. “It’s becoming very popular to offer an evening of entertainment around a wine cellar,” says David J. Cohen, president of New York’s I. Grace Co.

The home theater, the number-one boy toy that was once relegated to an unused room or small basement, has grown into a sophisticated subterranean screening room that demands thousands of square feet and can easily cost up to $1 million, just for the audiovisual equipment. While luxury builders have been carving out space for elaborate family room media centers for years, movie watching is no longer restricted to a single room: It is not uncommon for a single residence to have upward of 20  plasma TVs scattered about. Builders are even figuring out how to install flat-screen televisions into showers.

New construction, however, is not the only benefactor of audiovisual technology these days. “Lots of actors have moved back to New York and brought the technology with them,” says Sweeney, whose Manhattan projects range in size from 5,000-square-foot apartments to 20,000-square-foot restored mansions. Some of Sweeney’s clients are placing theaters adjacent to the master suite, giving new meaning to the private screening room.

Below ground level, the gym is also being expanded and customized in countless ways. “People [return] from spas or resorts and want all those things for their home,” McGhee says, adding that he has incorporated large steam rooms, saunas, massage treatment rooms, kitchenettes and laundry rooms into some clients’ home gyms.

In some homes, the art of collecting is taking precedence over working out. “We are seeing a lot of very serious collectors’ buildings–big spaces with all sorts of outfitting via lighting and museum-quality climate control,” Cohen says. When space permits, he adds, gyms are often relocated to ancillary buildings originally designed for home offices and guesthouses.

Not surprisingly, the adults-in-training of the house are not left out of the design equation. Children’s suites, which often include nanny and sitting rooms, continue to grow in popularity. In fact, many of Sweeney’s young New York clients are gutting townhouses, penthouses, lofts and apartments on the Upper East Side and in the West Village to devote entire floors to their kids and their playrooms. Other clients are converting staff quarters into enlarged breakfast rooms.

His-and-her closets, with individual climate control and designated areas for suitcase packing and large dressing quarters–sometimes the size of a small living room–are
de rigueur, as are separate but equal baths and individual of­fices and sitting rooms. Many master closets even provide office functionality so movers and shakers can stay connected via TVs, laptops or touchscreens.Developers and builders are also receiving more requests to renovate historic properties. For example, I. Grace Co. is restoring a historic landmark building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue–a 27,000-square-foot neo-Georgian designed in 1915 by architects Delano & Aldrich for the Whitney family (of Whitney Museum fame). The home later became a museum when it was purchased by the International Center of Photography in the 1950s. “We’ll be seeing more reclaimed institutional buildings used for private residences,” Cohen predicts.

Faced with shrinking inventories of prime real estate, developers continue to come up with creative solutions. Besides building down or towering up, they are morphing old factories and abandoned buildings into chic settings for a luxury lifestyle.

While golfing at Carnegie Abbey, a private sport club, J. Brian O’Neill, chairman of O’Neill Properties, noticed an abandoned factory fronting Narragansett Bay near Newport, R.I. Now the developer, who specializes in transforming dilapidated buildings into desirable luxury residences and offices, is turning the concrete-and-steel building into a gated, 15-acre development with a waterfront condo tower and 21 cottages. Since the development is on Carnegie Abbey property, residents can use the club’s amenities.

Built by J.D. Group, this 24,000-square-foot estate features stone imported from Tunisia and fireplaces from Europe. (Click image to enlarge)

“This is the only oceanfront residential tower on a golf course from Washington to Maine,” O’Neill points out, adding that the 7,500-square-foot penthouse is relatively small for its $8 million price tag. The reason for that, he says, is that local zoning would never allow a larger tower to be built on the ocean. But by renovating an existing 17-story building, O’Neill’s tower stands taller than any new oceanfront construction, which local zoning limits to three stories.

“We will go as high as the cities will allow,” says Jerry Starkey of WCI Communities. The 50-year-old development hired I. Grace Co. and architect Sam Trimble to build a warm, relaxing, uncompli­cated home where he could disconnect from Manhattan’s hustle and bustle. The one-bedroom retreat, converted from a raw TriBeCa penthouse duplex, is a stylish minimalist space devoid of clutter–exactly what the client wanted.

I. Grace Co. is also constructing a 27,000-square-foot home in Utah with a striking, customized entrance that reflects the owner’s specific needs: his passion for collecting wine. Floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides of the entry doors afford guests a peek into his elaborate wine room and cellar.

O’Neill Properties Group builds luxury East Coast condos. The Corinthian in Pennsylvania. (Click image to enlarge)

On one level, some homeowners may think about resale when constructing their customized retreats, Cohen says. “They also recognize, particularly in the high-end market in New York, that most people are going to come in and completely redo the places anyway, regardless of what was there. One thing is for sure–no one is going to wear another person’s old suit.”

 Carnegie Abbey in Rhode Island built by O’Neill Properties Group. (Click image to enlarge)

BUILDER BUILD-UP
 
Crescent Resources 866.800.1429, www.crescentresources.com
I. Gracee Co. 212.987.1900, www.igrace.com 
J.D. Group Inc. 310.575.5551
O'Neill Properties Group 610.337.5560, www.oneillproperties.com, www.carnegienewport.com
Sweeney+Conroy Inc. 212.995.5099
WCI Communities 800.924.2290, www.wcicommunities.com