EddieMurphy

Beginning in the 18th century, English country houses had glass-paned orangeries where exotic plants, flowers and citrus trees flourished throughout the cooler months, providing a haven from the elements for their inhabitants and spaces for entertaining in summer. Their popularity surged during the 19th century when new construction techniques allowed for ever more fantastical structures, but they pretty much disappeared as tastes and styles changed in more modern times. At Tanglewood Conservatories, on the Eastern Shore area of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, Alan Stein, Nancy Virts and co. aim to recreate some of that bygone elegance. The company designs and builds bespoke turn-of-the-century domes, conservatories, greenhouses and swimming pool enclosures in high style.

Every structure is made by hand at the Tanglewood atelier, and the prices, starting at $175,000, reflect the time, attention and high quality materials that goes into their construction. They can be added to existing houses and mansions or built as part of brand new estates, like this incredible spread in Washington. Some of their well-known clients include Eddie Murphy, director / producer Ron Howard, the Dallas Cowboys' Don Abbey, late Lazard Freres CEO Bruce Wasserstein and interior designer Mario Buatta. Each creation is totally unique; Tanglewood never repeats the same design twice. The fit and finish of a Tanglewood conservatory has more in common with fine furniture than carpentry. Usually constructed of solid mahogany, these are intricate, complex, highly detailed structures, some large enough to hold fully-grown trees. The company also constructs glass and copper domes, roof lanterns and skylights in virtually any size, shape and design.



The Victorians regarded the conservatory as nothing short of a triumph of architecture over nature. Swimming pool enclosures might seem a more modern innovation, but in fact the tradition of building extraordinary structures to enclose both public and private swimming pools is in even older, dating to the great Roman balnea or thermae. Most Roman cities had at least one such building, which was central to the public life of its citizens. Most private villas also included a bath house. The opulent pool enclosure pictured above was constructed for an estate in Kentucky. Tanglewood's sensitivity to form, proportion, materials and detail is evident in its pleasing lines. Their craftsmen are heirs to a 300-year-old craft and woodworking tradition, especially in an area with a long history in boatbuilding. See the gallery for more examples of Tanglewood's high-end designs in various styles.

When this blog launched in December 2004 one of my very first celebrity real estate stories was about Eddie Murphy's Bubble Hill estate in New Jersey. In five years many things have changed but Murphy's desire to unload this mansion hasn't abated. The estate immortalized in Murphy's song "Bubble Hill" in 1989 recently went through a renovation to make is as blandly luxurious as possible.

The 32-room house is on a four acre knoll in the Englewood's East Hill section. The gated and walled,mansion is around 25,000 square feet and includes large entertaining areas. While much of the home has been smoothed out and beiged-up to appeal to the masses one thing still survives, the wood-paneled billiard room with the red curtains, jukebox and the neon signs spelling out "Bubble Hill." This home was at $30 million five years ago making it the most expensive single-family home in the state at the time. At its current price of $14.99 million, it's no longer even the most expensive home in Englewood.



UPDATE: The Real Estalker reminds me this isn't the only Hill in Eddie Murphy's live. Clove Hill Farm, which we covered in 2006 when it was listed at $9.95 million is now listed at $5.95 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--Turns out that Nicole Murphy, Eddie Murphy's ex-wife, isn't just selling her home near Sacramento, she has also put her Calabasas home on the market for $9.995 million. Check out the virtual tour here.
--Gossip diva has put her mid-century Modern home in Hancock Park on the market for $2.995 million. We are checking it out later as our estate of the day.
--Musician Robert Cray has listed his three-bedroom home in Los Feliz. The home is located in The Oaks neighborhood where Brad Pitt also has a home and includes a guest house, an office/studio. The land also includes some Zinfandel vines. It is listed at $3.25 million.
--Pussycat Doll Carmit Bachar has bought a house which was listed at $699,900 in Valley Village.
--More news from Los Feliz, actor T.R. Knight has bought himself a gorgeous vintage fixer-upper in the area for $2,912,500.
--Want to spend $100,000 per month on a rental? Then you too can live in a Beverly Hills home rented by Tom Cruise and maybe even stay in the North wing while your significant other sleeps in the South wing, just like the Cruises supposedly did.
--Model Kylie Bax has listed her Hollywood Hills home for $1,749,900. The listing is here.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Serial househopper Denise Richards has put her newest Hidden Hills home on the market for $3.9 million. Richards listed a home last year for $4.3 million also in Hidden Hills and then moved into this one. She then moved into another one in the same area which cost around $4.6 million. The listing for the home is here.
--Danny Bonaduce has bought himself an $825,000 condo in Hollywood.
--Producer-director Paris Barclay has bought a home in Valley Village for close to $1.7 million and sold another in the Hollywood Hills for slightly more than $1.7 million.
--Cinematographer Dion Beebe, who won an Oscar for his work on the 2005 movie "Memoirs of a Geisha," has listed his Hollywood home for $1.875 million. The listing is here.
--Jeffrey Bischoff, founder and president of the music-merchandising company Cinder Block, is putting his traditional-style Los Feliz home for $1.749 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are house hunting in Manhattan, they've been spotted at the Time Warner Center.
--Billy Joel and his wife, Katie Lee Joel, have just gone to contract to buy an oceanfront property next door to their Sagaponack home that has an asking price of $12.99 million.
--A townhouse on the Upper East Side that Madonna was spotted checking out has been sold to real estate investor Keith Rubenstein and his wife, Inga for its asking price of $35 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The real estate market may be in trouble but you wouldn't know that by some recent New York sales, a three-unit duplex penthouse at Trump World Tower recently went for $33.6 million. And over at Palazzo Chupi, artist/director Julian Schnabel's magenta monstrosity, William J. B. Brady, co-chairman of global technology for Credit Suisse, paid $15.5 million for "Unit 1" even though he already bought a four-bedroom duplex penthouse elsewhere for $6.95 million less than four months ago and city records put his billing address at a penthouse in the Millennium Tower. But who can resist the chance to live with the Schnabel in a building that includes seven-foot fireplaces, antique Moroccan window dressings and a shared pool. Brady has put the Greenwich Street penthouse on the market for $12 million. The listing is here.
--British power-player Sir Ronald Cohen, a close friend of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has paid $5 million for a 2,948-square-foot condo at 388 West Broadway, two floors down from hotelier Jason Pomeranc.
--Boris Belotserkovsky, a co-owner of Russia's largest gambling operator, and his son George have paid $5,010,205 for a 13th-floor condo at the Plaza.
--Nigerian-born supermodel Oluchi Onweagba has bought a two-bedroom apartment at the new 10 West End Avenue condo, near Lincoln Center for $1,708,500. Her husband, Luca Luca designer, Luca Orlandi bought a Gramercy House penthouse earlier this year for $3.345 million so this apartment is for investment purposes. She plans to rent it out for around $11,500 a month.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--The official price that singer Christina Aguilera paid to buy Ozzy Osbourne's mansion in Beverly Hills is $11,500,000.
--Actress Valarie Pettiford, who starred on the UPN's 'Half & Half' has sold her house in Studio City for $1,181,000 and paid $520,000 for a town home in the North Hollywood area.
--Danny Masterson has paid an undisclosed amount for a loft unit in the new Broadway Hollywood building in Hollywood.
--Soap opera actor Sebastian Roche has paid $1,525,000 for a house in Los Angeles' Venice area.
--Ali Landry has sold her four-bedroom home in Los Feliz for $1,812,000 to a congressional candidate from New York.
--Gene Wilder has sold his Bel-Air home for an undisclosed amount.

From TMZ:
Jessica Simpson was seen apartment hunting in Manhattan.