bay area

Belvedere Island, Estate of the Day

Filed under: Estates

Belvedere, California is home to some of the most beautiful Bay Area homes, many with stunning Golden Gate Bridge views like the one today. Today's home is a California Contemporary designed by Sutton Suzuki Architects & Andra Martens Design Studio to combine luxe minimalism with sustainable features. The home's colors are meant to harmonize with the surrounding area and this lends a very calming feel to this home. The interior spaces include a mezzanine office overlooking the living/dining area and a large kitchen offers a place to create with a view. There is also a library/media room, master suite with a large dressing area and glassed-in bath and a family area adjacent to the pool, the guest suite and the bedrooms. The studio that looks out to a birch and fern garden. The outdoor fireplace, BBQ kitchens, salt water pool and spa, level lawn, play spaces and gardens offer plenty of space to enjoy the beautiful views. This home is listed at $12.995 million.

Gallery: Belvedere Island

Tags: bay area, belvedere, california real estate, estate of the day

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Checking in (Again) at Casa Madrona in Sausalito

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Casa Madrona was the first hotel in California that I ever truly loved. I first visited in the late 1990s, when a dear friend got married, at sunset, on the patio of the Mikayla restaurant, overlooking the bay towards Tiburon and San Francisco. I returned several times after that, but hadn't been back since the hotel went through a major expansion in 2002, and oh yes, bankruptcy, foreclosure and sale at auction.

When I stayed a few weeks ago, Terra Resort Group had just been engaged to manage the property.

The hotel started its life in 1855 as a mansion, and the historic section (pictured above) appears to be just as charming as ever. The 2002 expansion, in my opinion, was unfortunate. It's perfectly nice, but entirely contemporary, the type of room you can find anywhere - a missed opportunity, if you ask me. The contemporary part of the hotel is also closer to the street than the historic rooms which are set back on the hill, so you do get more street noise. I'll have to poke back in once Terra has had a chance to get its bearings, but I'll definitely request one of the older rooms.

And oh, as of now, the lovely Mikayla restaurant is closed, replaced by a street-level restaurant Poggio. It serves top-notch Italian food, but it doesn't have the bay view that made dining at Casa Madrona so special.

Tags: bay area, california, casamadrona, hotel renovation, HotelsInTrouble, sausalito, terra

Tour The Bay Area In A Zeppelin

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Way back in 2004, Neiman Marcus offered a personal airship for sale from German company Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH. Now just one of the three zeppelins in the world is available for sightseeing trips. A zeppelin has an internal framework covered with a canvas filled with the lifting gas while a blimp gets its shape from the lifting gas itself. The Airship Ventures Zeppelin is, at 246-foot-long the largest airship in the world. It will have a permanent home in California's Bay Area where it will offer quiet cruises at 35 to 40 mph for $500 a ticket. Each journey will carry just 12 passengers. While this may not be the best time to launch such a pricey venture, the investors are hopeful that the area's many tourists will be interested in getting this unique experience of the California landscape.

[via Gadling]

Source

Tags: airship ventures, AirshipVentures, bay area, BayArea, flight, san francisco, SanFrancisco, zeppelin

Marin Dream House Raffle, Charity of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Charity of the Day

Today is the third day in our look at various charities worth your money this holiday season. If you are feeling lucky or want to give a friend the chance to win a $2.1 million house in California's Bay Area then you might want to pick up a ticket in the Dream House Raffle. Each raffle ticket is $150 and is a fundraiser for Community Action Marin, an anti-poverty organization that operates 15 programs for low-income people throughout Marin County. The raffle ends on January 25 and the winner can opt for the house or $1.7 million in cash. They are also raffling off another 349 prizes ranging from $25,000 to $300 in cash. Unfortunately the raffle tickets aren't tax deductible but donations to Community Action Marin are.

[via SF Gate]

Gallery: Marin House Raffle