The Country’s Top Ten Home Trends
An ornate Bay Area mansion, a sleek Boston loft, and a very Instagram-worthy LA bungalow all appear in our rankings for the most inspiring real estate right now.
The Most Instagrammable Beach Bungalow Ever
Nestled in the laidback lanes of Venice Beach’s Oakwood enclave, this modernized 1920s bungalow feels worthy of its cool $1.75 million right when you step into the front yard. “You literally gasp,” says Compass agent Diana Braun. “Here’s this teeny, teeny home — the dining room is literally outdoors — but it’s on a 5,000-square-foot lot with the most amazing landscaping. The 20-foot-high ficus tree hedges make it feel like a private oasis, like you’re an ant in a terrarium.”
Renovated by the award-winning local firm W3, the house itself is both transporting and terrifically functional: Nest thermostat, wireless Haiku fan, Velux programmable skylights that close automatically in the rare event of rain. But the outdoors is what really begs for a barrage of sunset selfies.
A masterpiece by Santa Monica-based Red Lemon Landscape Design, it’s a captivating example of uninterrupted indoor-outdoor living. Consider the details: The den seamlessly gives way to a covered gathering space on an expansive ash deck. A teak hot tub stands ready; a gas firepit beckons. There’s a natural flagstone paved garden, filled with lush, fruit-bearing avocado, Moro blood orange, and Bearss lime trees. And at one end of the smooth stucco and wood frame property is the crown jewel: an adorable, two-tone 1951 camper.
The Mascot trailer by Holly Travel Coach was rebuilt — and cleverly compressed — to just three-and-a-half-feet wide by local sculptor Blue McRight. More objet than extended living space, it’s nonetheless kitted out with a cocktail bar and a (very!) cozy reading nook and has even been the subject of a Los Angeles Times art review.
— Kelly Phillips-Badal
651 Brooks Avenue
Offered exclusively by The Diana Braun Group of Compass
South Florida’s Most Turnkey Mansion
Real estate developer Felix Cohen deals in the luxuries that Miamians didn’t know they wanted. In the late 1970s, he was one of the first entrepreneurs to bring European fashion to South Florida, and multiple record-setting spec houses have proved that Cohen’s telepathy extends to homeownership.
Cohen’s latest project is 3114 North Bay Road, and according to this triumph, what luxury buyers want next is no fuss. Cohen has detailed the seven-bedroom residence down to the Roche Bobois furnishings, Baccarat glassware, and Frette linens. “My father built this house as his own, with heart,” says Compass agent Jacques Cohen, who is listing the compound with brother Julian, of this attention to detail. “It allows for a buyer to bring a suitcase and make themselves at home right away.”
Which is sensible, considering how much making there is to enjoy. Tucked within a cove of Biscayne Bay, the residence is located a short bike ride from the commercial buzz of Lincoln Road and pulsing nightlife of South Beach. Presuming that this homeowner may equally desire a haven from cosmopolitan bustle (privacy-deserving neighbors include Shakira and Calvin Klein), Cohen conceived the project as an urban resort: Escape to open water from the elevator-serviced boat dock, and return home in time to open a bottle from the wine cellar and watch the Miami skyline shimmer from the 2,500-square-foot roof garden.
Staying put for the day is just as attractive, thanks to a lush landscape in which palms flank a 100-foot mosaic-clad pool. The outdoor oasis flows seamlessly into ipe-clad pavilions that house entertaining and wellness facilities for a 360-degree experience that’s just waiting to be unlocked.
— David Sokol
3114 North Bay Road
Offered exclusively by Jacques Cohen and Julian Cohen of Compass
Uptown’s Most Fashionable Address
New Yorkers have been pursuing real estate tips for generations. Back in 1902, when Andrew Carnegie completed a mansion on Fifth Avenue and 91st Street among brownstones and small farms, fellow scions followed suit. A spate of construction transformed Carnegie’s corner of the Upper East Side into a trove of revival-style architecture, each building statelier than the last.
Even in this dazzling milieu, the Carhart Mansion stands apart. The Landmarks Preservation Commission declared the Horace Trumbauer design one of the city’s finest examples of Louis XVI classicism. And the building’s award-winning 2005 conversion into four residences remains the gold standard of contemporary space with antique grandeur. “It’s the perfect marriage of downtown chic and uptown glam,” says Compass agent Pascual Ortiz.
That duality is on display in the penthouse, whose owners have included, most recently, shoe designer Tamara Mellon. Epoch-crossing sumptuousness embraces you from the elevator into its center hall gallery through the sunken living room to the terrace, which matches Gilded Age proportions to indoor-outdoor informality. The most stunning union of past and present is the master bedroom, which combines a wood-burning fireplace and views of charming mansard rooftops with (apt for the Jimmy Choo cofounder) a 13-by-23-foot dressing room with abundant shoe storage.
