The Wall Street Journal's mansion of the week is another ode to ostentatious wealth colliding with whimsical, undisciplined design. Let's tick off the obligatory story lines first:
- The owners bought the land for $2.8 million in 2011. It's 60 acres outside of Cleveland in the "wealthy village" of Hunting Valley, OH on the Chagrin River.
- The owner founded his own business, which was bought by Blackstone in 2017, and the estate was developed in 2018 at the cost of $20 million.
- The husband unfortunately passed away in 2021 at 63 years old, and his wife is selling the house and building another house elsewhere.
- The state record for a home sale in Ohio is $10 million, and this house is asking $20 million.
My first reaction was "holy cow, did you hire an architect and if so, did they hate your guts?" The house moves from a rhythmic, charming, predominantly shingle style* home on the right, to a disorganized blob of masses on the left with a jumble of competing roof lines.
*The shingle style of architecture is uniquely American. It first developed in coastal areas of New England in the mid 19th century, then migrated across the country and abroad. Shingle style houses tend to be wonderfully asymmetric, often incorporating round or polygonal towers, wide porches, a variety of windows and rooflines. Balancing such elements into a cohesive, well flowing design requires both exceptional creativity, a keen sense of proportion and balance, and disciplined restraint.
After leading with aerial shot from the back of the house, the WSJ story follows with two pictures of the man cave - a home barbershop and the golf simulator.
Why anyone wants or needs a 20,000 square foot home is beyond me, but as foreshadowed in the first picture, we are about to dive into 20,000 square feet of nearly relentless, joyless, busy brown. Punctuated by a few rooms of equally overbearing combinations of gray. I wish I were kidding.
There are some gorgeous mosaics throughout the home. This is probably my favorite room, which is a shame because it's likely among the least used. But it's stunning. I'm not sure why there are zippers on the dining room chairs. Are they designed by Tom Ford? That's one of his signatures, though I'm not sure he does a home furnishings line. Is it risque to unzip them? I never get invited to those dinner parties.
If you look through the pictures the quality of the materials and craftsmanship is impressive. The quirks come from stuff like this:
Mini rant: I hate vessel sinks. They're difficult to clean around, the water splashes straight up at you when you turn it on, and while I'm all for some personal touches, this looks like a hat for one of the Daleks in Doctor Who. Also, if you've never renovated or built a house, let me tell you that putting the plumbing fixtures on the wall AND mounted to / through the mirror is abominably expensive. I bet their plumber bought an AirStream after they finished that house.
But this has to be the funniest room. When I saw it, I immediately thought "Bilbo Baggins goes on a Carnival Cruise". Swear to god. Then I read the house listing on Zillow, which mentions that the interior designer is a World Renowned (their capitalization, and ... stop it) yacht interior designer. Again, the craftsmanship, the proportions, the design is gorgeous. For me, it's just too much of everything.
I adore many styles of architecture and design. In my own space I tolerate very little visual movement and veer towards minimalism. My cabinets had to be changed from natural birch to white oak at the last minute, and I'm still struggling to deal with how much color and visual distraction they add, which I wasn't prepared for. The natural pools connected by the waterfall and stream in the back of the house are beautiful, and absolutely my favorite feature of the property. I hope they had big, joyous, coon hounds who splashed into the pool and chased deer everywhere. My dream is to be able to add a wildlife pond at my house, install a camera and see who shows up.
