From high-profile design commissions to exciting listings, there is always something new happening in the world of real estate. In this roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.
On the market
Michael Eisner lists Malibu compound for record $225 million
Michael Eisner doesn’t think small: The ex-Disney CEO has listed his five-acre Malibu compound for a whopping $225 million. If he gets close to that price, the home—designed by AD 100 Hall of Fame architect Robert A.M. Stern—will be the most expensive ever sold in California.
Eisner’s oceanfront complex houses nine structures in all, with 16 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms spread across a main house, a caretaker’s cottage, and several guesthouses.
Get the essentials to grow a sustainable business at our member-only event.
Best known for skyscrapers like the 15 Central Park West, Stern designed for Eisner a 25,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style estate more suggestive of Provence or the French Riviera than SoCal. Its stone structures are clad in antique terra-cotta roof tiles and linked by manicured gardens and courtyards. Situated on a bluff overlooking a small cover, the property comes with an oceanfront pool that’s accessible via cliffside elevator and connects to a large movie theater via underground tunnel. Eisner bought the first parcel on the bluffs in the mid-1990s and began adding adjacent lots until he completed the compound in 2020.
Westside Estate Agency’s Kurt Rappaport, who has the listing, tells AD PRO it’s “one of the finest beachfront properties in the world.”
A Sarasota house with curve appeal
You’ll never paint yourself into a corner in this unusual two-bedroom home in Sarasota, Florida: A 1,268-square-foot curved house on Peachtree Street is a step back in time to midcentury America, with tangerine doors, turquoise appliances, and meticulously curated period furnishings that can be separately negotiated for purchase.
Electrician Frank Williams built the cylindrical abode in 1971, inspired by the nearby Hilton Leech Art Studio—a.k.a. The Round House—designed by Sarasota School of Architecture partners Jack West and Elizabeth Boylston Waters. Williams “built the cabinets, he built everything,” owner Sue Tapia recently told Sarasota Magazine.
Although the house has passed through numerous hands in the intervening half-century, “the beauty is that they kept it as is,” she said. The kitchen still features an eat-in peninsula and double cast-iron sink, and the curved bathroom that anchors the center of the home sports a circular sunken bathtub, rounded mirror, and rounded countertops and sink.
Tapia snapped up the house in 2018 for just under $230,000 and spent the following year—and more than $70,000—clearing, repairing, and remodeling. Her menagerie of vintage furnishings was a perfect match for the house, including the boomerang coffee table she picked up at a yard sale.
The home has received nearly 123,000 likes on Zillow Gone Wild’s Twitter. Tapia, who is also a realtor with White Sands Realty, has listed the home for $899,000. She is only accepting cash offers.
.jpg)
Check into Howard Johnson’s classic seven on the Upper East Side
Howard Deering Johnson made his name in hotels and restaurants, but it’s his two-bedroom co-op on Manhattan’s Gold Coast that’s up for sale for $6.49 million.
Apartment 3A at 812 Fifth Avenue is a classic seven, with a marble-floored entrance, Central Park views in the living room, and a library that can easily be converted into a third bedroom. The 19-story tower it occupies was built by architect Robert L. Bien in 1963—and was once home to former vice president Nelson Rockefeller.
The co-op is being sold by the estate of the woman who bought it from Johnson. It’s “in need of renovations,” according to the listing from Iman Barkhordari of Douglas Elliman, but is still “a special treasure.”
Milestones
.jpg)
Four Seasons New Orleans lets the good times roll
The Big Easy is readying for its tallest condo tower with the opening of the Four Seasons New Orleans Private Residences on Canal Street. The hotel, which operates on the lower floors, opened last fall. But now model residences are on view as owners—including former Saints quarterback Drew Brees and shipyard tycoon Boysie Bollinger, who paid a record $13 million for a 30th-floor penthouse—prepare to move in. The project represents the ultimate evolution of the historic World Trade Center New Orleans, a city landmark designed by Radio City Music Hall architect Edward Durell Stone and completed in 1968.
To bring the 33-story building fully up to date, Bill Rooney Studio has reimagined the interiors with CambridgeSeven leading the transformation of the iconic exterior. “It’s such a 1960s building. It has all of the exuberance of the decade,” CambridgeSeven president Gary Johnson told The Architect’s Newspaper. “It was a time of wonder and excitement and renewal.”
Pricing for units ranges from $2 million to $10 million.
Miami Beach’s 42 Pine launches sales
Sales have launched at 42 Pine, the first luxury boutique building in Miami Beach’s 41st Street and Pine Tree Drive neighborhood, with architecture and interiors by renowned local firm Arquitectonica. The eight-story building houses 50 turn-key homes with French white oak flooring and Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances. Residents have access to resort-style amenities, including a rooftop pool, game room, and wellness center.
In a statement Arquitectonica’s Bernardo Fort-Brescia said, “42 Pine represents an important urban design step for the area,” adding that his team drew inspiration for their design “from the idea of a hill town.” Fort-Brescia continued, “The expression is one of individual villa clusters to create a vertical neighborhood. The concept is reinforced by the use of contrasting materials that highlight the cubic village idea.”
Completion of 42 Pine is expected by the fourth quarter of 2023, with pricing ranges starting at $700,000 for one-bedroom units. Mushka Jacobson with Douglas Elliman is managing sales and marketing.
.jpg)
A first look at Gachot Studios’ interiors at Madison House
Construction is complete at Madison House, the tallest residential project in NoMad, and immediate occupancy is available. Handel Architects developed the exterior of the 62-story striped skyscraper, which rises 805 feet to form an angled peak. The interiors, meanwhile, were designed by AD100 firm Gachot Studios, the tastemakers behind Detroit’s Shinola Hotel, the Glossier flagship in SoHo, and Pebble Bar at Rockefeller Center.
“To take advantage of Madison House’s extraordinary height and showcase the great views, we employed generous planes of rich, natural materials and hand-applied finishes,” cofounder Christine Gachot tells AD PRO. “This lush materiality brings warmth and context to the building’s monumental scale.” Gachot’s team designed the amenities spaces “the same way we would design a private member’s club,” she adds. “There’s a balance between classic sophistication, hospitable comfort, and modern architecture,” she says. “When it comes to design, our most crucial consideration is how the space will make someone feel at ease.”