randolph duke

Assouline has released the latest luxe edition in its American Fashion series, dedicated to the top-drawer designers who are members of the prestigious CFDA. American Fashion Designers at Home showcases the personal spaces of more than 100 fashionistas, including Diane von Furstenburg, Oscar de la Renta, Cynthia Rowley and Kate Spade. While some designer dwellings are extensions of the sensibilities embodied by their apparel collections, others exhibit a marked contrast. The domiciles range from studio apartments to sprawling estates, but all are linked by a keen aesthetic sense. Included are Carolina Herrera's grand Louis XV–influenced New York apartment; Betsey Johnson's girly glamourpuss garret; Ralph Lauren's luxuriously rustic Colorado ranch; Donna Karan's tranquil Turks & Caicos getaway; Tommy Hilfiger's over-the-top Greenwich mansion; Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa's ultra-modern Manhattan aerie; and Johann Lindeberg's converted Greenwich Village factory (on the book's cover, above). Check out the gallery for a preview of Randolph Duke's Hollywood spread (which he recently sold for $5.3 million), David Chu's chic digs and more.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--PBS commentator Huell Howser has listed his 60-acre Newberry Springs compound including the Volcano house, shown above, for $750,000. The listing is here.
--Writer-director-producer Aaron Seltzer has sold his Studio City home for $2,397,500. It was listed at $2.949 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

--Fashion designer Randolph Duke first put his award-winning Hollywood Hills house on the market for $8.5 million last year but it recently sold for $5.3 million. It was listed at $6.5 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

--Fashion photographer David LaChapelle has sold his 1920s Spanish-style home in the Sunset Strip area for $1.6 million. It was listed at $1.65 million earlier this year.

--Actress Cobie Smulders has purchased a Los Feliz-area triplex for $991,000.
Actor Oliver Hudson and his wife, actress Erinn Bartlett, have purchased a home in Brentwood for about $2 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--via New York Magazine, the townhouse at 160 East 95th Street that Walter Cronkite helped his son Chip buy for $1.725 million in 2000 is on the market for $4.25 million. The listing is here.
--via New York Magazine, the former home of photographer David Gahr has gone on the market for $3.2 million. The listing is here.
--via the NY Times, the penthouse duplex at 1020 Fifth has undergone a $5 million price cut. The 7,000-square-foot apartment, which is owned by heirs to the Kress retail fortune and first went on the market for $46.5 million in 2008 and is now listed for $34 million.
--John Novogratz, a senior managing director at Millenium Partners has paid $3.44 million for an apartment at 39 Vestry Street.
--via the NY Times, Richard Gere has finally unloaded his spread at Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi. The 3.500-square-foot space, which Gere bought for $13 million in 2007 and listed for $17.995 million in 2008, has reportedly sold for $12 million.

--Abigail Wexner, the wife of apparel billionaire Les Wexner, has sold a two-bedroom apartment at 910 Fifth Avenue for $2.4 million.
--Barbara Gutmacher Girard has listed her two-bedroom apartment at The Plaza for $8.995 million.The listing is here.
--Literary agent Dan Strone, whose clients include Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Chris Rock, has paid $1.8 million for a two-bedroom apartment at 29 East 64th Street.
--Gisele Bundchen has found a buyer for her townhouse at 42 Barrow Street. Bundchen bought the home for $5.8 million in 2005 and it had been listed for $13.95 million since September.
--Entrepreneur David Smilow has found a buyer for his duplex penthouse at 140 Perry Street. The apartment was once listed for $19.5 million, was taken off the market in April and went into contract to sell earlier this week.
--via Newsday, Dr. Arthur Agatston, the cardiologist best known for having created the South Beach Diet, and his wife Sari have paid $7 million for a mansion in East Hampton.
--via Newsday, caterer Rhona Silver's seven-bedroom Long Island home has gone on the market. The home has been the setting for more than a few rap music videos over the years and is listed at $5.5 million.
--Barry Weiss, the music executive who replaced Clive Davis as the CEO of BMG in 2008, has picked up a new apartment paying $4.995 million for a penthouse at the Harrison at 205 West 76th Street.
--via the Real Deal, Showtime chief executive Matt Blank has paid $11.2 million for a 10th-floor condo at the Superior Ink building at 400 West 12th Street. [Real Deal]
--via Curbed, hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman personally auctioned off the guest suite he owns at The Majestic on Central Park West for $320,000, just $20,000 above the minimum bid.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Former Random House chief executive Peter Olson and his wife, iVillage.com co-founder Candice Carpenter Olson, have sold their duplex apartment at 799 Park Avenue for $4.5 million to Essie Nail Polish founder Essie Weingarten and her husband, Massimo Sortino.