— DS
3 East 95th Street
Offered exclusively by Keith Copley, Trish Goff, and Pascual Ortiz of Compass
Manhattan’s Most Livable Landmark
During the West Village’s bohemian days, historic single-family townhouses were carved into labyrinths of apartments and artist studios. Now that a West Village address has become one of the most coveted in Manhattan, the residential architecture is returning to its more commodious roots. “Everyone is looking for a home with charm and personality that delivers an authentic Village experience,” says Compass President Leonard Steinberg. Newly renovated by AD 100 architect and Yale professor Steven Harris and his longtime collaborator, developer Adam Gordon, this four-story home does just that, without relying solely on extant details for character.
Indeed, Gordon gutted the 20-foot wide Italianate, whose previous incarnation was a four-unit apartment, while Harris took liberties like converting the rooftop into a sleek lounge with Jacuzzi, as well as eliminating traditional parlor-level divisions. Now the foyer and living room meld and flow casually into the kitchen and dining nook.
Steinberg imagines enjoying morning coffee from a perch at this combined room’s island, looking upon its exposed brick, nonchalant open shelving, and subway tiles, or from the terrace that projects beyond the kitchen’s all-glass wall. Meanwhile, guests greet the day from the ground-floor patio, and kids barely stir in bedrooms two floors above. That the home varies between open spaces and personal retreats “really rolls the best of townhouse, prewar, and loft living into one,” he adds.
— DS
252 West 12th Street
Offered exclusively by The Leonard Steinberg Team of Compass
SoCal’s Most Enchanting Greenspace
Santa Barbara’s high-on-the-hill Riviera neighborhood is among the city’s most coveted. The only catch is, most Riviera homes lack yards. “You trade that in to live with breathtaking views of downtown straight to the ocean,” says Compass agent Jon-Ryan Schlobohm.
In marked contrast this home boasts more than two acres of green space due to its position on the Riviera’s mountain-facing backside. “Very few properties can compare to it, considering the size of the yard,” says Schlobohm. And while the house within this gated estate carries a story of its own — it’s the early work of celebrated modernist Gardner Dailey — the transformation of the landscape is what takes the expanse from exceptional to extraordinary.
The terrain now includes a formal garden with plants aligned in maze-like configurations, a pool and putting green, stone fruit trees, and flagstone walkways that connect the entire compound, leading from loggia to courtyard to dining cabana. What was there before? Rolling lawns — which took a lot of water to maintain, a difficulty in dry Central Coast California. Now, layers of drought-tolerant greenery — succulents, cypress trees, monrovia boxwood — dot allées of towering oaks.
And the best way to take it all in is through the home’s dramatic entrance: a long set of gracious, gradual stairs that cuts across the grounds. “It’s just breathtaking,” says Schlobohm.
— KPB
1041 Mission Ridge Road
Sold exclusively by Jon-Ryan Schlobohm and Kirk Hodson of Compass
The Capital’s Most Multifaceted Penthouse
Every two years, a fresh batch of Mr. and Ms. Smiths goes to Washington DC. For the arriving public servant who needs to get settled in and down to work, the just-completed Jet in burgeoning Columbia Heights offers instant gratification. Purchase of one of the two units in this condominium comes with a two-year prepaid lease for a BMW i3, plus charging stations for the electric cars, whose compactness guarantees a parking spot at the hip restaurants that have sprung up nearby on 14th and 11th Streets.
The three-bedroom penthouse offers additional amenities for a quick transition. If you want to take locavore to the next level, the kitchen includes an Urban Cultivator hydroponic system for growing microgreens among the Italian cabinetry and Thermador appliances. Is bureaucracy stressing you out? Then take to the stainless-steel, Japanese soaking tub in the master bathroom. Gather friends (from both sides of the aisle) around the living room’s ventless fireplace, or impress colleagues with Gin Rickeys served on the 600-square-foot rooftop.
“Everything’s been thought of,” says Compass agent Jenn Smira, who adds that the penthouse’s appeal will far outlast any political term. “It’s a whole package for city living that you’ll want to call home for years.”
— DS
1336 Parkwood Place NW
Offered exclusively by The Jenn Smira Team of Compass
New England’s Most Inspiring Work/Live Space
The quintessential living quarters in Cambridge are classic wood-frame, 19th-century homes on tree-lined streets — which makes this voluminous, sunlight-drenched loft in quasi-industrial East Cambridge “a rare bird, a real standout,” says Compass agent Bruce Irving. “Most conversions around here are only for offices, not housing.”
Part of a 10-unit building converted to condos in 1996, the structure was once dedicated to truck maintenance, and a vine-covered steel gantry in the shared outdoor space nods to that history. The trendy Kendall Square ’hood it sits in has also changed dramatically, as the city’s hip flock to the nearby bars and cafés. And while an airy, art-ready space like this might be desirable anywhere, in Cambridge it’s one-in-a-million.
