Comments on: Castello della Costa d’Oro – A $58 Million, 35,000 Square Foot California Mega Compound

By: sandy

sandy — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:42:34 +0000

This place is a blight upon a beautiful piece of land on a gorgeous piece of coast. It has all the warmth of a mausoleum with none of the dignity. It is trying to be a second Hearst Castle which is also very out of place in the rural California landscape.
As Reddog has commented, it is curious how a building permit for this much square footage and so many bathrooms was issued given the long wait for water permits on much smaller lots. I think they may have purchased a whole ranch which already had water rights from long ago or its own stream or wells.
What a sad, sterile, over-frescoed tomb.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 02:11:37 +0000

@Kev
I have no idea what you are talking about kev, the point I am trying to make is that Mohamed Hadid’s home and some of the other homes I mentioned are “museum quality”, there is a huge difference between Mohamed Hadid’s homes and most other cheaply built crappy homes, I dont care if the walls of Mohamed Hadid’s homes are made of sheet rock or solid marble or whatever, the point is that every wall in the home has a veneer of hand carved wood or hand molded hardened clay covering the entire walls and ceiling from floor to ceiling, this is a very expensive process and gives the house a look of quality, its ok to have a house with cheap cardboard looking walls if you are paying $150,000 but when you are paying millions the walls, ceilings and floors should look like quality and for $50,000,000 a home should look up to par with Mohamed Hadid’s home, I have seen other homes in the $50,000,000 price range or even a little less than $50,000,000 with quality on par with Mohamed Hadid’s home, maybe not exactly as nice but still in that league, also just because Mohamed Hadid claimed to the press that he spent $59,000,000 on building his home and that he sold it at a loss doesn’t mean that is true, He had that home listed originally at $85,000,000, he had to claim he spent $59,000,000 to justify the price he was charging, Builders get materials way under cost and then mark everything up very high, I would believe he could build that house for under $50,000,000, just how much below $50,000,000 would depend on the cost of the land, but he may have bought the land years ago and waited to finally build something or he could have lucked out and got the land at a deal, most builders are smart, just like how Donald Trump bought that Palm Beach mansion at a bankruptcy auction for only $41 million and then sold it for $95,000,000 or more, builders say a lot of things to get a home to sell, look at over exagerated claims made by the likes of Donald Trump, he’d say anything to sell a property, you can easily build a home like Le Belvedere for under $50,000,000 and make a good profit by selling it at $50,000,000, also even if lets just say for arguments sake Mohamed Hadid actually spent the full $59,000,000 he claimed, which i doubt but lets say he did, so what, you obviously have to be worth at least $500 million or more to even consider purchasing a home like this, if I had $500 million or more I would rather pay the full $85 million Mohamed Hadid was originally charging and have a house of quality than pay $50 million for a piece of junk, I have seen nicer quality homes than this Cambria home in Montecito and these were ocean front Montecito homes of arguably nicer quality for around $15 million to $25 million and Montecito is a prime area, I never heard of Cambria before, also there are different levels of quality dry wall, i have seen some homes where the walls look like they are made of paper, like if you punched the wall your hand would go through and I have seen some houses where the walls look solid and sturdy and of quality even if there is no veneer over the wall, but when you are in the $50,000,000 to $150,000,000 price range you should see no bare walls, all the walls should have a veneer, that is just a sign of quality, plain and simple, also Mohamed Hadid’s home has hand carved wood and moldings covering every wall in every single room in the home, i have seen photos of every room, I am not sure if there is a miscellaneous closet in the maids quarters or whatever that has a plain wall but every room in the entire house has custom carved wood and moldings covering the entire walls, I have seen every room, I have seen the living room, family room, secondary living rooms, sitting rooms, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, Den, Library, Morrocan themed room, card playing room/game room and any other room you can think of and they all have the same quality and I wouldn’t expect anything less if i were paying anywhere from $50,000,000 to $150,000,000, and again my point was never that a house has to have walls of solid stone, but in that price range it wouldn’t hurt to have solid stone walls when you are charging that much, but my point was that a home at least should have hand carved custom woodwork and moldings covering every wall to be in that price range, why else should anyone pay that price, you have to get something for your money, you should expect the finest when you are paying that kind of money, period

By: Kieran

Kieran — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:36:31 +0000

It is excessive and beyond tacky, but I love it. A bit of bad taste can be charming!

By: Marcus

Marcus — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:57:33 +0000

I like the outside and yes the inside is overdone but the floor in the foyer is one of the most beauitful floors I have ever seen!

By: KEV

KEV — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:29:13 +0000

Le Belevedere still has sheetrock underneath the veneers you see. You also don’t see many non-formal rooms, so if you think all the closets and other lesser rooms are veneered, I guess you would have to actually walk through the house to find out. This home is an extremely rare example of quality, and considering that he sold it almost immediately after building it, perhaps at a loss, no less, I’d consider it money wasted. I don’t deny that homes today aren’t built like the Breakers, which was even more of a rarity in its time than Hadid’s vision. Yes, sheetrock and more cheaply built homes are certainly more common today, and that’s a good thing, or you and most everyone else would be living in a dirt floored shack like about 95% of the country during the building of the Breaker’s, a monument to inheirited wealth and monopolistic capitalism. If you read my previous post with your perfect vision, Tony, you’ll see that I said “Unless you have a stone or brick interior wall, the only other material, besides wood, is sheetrock.” So basically, other than clay, as you mention, I basically covered your materials list of stone in older homes and “veener” (that would be wood, correct?) in Le Belevedere. So chill out on your lecture. I know the difference between museum quality and what passes for 99.9999% of home constuction today. Comment further if you wish, but I’m pretty sure this topic has been beaten to death now, so I am officially done with it.

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:53:05 +0000

@ Kev
I stated that some of the older homes such as Mar-A-lago or The Vanderbilt estate used solid stone interior walls, I’m not exactly sure which estates use this method, but I know for a fact that I have seen older estates of this era or older that had interior walls that definately looked like solid stone, as far as The Manor or Champ D’or or other estates in this current era are concerned, I know good and well they aren’t built to the same level as The Breakers or The Vanderbilt Estate, etc., but if you look at homes like Mohamed Hadid’s Le Belvedere you will see that there are no bare walls, none, not one in the whole home, every wall is covered with a veneer, a veneer of complete custom carved wood from floor to ceiling and or of hand molded hardened clay, look at these pics at this link http://www.lebelvedereestate.com and click on “gallery” to see the gallery of photos, look at the walls, ceilings and floors in these pics, you will see “musuem quality” throughout, this isn’t the level of what was considered “museum quality” when The Breakers or Marble House, or castles from 100′s of years ago, etc. were built but this is the highest quality of “museum quality” in homes built today, anyway look at the pics at the above link and look at how every single wall is completely covered in a hand carved/hand molded veneer, then look at the average home, if you can’t see a difference you need your eyes checked

By: KEV

KEV — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:55:40 +0000

I agree that this isn’t necessarily as well built as Spelling’s or some of the other large homes, but I assure you that sheetrock is a common building material in even the most expensive of homes. Unless you have a stone or brick interior wall, the only other material, besides wood, is sheetrock. Otherwise they would have to plaster every wall like it was stucco, and that isn’t happening. Now they may drag trowel the walls, do some multilayered faux finish that looks like something from an old castle or mansion from the Guilded Age, but marble walls of the past are pretty much in the past. Sheetrock is used in pretty much everything, regardless of quality or price.

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:47:23 +0000

@kyle
I definately wouldn’t say that The Manor is the best made home ever, but if you look at the home in the footage shown on television and the pictures available online it is much better quality than the majority of homes, also The Manor was built for $46 million back in the late 80′s, it was completed in 1990 or 1991 but i am sure the construction started in the late 80′s, $46 million at that time was an astronomical amount to spend on a home, Aaron Spelling’s net worth was huge at the time, imagine how rich Bill Cosby was a that time from just a couple of hit shows (I Spy, Cosby Show, A Different World) and then imagine how many hit shows Spelling had under his belt by the late 80′s, I believe he produced Dynasty and Dallas and those shows were bigger than the Cosby Show at one point, not to mention countless other shows, and Producers make more than television actors, the only television actors that are really rich are the ones that get a producer credit, so in the late 80′s spelling was either the richest man in television or one of the richest

