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OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD. That’s how I like to describe this estate. One of our readers, Adam Cunningham, was kind of enough to share this AMAZING estate with all of us! The proposed estate included the main residence Villa Te’, which looks like an Italian Byzintine village and the proposed Tea House, Pool House, 5 Guest Houses, Stables and Gate house. It was supposed to be built on the 350 acre Tea Gardens property located in Santa Barbara, CA, however the home was never built. The owner purchased the land and hired architect Kurt Wenner to designer her ultimate dream home. There are a lot of restrictions for height and for excavating in the city, so they designed the main house to be built mostly into the hillside, which allowed them to say it was only about 17,000 square feet…you don’t count the square footage of space that is subterranean based on the County Design Guidelines. Adam estimates that the house would have been about 40,000 square feet. The location for the house was up on a hilltop where the old reservoir once was. The plan was to rebuild the reservoir as a lake that would be between the Main House and the Pool House with the pool in the middle of the lake.

The Stables were to be built first so they could provide housing for all the Italian craftsman that were going to come over to build all the stone structures.  The Stables would have eventually house a few horses, but would still be used for staff and guests.

SUMMARY OF MAIN HOUSE:

The main entrance is on the top level and there is an elaborate dual stair down to the central main Living Room which faces out to the lake/pool.  Directly off the Living Room are two identical formal Dining Rooms on opposite sides.  The kitchen area is off to the left which includes an informal dining area.  Off the long corridor on this side of the house there are large foyer/reception areas that lead to the theater, wine cellar and elevator.  You will notice that the way into the Wine Cellar is a turnstile type door that will have hide the entrance to the room, two of the stiles would have statues and the other two would be where a person would push the turnstile to enter the room.

On the opposite side of the house is the Master Suite that includes a huge sunken tub area just off the sleeping chamber.  There are his and hers, circular bathrooms as well as another elevator.  The other room that you see with the other turnstile door is the Cloister Pool, which is a three story, subterranean area that will have an indoor pool below this level.  The entrance level will look down into the pool.  You will notice a curving hallway detail from the sleeping chamber…this is a ramp down to the pool for when the owner gets old and has to use a wheel chair, of course there is an elevator to get back up.

The top floor of the house not only has the main entrance, but also the two Guest Suites and the volumne ceiling areas of the main Living Room and the Cloister Pool ceiling volume.

SUMMARY OF LOWER GUEST HOUSES:

Just above the location where the Stables were to be built, the “Dancer House” 3 bedroom guest house with it’s butterfly floor plan shape was to be located.

Across the driveway down the hill a bit, just above the Gate House, the “Certosa”  5 bedroom guest house would sit.

Up the driveway a bit, where an old reservoir sits, the “Actor House” 3 bedroom guest house would have been situated in the middle of a lake using the old stone damn as the southern edge of the structure with lake front terraces for the master bedroom and kitchen…the 29’x29′ Living room would also be used as a Recital room.

Off to the East, the “Cloister” 2 bedroom guest house would feature an open roofed central cloister.

PICTURES

Picture #1 – Main House Rendering

Picture #2 – Perspective View

Picture #3 – Ground Floor Plan

Picture #4 – Top Floor Plan

Picture #5 – Roof Plan

Picture #6 – South Facade

Picture #7 – Living Room Rendering

Picture #8 – Gate House Facade

Picture #9 – Gate House Elevation

Picture #10 – Gate House Plan

Picture #11 – Stable Elevation

Picture #12 – Stable Floor Plan

Picture #13 – Guest House (Dancer) Elevation

Picture #14 – Guest House (Dancer) Floor Plan

Picture #15 – Guest House (Certosa) Elevation

Picture #16 – Guest House (Certosa) Floor Plan

Picture #17 – Guest House (Cloister) Elevation

Picture #18 – Guest House (Cloister) Floor Plan

Picture #19 – Guest House (Actor) Elevation

Picture #20 – Guest House (Actor) Floor Plan