Every unit is different, but this one is particularly notable. It’s centered around a two-floor atrium topped by an enormous skylight. An effort has been made to keep the space from reading too sterile in design, though, with its exposed wooden beams and splashes of bright colors on the kitchen walls and island. Poured-concrete floors in the common areas give way to nubby pine in the private quarters. There’s a home office in the mezzanine, but the open floor plan allows for scads of opportunities to create extra work zones. The existing partitions aren’t structural, so they can be moved to comfortably apportion the square footage to your needs. The plentiful storage is small-business ready, while the fluid entertaining space begs for a rowdy launch party.
“The loft is a great example of a huge space that’s been turned eminently liveable,” says Irving. “It’s got it all for an out-of-the-box buyer.”
— KPB
243 Bent Street
Offered exclusively by Bigelow/Irving of Compass
The East End’s Cleanest Slate
In East Hampton, beachfront property is practically priceless. The desirability is such that most coastal estates have another home, or perhaps two, nestled between them and the street. Very, very few East End properties boast street-to- sea ownership of their own secluded compound. And that’s why this year’s record-setting $110 million sale of the adjoined properties of 93, 97, and 101 Lily Pond Lane made history as the fifth largest residential sale in the US and the second largest transaction in New York state.
“Three back-to-back properties on Lily Pond Lane — the best address near Georgica Beach, the A++ of the neighborhood — I doubt we’ll see this again,” says Compass agent Ed Petrie.
The properties span 6.7 acres altogether, with 284 feet of oceanside real estate. The main house, perched atop a cliff overlooking the Atlantic, is a sprawling, French-style manor complete with a column-flanked pool and rolling lawn. The 93 address has a tear-down-ready house, and the 97 property is vacant. So as is, this unusually broad expanse of the Hamptons’ most sought-after terrain is a tabula rasa for building a dream getaway; there’s plenty of land on which to add a guest cottage (or two), potager, and even a putting green.
It remains to be seen exactly how the new owner will transform and unify the trio of addresses, but one thing is certain: Can’t you all-too-easily imagine Jay Gatsby throwing one of his lavish parties on this grand estate?
— KPB
93, 97, and 101 Lily Pond Lane
Sold exclusively by The Petrie Team of Compass
The Bay Area’s Coolest Optical Illusion
As the most expensive sale in San Francisco in 2016 (by our press date), this majestic, Beaux-Arts mansion is like nothing else, says Compass agent Neal Ward. And while you might expect that its lavish façade of Corinthian columns, hand-carved embellishments, and wrought-iron balconies hides an equally ornate interior, this wedding-cake of a home reveals a clever sleight of hand as you step inside: the interior is strikingly, unabashedly contemporary.
The juxtaposition was a deliberate decision. When the previous owners updated the manse, designed in 1901 by noted architect James Dunn, they determined that the undulating ornamentation of Dunn’s exterior would be painstakingly preserved, while the interior would be reborn.
LA’s Paul McClean Design led the ground-up renovation, adding a foundation with seismic engineering — the same safeguard as new highrises — plus creature comforts of 21st-century living that might seem like wizardry to the building’s earliest dwellers, like an all-floor elevator, a wine room, and one jaw-dropper of an infinity pool on the rooftop terrace. And then there’s that view, one of the city’s most enviable. “You can see the Golden Gate Bridge, unobstructed from the main level up, and that’s a real rarity,” says Compass agent Malin Giddings.
She’s right: it’s sheer magic.
— KPB
2250 Vallejo Street
Offered exclusively by Neal Ward and Malin Giddings of Compass
The Roaring Fork Valley’s Most Urbane Ranch
If casual tourists associate Aspen with world-class skiing and see-and-be-seen shopping, then homeownership allows devotees the time to discover the other pursuits that this prestigious stretch of the Rocky Mountains has to offer. The village of Woody Creek, for example, “has long represented the artistic and literary character of Aspen,” says Compass Managing Director Steven Shane. “Ed Bradley, Ringo Starr, Hunter S. Thompson, and John Oates have all got their creative juices flowing in Woody Creek.”
Residents are not only attracted to Woody Creek for its cultural bona fides, but also for wide-open countryside where they can relish the outdoors, such as at this picturesque, 35-acre ranch on Woody Creek’s namesake boulevard, which welcomes sport and relaxation in all four seasons. Amble on horseback through the arena or pastures situated just beyond the Tuscan-style residence; teach a younger guest to hook her first trout in one of the stocked ponds; or simply invite friends over to contemplate the tapestry of meadow and forest that climbs into the surrounding mountains. The property’s many activities, social atmosphere, and heirloom craftsmanship may inspire you to pen a wistful novel or unshakeable lyric of your own.
— DS
391/401 Woody Creek Road
Offered exclusively by Steven Shane and Doug Leibinger of Compass