By: organbrett

organbrett — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:26:53 +0000

YEAH TONY! You hit everything right on the head. I looked at all of the website yesterday, but had an appointment, so I didn’t have time to write this: No Pool is just the beginning of this mess! If I had had only 1 picture (the exterior) to make up my mind, I would have thought Cambria would be a nice place to live as long as you kept the helicopter pilot busy. I have been there twice, very quaint town with an awesome museum quality glass shoppe. However, my retinas are still stinging from yesterday! I don’t care how many amenities are in this place, it still makes me want to barf – EVERYWHERE I look! (Don’t even get me started on those murals – My God the worst is in the Master Bedroom!!!) The statues don’t bother me, except there shouldn’t be life sized statues indoor – only outdoor PLEASE!!! Even with every amenity, it just looks like you gave 50+ Million dollars to a 5 year old (or someone who had never been in a nice house in their life) and let them do whatever they wanted. Except a 5 year old wouldn’t have thought of the amenities. So shame on them!!! My thought: This place will never sell – EVER. Anyone who would want it would want the land ONLY and it will be an Instant Tear-Down. Shall we place our bets now?

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:49:02 +0000

I wouldn’t say Candy Spelling’s home is built of quality materials, from what I understand, they had problems with the roof leaking after it was constructed. Also, considering it’s size, I doubt it could have been made of good materials considering Aaron Spelling’s net worth at the time.

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:53:39 +0000

This home is ugly and the quality of the materials is poor, this looks like a cheaply made tacky peice of crap, and the murals look like some art student at the local community college painted them, the quality of this home looks the same as a cheap over priced mcmansion in a subdivision of $600k homes except it is much larger but it does not look like the quality of a home that should be $50 million plus, the only mega mansions shown on this website that were made of quality that justified the price are Mohamed Hadid’s homes, Iris Cantor’s home, Candy Spelling’s home (it’s kinda beige and bland but it is still made of quality), Ira Rennert’s Home, Champ D’or, Avi Arad’s Home, and some of the homes built by Finton Construction and a few of the other Beverly Park homes, and maybe a couple other homes, these homes are all Museum quality or close to it, I don’t understand how people that are fans of architecture and mega mansions can come to this website and be impressed by cheaply made peices of crap like this, look up the definition of “museum quality”, “museum quality” means homes that look like Mar-a-lago, The Breakers, Marble House, The Biltmore, these are the types of homes that should be $50 million plus, not a cheaply made peice of crap like this house, go to your local gated subdivision that has homes from $600k to the low millions and look how cheaply they are made, they are made of cardboard (dry wall is cardboard) and cheap crap and marked up way above the value of the materials used to make them, then take a look at The Biltmore, Marble House, The Manor, Champ D’or, etc., these homes all have exteriors made of lime stone or Jeruselum stone and walls made of solid stone or hand carved wooden moldings over the entire wall (not just the crown molding along the bottom or upper part of the walls but the entire walls are covered in custom hand carved wood moldings) or moldings hand molded of hardened clay, take a good look at some of these mansions I mentioned and any other great historic mansion and then take another look at most the mansions shown on this site and you will see that there clearly is a difference in quality, most of the homes on here, this home included have the quality of the typical spec home mcmansion in a crappy subdivision only larger in square footage, but are not comparable to any of the great historic estates or any of the more recently built great estates such as The Manor, the home in Cambria, Ca does have a nice location though

By: North Texas Luxury

North Texas Luxury — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:04:22 +0000

The outside is great looking, but the inside…not so much. I agree with Andrew, too overdone

By: Barney

Barney — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:50:17 +0000

Correction: I meant to say “Intractable”

By: Chance

Chance — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:48:31 +0000

lol I didn’t even notice there wasn’t a pool, I was blinded by all the colors. That really sucks!

By: Onions

Onions — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:58:34 +0000

All that and no pool. Howard Roark should kick this guy’s ass.