Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘yuge’ Hamptons manse
First son Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, are now the proud owners of a traditional Bridgehampton beach mansion — and no, they didn’t get a presidential discount. The home was asking $4.495 million and closed for $4.4 million, sources tell Gimme Shelter. While Trump Jr. has never been a fan of the Hamptons (and we’re not sure what his father’s conservative base would think of this playground for the rich and famous liberal elite), we’re told Guilfoyle loves the flashy East End — and can be very convincing. Trump did get a few concessions: his own gun room (as we previously reported) and access to a 25-acre kettle pond for fishing. The sprawling, seven-bedroom, 9,200-square-foot home is big enough to house all of Trump’s five kids with ex-wife, Vanessa, and Guilfoyle’s son with her second ex-husband, Eric Villency. The property includes 3.9 idyllic “south-of-the-highway” acres that are minutes from the beach, plus a heated pool with a waterfall, a spa, a screened-in patio and room to add tennis courts. Sounds “yuge.”
Is this the ‘ugliest house in the Hamptons’?
Billionaire hedge-funder Thomas Sandell, of Sandell Asset Management, has stopped construction on his massive compound on Meadow Lane in Southampton for the last 10 months. Now neighbors speculate that he may simply demolish the 18,000-square-foot Moroccan-style home (which some refer to as the “ugliest house in the Hamptons”), after reportedly shelling out $37.1 million to buy the 8.1-acre property, along with an estimated $19 million in building costs. “The owner is now weighing his options, including demolition,” says Southampton Village Building Inspector Chris Talbot, who tells Gimme Shelter that the home is around 60 percent complete. (It’s been passed around by multiple architects since construction first began in 2012.) The house isn’t exactly a hit in the tony ’hood. “It’s pretty scary that someone could build this. The architecture board is so strict and complains about so many little things. How could they have let this happen? It’s embarrassing,” says one top broker with listings on the street, where homes often sell from $50 million to $100 million. “It looks like there was no architect — nobody wants a Moroccan villa in such a historic area,” the broker snips. Another broker adds: “It’s amazing that it got built at all — just think about the shadows it casts.” The latest project manager, Christian Barletta of Sandpebble Builders Inc., declined to discuss the home and referred calls to Sandell’s lawyer, Gil Flanagan, who did not return calls. “Meadow Lane is filled with all different styles of homes, good and bad,” says another architect involved. “This is no more extreme than anything else. It was built to code. There’s nothing illegal about it, nor was it built on the sly.”
Buy a Frank Lloyd Wright on Craigslist
Forget Casual Encounters or used coffee pots — you can now snag a Frank Lloyd Wright home on Craigslist, for just $1.2 million. Known as the Stuart Richardson House, the historic New Jersey residence at 63 Chestnut Hill Place is hidden in the woods on a gated half-acre in tony Glen Ridge (not far from celebs like Stephen Colbert). Built in 1951, the 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home features hexagonal rooms made with 60-degree and 120-degree angles — not a right angle in sight. A triangular living room boasts an inverted-pyramid ceiling, while heated floors are adorned with hexagonal designs. There are also triangular recessed lights, a triangular wood-burning fireplace, a cantilevered foyer, built-in shelves and original furniture (designed by FLW), an atrium with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and a flat roof: all elements of Wright’s “Usonian” architecture. The midcentury property also offers a free-form pool, brick-walled side garden and bucolic grounds. Plus, you can tell your friends that you scored it on Craigslist.
Ai Weiwei’s Hudson Valley masterpiece
If you’ve ever dreamed about living in a work of art, this $5.25 million upstate home is for you. Chinese artist, filmmaker and activist Ai Weiwei designed the modernist abode for one of his collectors, Christopher Tsai, in 2006. (The project was a collab with Swiss firm HHF Architects and remains Weiwei’s only private-home creation in the US; Tsai sold the home to its current owners for $4.25 million in 2013.) The three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 3,500-square-foot house, which sits on 37 acres, is shrouded in privacy. Inside, the home is covered in exotic wood and flooded with Hudson River Valley light, thanks to its walls of windows. It boasts a chef’s kitchen and three fireplaces, while a second Y-shape structure, whose exteriors echo the corrugated metal of local farm sheds, serves as the guest house. The property also includes a 50-foot-long pool in an idyllic pasture that overlooks the Catskills. Graham Klemm of Klemm Real Estate calls the home “livable” art. “Every inch of the house was thought over,” he tells us. “The details are seamless — from the Boffi kitchen to a hidden staircase.”
We hear…
Tao Group’s Rich Wolf is an investor with developer Rich Perello’s Perello Design & Build, whose new modern home at 119 Newlight Lane in Bridgehampton will complete construction by the end of the summer. On the market for $8.995 million, the 8,500-square-foot, open-floor-plan home features seven bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, two powder rooms, three indoor fireplaces and a chef’s kitchen overlooking the yard. The property’s 1.4 acres overlook Campbell Stables and include a pool, a pool house, an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor fireplace, a sun deck and a tennis court. The listing broker is Corcoran’s James Peyton.