From the NY Post:
--Madonna may be buying Kelly Klein's horse farm, Wild Ocean Farm in Bridgehampton for under $10 million. Madonna is also attempting to purchase an additional 24 acres nearby listed for $2.4 million.
--Celebrity chef Todd English has been spotted checking out apartments in the Novare building.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Kiefer Sutherland has sold a condo unit in Manhattan's Greenwich Village for $3.5 million and his loft/recording studio in Los Angeles' Silver Lake area for $3 million.
--Jakob Dylan has sold his seven-bedroom home Los Angeles' Brentwood area for $8.225 million. It was listed at $11 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day last year.

--Mark Ruffalo has sold his three-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills for $1.65 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Tory Burch has listed a property in the Hamptons for $17.9 million. She bought the home in 2008 from her ex-husband for $22.5 million and planned to tear it down. The property is being offered with the approved plans for a new house. The listing is here.
--As my colleague Jared Paul Stern mentioned earlier this week designer Yves Saint Laurent's Paris home is on the market. It is listed for $34.6 million.
--Bank of America has sold a historic Manhattan townhouse for $29.4 million. It was not on the market, was purchased in a direct deal by a partnership led by Jules Demchick , president of JD Carlisle Development.

From ShelterPop:
Best and Worst Celebrity Real Estate Deals 2009

Tiger Woods' Real Estate Portfolio: What's Up for Grabs in a Divorce

Tracking Nicolas Cage's Many, Many Homes

I didn't give this one full estate of the day treatment when I first heard about it but a deep price cut makes a welcome excuse. Fashion designer and stylist Randolph Duke put his glamorous home in the Hollywood Hills on the market last December for $8.5 million. The Real Estalker reported that Duke bought his three-lot spread in 2004 for $2.25 million and hired Xten Architecture to build a custom cantilevered home that juts out over the hillside and has retracting glass walls allowing stunning views over Los Angeles from nearly every angle in the home.

When you aren't facing restrictions to make a home family friendly or budget friendly you can do some pretty amazing things. This three-bedroom home wasn't designed for private space. It's a home for parties, for trysts, for photo shoots and for viewing the city below from that particular vantage point that actually makes you believe you have the world by the tail.

The ample use of faux fur, the white couches, rough hewn wood stools and tables and the stacked stone fireplace keep it from being straight contemporary. The result is a magazine layout of a home right down to the sliver of silver reflecting pool which is more like a piece of house jewelry than any functional cooling-off device. The home isn't for everyone and so the price has been trimmed to a less wallet-pinching $6.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
Designer Randolph Duke has put his fabulous Hollywood Hills home, shown above, on the market. The modern home on the AIA award for best residential design in 2007 and was recently featured on the cover of Architectural Digest. it is listed at $8.25 million.
--Actor Christopher Masterson and Laura Prepon have sold their home for $2.28 million.
--The creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman has lowered the price of his home in Beverly Hills to $3.495 million from $3.995 million. The listing is here.
--Former Hollywood superagent Michael Ovitz and his wife Judy have listed their seven-bedroom home in Brentwood home for $14.95 million. The listing is here.
--A home belonging to music producer Michael Blakey has been reduced by $1.7 million to $2.995 million. He listed the home in August for $4.695 million. The property website is here.
--The home belonging to music producer Scott Humphrey has come on the market for $2.695 million. It will be our estate of the day later today.
--Sex advice columnist and author Laura Corn's Malibu house has been reduced to $3.795 million after two price drops. She listed it in August for $4.4 million. The listing is here.

From Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Mr. Big Time checks out the real estate past of lovely actress Gretchen Mol who picked up a house in Venice, California for $1.505 million in 2005, the real estate moves of actress Mindy Kaling of "The Office," who became a first-time homebuyer last year when she paid $1.575 million for a home in Los Angeles' Beverly Grove neighborhood, and the real estate dealings of "Entourage" actor Rhys Coiro, who paid $885,000 in late 2007 for his home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.
--Actress Amy Yasbeck, who is the widow of actor John Ritter, has listed a four-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills on the market for $2.495 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--The Polish government has paid $9.55 million last week for the Washington home of former Treasury secretary Nicholas F. Brady. The home will be used as an ambassador's residence.
--The WSJ covers a home that we looked at as an estate of the day last month, the Appleton-Parker residence, a 18,000-square-foot house designed by architect Alexander Parris which is listed at $27.5 million.
--Canadian businessman Peter Nygard is offering his Bahamas home for rent, asking $42,000 a night, or nearly $300,000 a week -- making it one of the most expensive vacation-home rentals in the world. The rental comes with use of an 82-foot yacht, a 48-foot fishing boat, two all-terrain trucks, a full staff, two pools and multiple spas, a 24-seat theater that can play three movies simultaneously, a spa and a disco room. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Page Six:
--Back in May "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan and Michael Bolton bought a Hidden Hills mansion from Melissa Etheridge and her wife Tammy Lynn Michaels for $4.4 million. Bolton put his Westport, Connecticut home on the market for $11 million (it was our estate of the day in August). Sheridan kicked him out of their Hidden Hills home and so now Bolton is essentially homeless even though he owns two homes.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
-- Bjork is looking for a Manhattan apartment. She has been searching TriBeCa and SoHo for a three-bedroom place in the $5 million to $6 million range. She was recently spotted checking out a three-bedroom duplex loft at 79 Laight St. with a $4.995 million asking price. This is the same apartment Naomi Watts toured when it was listed for $5.3 million. The listing is here.
--Natasha Lyonne has found a buyer for her studio penthouse. Her Gramercy Towers unit at 200 East 16th St. closed for $440,000.
--Alan Alda has picked up another apartment on his floor at Millennium Tower on West 67th Street. Alda and his wife of 51 years, Arlene, have paid $3 million for an adjacent two-bedroom condo.
--The Pierre hotel pad belonging to Lionel Pincus has had a major price adjustment. The 14-room duplex in the Fifth Avenue building is now for sale for $43 million price tag after a $7 million reduction. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--Gossip Girl co-creator Stephanie Savage has put her Los Angeles home on the market for $924,500. The listing is here.
-- Keira Knightley may have picked up a £2,500,000 townhouse in Shoreditch, East London.
--Reality TV producer David Garfinkle and MTV executive Maira Suro have listed their home in Encino for $3.699 million. The listing is here.

From TMZ:
--Michael Vick's home, which was up for auction for bids over $590,000 on December 12, failed to find a buyer.


From Newday's Real LI:
--A 12-room spread in Brookville that was actually once a cow barn is on the market for 2,094,876. The listing is here.
--Randolph Lerner, owner of the Cleveland Browns NFL football team, just sold a 2.5 acre property on Further Lane in Amagansett for $7.895 million


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Rap manager Chris Lighty just bought two apartments at the new Chelsea Stratus. He paid $5.28 million total, according to city records filed this week.
--Richard Mack, an executive at the multibillion-dollar investment group Apollo Real Estate, paid $23 million for Spence-Chapin's 24,463-square-foot headquarters at 4-8 East 94th Street and after some renovations put it on the market for $59 million, $36 million more than he paid. It has now been reduced to $49.5 million. The listing is here.