The house, which feels as though it’s suspended over the water, was built to withstand the conditions it faces being so close to the ocean.
3 minLISTING OF THE DAY
Location: Flinders, Victoria, Australia
Price: $30 million
Dubbed “Horizon,” this recently completed five-bedroom mansion is perched on a dramatic cliff edge on Australia’s Mornington Peninsula near Flinders township, about 72 kilometres south of Melbourne.
In 2015, the family of legendary Australian rules football coach Jock McHale put the property, which includes a 1920s homestead called Pinnacle Park, up for sale. According to listing agent Rob Curtain of Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty, developer Brooke Starbuck bought it, along with multiple adjoining titles.
“Unlike all of the other allotments offered, which have restrictive zoning regulations, the five-acre homestead did not fall into the same zoning,” Mr Curtain said. “So he saw an opportunity and subdivided the land into four separate plots while maintaining the original homestead.”
Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty
Starbuck enlisted local craftsmen Williams Group and commercial architect Bruce Henderson to build the home. The process took five years. “He wanted to do the unique position justice and build a generational home that would withstand the harsh environment of living so close to the ocean,” Mr. Curtain said. “He also hired interior designer Mim Design for the internal fit-out based on Miriam Fanning’s renowned coastal work. It’s truly a modern-day masterpiece.”
The interiors feature St. Croix stone complemented by American oak flooring. The home’s elevated first level contains five ocean bedrooms all with en-suite bathrooms and ocean views, as well as a central chef’s kitchen, a fully appointed scullery and three living spaces oriented to maximize the views.
“The main open-plan living, kitchen, dining area is simply spectacular,” Mr. Curtain said. “The 13-foot ceilings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a 180-degree ocean view create the most surreal feeling of being suspended over the water. It’s an architectural and engineering triumph set on a truly spectacular landholding with 335 feet of oceanfront and tremendous 270-degree ocean and rural views.”
Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty
Stats
The 2000sqm home sits on a 1.25-acre lot and has five bedrooms and six full bathrooms.
Amenities
The home has the latest in technology with world-class kitchen appliances from Wolf and Sub-Zero, integrated audio-visual by Sonos, zoned hydronic floor heating and VRV heating and cooling throughout. A comprehensive security system includes keyless entry and all home technologies are controlled via Elan. The residence is also 6-star energy rated and includes a solar panel system.
An elevator connects the upper level to the lower one, which has a professional gymnasium, sauna, cinema room, wine room and a garage. There is also a second gourmet kitchen servicing an al fresco spa terrace, where a suspended 20-person spa overlooks the ocean.
Neighbourhood Notes
“The beauty of this location is the views are all water and rural surroundings as the area is better known for the farming environment,” Mr. Curtain said. “But this home is only a five-minute walk to the Flinders township, golf courses and the Flinders Bay Beach. It’s also only a 60-minute drive to Melbourne’s central business district.”
Listing Agent: Rob Curtain, Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
The Australian leather house has opened an immersive four-day pop-up in Manhattan, unveiling its Bloom Collection and redefining what a product launch can look like.
Following the successful launch of its Palais Collection, MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled a new modular handbag system offering more than 720 styling combinations.
A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.
3 min
For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
