Forbes: "Inside the World's First Billion-Dollar Home"

[El Pinko]

story: http://tinyurl.com/4e5nq8

slideshow: http://tinyurl.com/4jn2q6





Inside the World's First Billion-Dollar Home
by Matt Woolsey
Friday, May 2, 2008

While visiting New York in 2005, Nita Ambani was in the spa at the Mandarin Oriental New York, overlooking Central Park. The contemporary Asian interiors struck her just so, and prompted her to inquire about the designer.

....

Forbes estimated Ambani's net worth at $43 billion in March. Reliance Industries was founded by Mukesh's father, Dhirubhai Ambani, in 1966, and is India's most valuable firm by market capitalization. The couple, who have three children, currently live in a 22-story Mumbai tower that the family has spent years remodeling to meet its needs.

Like many families with the means to do so, the Ambanis wanted to build a custom home. They consulted with architecture firms Perkins + Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental, based in Dallas and Los Angeles, respectively. Plans were then drawn up for what will be the world's largest and most expensive home: a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai with a cost nearing $2 billion. The architects and designers are creating as they go, altering floor plans, design elements and concepts as the building is constructed.

The only remotely comparable high-rise property currently on the market is the $70 million triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel in New York, designed to resemble a French chateau, and climbing 525 feet in the air. When the Ambani residence is finished in January, completing a four-year process, it will be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet of interior space. The home will cost more than a hotel or high-rise of similar size because of its custom measurements and fittings: A hotel or condominium has a common layout, replicated on every floor, and uses the same materials throughout the building (such as door handles, floors, lamps and window treatments).

[Horse with no Name]

1. ummm why?

I think it is hideous. It looks like a cheesy nouveau riche hotel.

[Deja Q]

3. Because Yahoo turned down Microsoft's $40 billion offer?

:yoiks:

[Deja Q]

2. And this is the world's first billion-penny home

[El Pinko]

4. Strangely, they look VERY similar to me!

NT

[frogcycle]

15. ha!

I love this!


Trailer park gone upscale!

[AlphaCentauri]

5. must be hard for this lady to find how to spend her fortune

how much will she be paying the house maid?

[mainegreen]

6. Nothing like living like a god surrounded by a sea of sqaulid suffering to show your true self.

Scum.

That's what.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Ugliest thing I've ever seen. I wouldn't pay $125K for it.

[liberal N proud]

8. Obscene

The looks are even obscene

[DS1]

9. It looks like stacked shipping containers

which is actually a method being used in some parts of the world

[KamaAina]

32. I've been pushing that for NOLA for some time now

New Orleans has: a) a severe housing shortage, even now, 2 and two-thirds years on; and b) thousands upon thousands of shipping containers around, seeing as how it's the largest port and all. The solution may be right down the road from the problem.

[Highway61]

10. Gross...n/t

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Take THAT, Snoop Dog!

[gollygee]

12. We're in a new gilded age

and damn that's ugly. Money obviously can't buy taste.

[AlphaCentauri]

13. or a new aristocratic society

[ladjf]

14. Is this a joke?

[El Pinko]

16. If only it were...

I'm told Mumbai's slums look quite picturesque from 500 feet above - you can't even smell the open sewers from that height.

I hope they don't forget the helicopter pad on top!

[ladjf]

27. It might be a good idea to wear a parachute at all times. The

building looks rickety as hell.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

17. Disgusting

[hughee99]

26. Yes, it is... Except these people are from India.

It seems like things aren't much different there.

[Blue_Tires]

18. but you still have to look at it!!!

[high density]

19. It is hard to live in a house without nine elevators

And I'm sure those extra five stories on their new home will help them spread out a little bit more. Though 400,000sqft is still a little tight.

[AlCzervik]

20. yikes, the decorator should be exiled. Once again, money doesn't equal taste.

[Deja Q]

21. Wow. Lots of rooms to hide johns in.

:shrug:

[coriolis]

22. Squalor isn't nearly as depressing viewed from way up there.

:eyes:

[LibertyLover]

23. That is truly ugly

Frankly, you can tell a hotel designer was involved - none of the spaces look different from any of the luxury hotels I've been in. They are nice, but so impersonal as to be ultimately uninteresting. I had hopes for what was billed as the traditional lounge, hoping that it would be a very cool recreation of a Mughal palace space. It wasn't. It was boring. All I can say is, yeah, whatever. I wonder what everyday Indian citizens of Mumbai feel about this travesty?

[otohara]

24. 9 Elevators

how gross!

[Arugula Latte]

25. The architects and designers are creating as they go, altering floor plans, design elements and

concepts as the building is constructed."

Great. This medieval feudal lord is building a billion dollar pile-o-crap.

[ray of light]

28. digusting! They couldn't PAY me to live there!

[napi21]

29. I agree the exterior is pretty ugly, but the inside????? It's BEAUTIFUL!

I can understand where all that money is tied up. Say what you want, but I'd LOVE to have a home like that!!!!

Something lese you need to know about the Indian culture. My boss built a $2,800,000 home in San Antonio in 1992. It also was HUGH! But it wasn't built with only his $$ nor was it for his family only. His larger family in India provided nost of the $$, but they believe that home belongs to all of them. When they came to visit, everything in that home was theirs too. It's an interesting cultural belief.

[mitchum]

30. I can only hope there is a lamppost outside of the place

[Uncle Joe]

31. While the outside seems rather grotesque the inside is beautiful in a funeral home sort of way. n/t

[hatrack]

33. Further proof that money and taste don't necessarily go together . . .

:puke: