Sydney’s ‘Villa Florida’ Is On The Market
This historic waterfront pile could now be yours.
By Terry Christodoulou
Thu, Dec 10, 2020 2:06am
2 min
2 min
Offering true waterfront, 12 Tivoli Avenue, Rose Bay, Sydney – built-in 1928 – is set across 1290sqm and is ready for sale.
Enjoying an extensive refresh courtesy of acclaimed architect Michael Suttor, the three-storey, 7-bedroom, 9-bathroom, 4-car parking residence – affectionately named ‘Villa Florida’ – offers an elusive street-to-waterfront property with views of Sydney Harbour.
Suttor and his team restored the home beyond its former glory, making use of its architectural features – such as the arched windows, a pitched cathedral ceiling, wrought iron balcony details and a jaw-dropping spiral staircase – drawing a line heightened levels of ‘European’ luxury.
The home sees a manicured courtyard area usher you into the approx. 930sqm home. Inside, the residence is replete with a combination of parquetry flooring, travertine limestone tiling and sandstone finishes alongside Venetian plastering finished in beeswax.
On the lower ground floor sits the billiard room, family room and kitchen, fitted with European appliances, granite benchtops and custom cabinetry.
Also on the lower ground floor are two bedrooms, each complete with an ensuite, accompanied by a further bedroom and access to the terrace.
Up the aforementioned spiral staircase to the ground floor lands the master suite which features a walk-in-robe and ensuite with access to a private balcony and the sunroom providing further water views through the arched windows. A further two bedrooms are also found on this level.
Elsewhere, on the ground floor, arrives the formal dining and living, complete with a working stone fireplace and another kitchen – with finishes coordinating with the downstairs offering.
Throughout the expansive residence, the nine bathrooms feature mosaic tiling and travertine limestone flooring with granite details.
Upstairs further to the first floor sees a further two bedrooms and a library that is accompanied by a large sandstone terrace that has capacity for 200 people.
Outside, the sandstone adorned pool loggia arrives with a bathroom and chef’s kitchen. Here, the terraced gardens guide you down to the water’s edge allowing the owner to soak in the best of what Sydney has to offer.
The listing is with Black Diamondz Property Concierge’s Monika Tu (+61 409 898 888) and Jad Khatta (+61 432 669 287). Price guide $45 million.
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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.
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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.
