Floating Saunas… Could this be the next nightmare for Fish and Game on Lake Washington?
Casagrande & Rintala have designed a floating sauna for the Rosendahl Village in Norway. It literally floats on the water and is 100% functional… and a big part of me wants one!
When it is in use, it has semi transparent walls, to provide some privacy for the user. At night, when it is not in use, it glows like a lantern on the soft surface. Access is only allowed by rowing boat and soap is strictly prohibited due to ecological reasons. Of course, to get one anchored off the shore of your Lake Washington home might require a ten year fight with Fish & Game… something most waterfront home owners are very familiar with!
Update – Mercer Island Waterfront Auction & Pricing Opinion
More breaking news on the M.I. Waterfront property up for auction… $15 million is the actual reserve for this sealed bid auction, meaning that the seller is obligated to sell to the highest qualified bidder above the initial offering price. This property could indeed sell for $15 million and 1 dollar, but in my humble opinion it is a steal at anything less than $18,500,000. I’m anxious to see what happens to this magnificent property! It’s competing against some other very prime Real Estate on Lake Washington, including a well known home on the tip of Meydenbauer, and two other homes on Mercer Island – one listed at $28 million and the other (still unfinished) at $32 million. Of course, the famed vacant lot that encompasses the entire tip of Hunts Point is still available for a $19,688,000 – not too far from another Hunts Point gem currently offered at $15,800,000. There are also a handful of other listings, including one on Yarrow Point for $25 million and a pre-construction downtown penthouse offered at $15,600,000! Which is the best deal? My money, if I had that many zeros in my bank account, would probably gravitate towards Bruce McCaw’s house, offered at $26,800,000. This home has an jaw-dropping 627 feet of Medina waterfront – utilizing the entire tip of Meydenbauer with a 15,320sq’ Chateau and garages galore wrapping around the point. This home, listed by Tere Foster and Moya Skillman of Windermere, is arguably the best deal on the lake for the ultra high-end buyer, but now that the Lytle’s home is up for auction, only time will tell!
Seattle Luxury Exclusive: Click to View Property Auction Brochure
The Lytle’s Famed Mercer Island Waterfront Estate is Heading to Auction!
The New York auction firm Sheldon Good & Co. announced today that it’s been retained to sell the famed Lytle Estate located on the Northern shore of Mercer Island. This is the same home that has been listed by CBBain’s Wendy Lister going all the way back to 2004 when the asking price was a staggering $40,000,000 USD. The Lytle’s, an active Seattle couple and founders of Leisure Care, have owned the property since 1989 and have poured millions into its transformation as one of the premier properties in the NW.
With approx. 23,000sq’ of living, the home was once described by Wendy Lister as:
“Jeweled candles of city lights; sunsets drawing your vision to the rugged Olympic crags. An arena of mirrored lagoons, saltwater pools… the manse itself a shy one-half acre showpiece surging to the sun. Unparalleled dinner chambres; master suite of epic proportions…rich marble salon, personal gym, wardrobe wing. Land: 2 gentle acres; 175′ low bank shores. Significant 140′ yacht moorage. Spiraling 12′ centre hall Chihuly. Schematic plans completed for additional 2BR 2BA within current walls.”
The listing recently expired on 01/19/2010 at a listing price of $25 million. Bidding will open at $15 million and the auction is date is set for this coming April… so get those deposit checks ready!
Click here to view the photos from the NWMLS
If you would like more information on this spectacular property or on the auction itself, please contact Shawn Filer, Director of The Luxury Collection, NWG at 206-919-5388 or visit www.shawnfiler.com
Seattle Art Museum is first U.S. stop for Picasso exhibit
“Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris,” an exhibit of more than 150 works of art, from paintings and sculptures to prints, drawings and photographs, opens at SAM on Oct. 8 and will be on display through Jan. 9, 2011.
The exhibit will cover every phase in Picasso’s protean career, from the dawn of the 20th century through works dating from the early 1970s, including his 1970 self-portrait “The Matador.”
SAM director Derrick Cartwright calls this “a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a large public to view these important objects in Seattle.”
Added Chiyo Ishikawa, co-curator with Michael Darling of the show’s Seattle stop: “The exhibition presents an entire sweep of Picasso’s career, documenting the full range of his unceasing inventiveness and creative process.”
“Picasso never liked to rest on his laurels,” Darling said. “This prompted him to always move on before any one expressive mode began to run thin.”
Highlights will include “La Celestina” (from his famous Blue Period), “The Two Brothers” (from his Pink Period) and the exuberant “Two Women Running on the Beach (La Course)” from 1922.
“Portrait of Dora Maar” (1937) finds him taking a multiplaned approach to the human figure — in this case, his mistress Dora Maar, a surrealist photographer. Jonathan Jones, writing in The Guardian’s “Portrait of the Week” column, ascribed to the painting “the kind of leap of perception that caricaturists loved to parody in Picasso, and that enables his art to say two or 200 things at once. … Her presence transcends the physical.”
The most unusual thing about the Musée Picasso’s collection is that it comprises works that Picasso kept for himself. This is the artist’s personal record of his eight-decade-long career.
The Musée National Picasso, Paris, opened in Paris’ Marais neighborhood in 1985. Housed in a converted 17th-century mansion, the museum has room to display only 300 or fewer works at a time — a clear source of frustration for museum director Anne Baldassari, who told The Associated Press, “We can’t continue like this.”
Along with expanding exhibit space, renovations will address “electrical problems,” enhance accessibility for disabled visitors and create additional venues for student activities. The museum is scheduled to reopen in early 2012.
In the meantime, “Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris” just closed in Helsinki, Finland’s Ateneum Art Museum, where it attracted record crowds, and is about to open in Moscow’s Pushkin Museum. The exhibit likely will go to two more U.S. cities — still to be confirmed — after it leaves Seattle.
Source: Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times arts writer
Madoff’s Manhattan Penthouse Under Contract
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Bernard Madoff’s penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is under contract to be sold after almost five months on the market.
A contract was signed for an undisclosed price, Deputy U.S. Marshal Roland Ubaldo said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Marshals Service is in charge of the disposition of the property, a three-bedroom apartment at 133 East 64th St.
Madoff’s apartment has been on the market for 146 days, according to StreetEasy.com, a property listing service. The price was cut 10 percent in November to $8.9 million after an original listing for $9.9 million.
“Perched atop a distinguished white-glove prewar cooperative, this 9 into 7 room duplex penthouse affords spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline,” reads the apartment listing at Sotheby’s International Realty.
The sale will raise funds to repay victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Serena Boardman, the co-broker for the penthouse with Sotheby’s International Realty in New York, didn’t immediately return a phone call for comment. Sotheby’s co-broker Anne Corey also didn’t return a call.
The median price of Manhattan apartments slid 10 percent to $810,000 in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to New York appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Fourth-quarter sales of luxury apartments, defined as the top 10 percent by price, increased 8.3 percent from a year earlier to 247, the data from Miller Samuel and Prudential show. The median sales price fell 8.5 percent to $3.78 million.
Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty in March to 11 counts of fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 150 years.
The Marshals Service is also selling a home seized from Madoff in Palm Beach, Florida. Madoff’s former home in Montauk, New York, near the summer resort communities of the Hamptons, sold for $9.41 million. The asking price was $8.75 million.
Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, bought that property, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Coming soon…
Check back soon for the official launch of the Seattle Luxury Blog with the latest info and news about Seattle Real Estate, Private Events, Shopping, Travel, and everything else in the World of Luxe! In the meantime, please visit our Sister sites www.shawnfiler.com and www.seattle-luxury.com
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