An urbane penthouse perched high above Chicago’s famed Michigan Avenue captivates as both gallery and home.
By Dresden Scott
How does one live with art — or rather, live in art? It was a question that guided a particular art collecting couple, who divide their time between the sun-kissed shores of Palm Beach and the wind-swept streets of Chicago.
There are no universal guidelines, of course — no set of rules for guiding them on a path toward harmonious art-home coexistence. It became a matter of intuition and taste, and a matter of letting the art speak to them so that they, as owners and stewards, could display their art in a way that honors both the artist and his or her subject. They chose an unfinished, 4,000-square-foot penthouse on the 60th floor of the glorious Park Tower for their blank canvas. Renowned Chicago-based architect/interior designer Scott Himmel was promptly brought on board to envision the interiors as an homage to their life’s passion.
“The clients had a world-class art and sculpture collection, and in addition, they wanted a world-classMid-Century furniture collection to go along with it,” recalls Himmel, who spent…
Click here for the full story, as seen in the Fall 2016 issue of Homes & Estates.
A 1917 Pennsylvania estate shines with historic grandeur, modern updated.
By Alyson Pitare
Built for the family of Allegheny County Judge A. Marshall Thompson in Gibsonia,Pennsylvania, this Italian Renaissance mansion boasting 17 magnificent rooms is credited with spurring the rise of thePittsburgh area’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Some of the original acreage belonging to the 1917 estate was sold, becoming Villa of North Park and later,Estates at the Villa. A 2009 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article chronicling the development cited the mansion’s historic grandeur as the inspiration for these new upscale enclaves.
Today, the two neighborhoods are filled with multimillion-dollar homes (and some of the most famous athletes from Pittsburgh’s professional sports franchises), but Tyburn Woods Estates, as Judge Thompson’s idyllic former home is known, remains the area’s preeminent real estate prize.“This seven-bedroom, eight-bath house combines old-world elegance with modernc onvenience, privacy with a sense of neighborhood, and familial warmth with formal entertainment possibilities on more than 9 acres on the edge of prestigious North Park,” says Peter J. Kalis, the home’s owner for the past 16 years with his wife,Mary M. O’Day. They consider themselves to be “custodians of this wonderful property.”
The 12,000-square-foot residence, which was also the site of…
Click here for the full story, as seen in the Fall 2016 issue of Homes & Estates.
By Zachary Chase
Olfactory branding company 12.29 creates a sensory sensation for luxury brands.
The event: Valentino’s 2016 Haute Couture Show, Paris
The clothing: Medieval, romantic, Shakespearean with a modern touch
The music: Selections from “Romeo & Juliet”
The scent: Notes of rose, geranium, leather and balsamic — all part of Valentino’s signature scent created by olfactory branding company 12.29 and diffused into Paris’ Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild
Those who were attending their first Valentino Haute Couture show may not have realized the all-encompassing sensory experience that awaited. But by the time the show climaxed in a swath of striking red, with a ruffled, floor-length, oversized cape designed for “La Traviata,” the complex, luxurious scent filling the air, the lengths that companies like Valentino will travel today for total brand penetration were evident.
“Valentino’s scent is multifaceted because the brand is multifaceted,” says Samantha Goldworm, the business director to twin sister Dawn Goldworm’s scent director for 12.29, the luxury olfactory branding company that scents all of the brand’s showrooms and flagship stores around the world, as well as their couture shows. “They have a long history, but a modernized brand. The scent adds to the feeling they’re trying to evoke.”
12.29, so named because it’s the birthdate of the sisters (as well as that of their younger brother and the anniversary of their parents), proves that when it comes to branding…
Click here for the full story as seen in the fall 2016 issue of Homes & Estates.
A Chicago couple fashions a classic apartment in the sky — an ambitious ode to the city’s architecture.
By Alyson Pitare
Chicago’s skyline is a canvas of bold architectural statements, a portrait rendered in mile-high towers, historic beaux artsbuildings and modernist structures envisioned by the likes of Louis Sullivan and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It’s a citythat lives in the clouds and among dreams, where the world’s first skyscraper was ever conceived. It’s a city meant to be experienced from both within and from above.
One comes to fully understand this paradox from the vantage point of a glorious penthouse on the 87th floor ofTrump Tower, designed by Adrian Smith (the mastermind behind the world’s tallest structure, Burj Khalifa in Dubai). Framed by12-foot windows, the entire city of Chicago unfolds below, with unparalleled views to the north, east, south and west, glimpses ofthe Willis Tower, Aqua Tower and Lake Michigan’s seemingly never-ending stretch of blue.When Chezi Rafaeli, affiliated sales associate with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Chicago, first showed the 6,850-square-foot raw space to Tom and Michelle Gross in 2012…
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By Alyson Pitarre
Delaire Graff Estate – diamond magnate Laurence Graff’s jewel in South Africa’s winemaking region – is an enchanting gem, seven years after its debut.
“I visited the estate for the first time back in 2003 and felt a strong connection in an instant – it was love at first sight.” ~ Laurence Graff
Connections, like the kind diamond jeweler Laurence Graff describes, are not exactly hard-fought when you experience the majestic qualities of South Africa’s Stellenbosch winemaking region for the first time. The craggy summits of Simonsberg and Groot Drakenstein rise above you, granite plutons enveloping you in a beauty that can almost leave you breathless at times. The mountains offer not just visual inspiration in Stellenbosch. You can also taste the mountains in the wine, minerality fashioned out of the rocky soil and offshore breezes. It’s a place where Chenin Blanc (beloved winemaker Ken Forrester once called it South Africa’s “national grape”) — thrives.
The Stellenbosch valley — one of three that form the Cape Winelands — boasts the largest number of wineries of any of the Cape’s regions. So, it was no surprise when Graff, a man with a talent for discovering the world’s rarest of diamonds and gems, immediately regarded 39 acres on the Helshoogte Pass crest as his next “jewel.” He purchased the property in 2003 and spent six years building what would eventually become Delaire Graff Estate, featuring the beautiful Lodges & Spa, a five-star Relais & Châteaux hotel and ode to art, wine and South African hospitality.
Today, the David Collins-designed estate boasts some of the most incredible…
Click here for the full story as seen in the fall 2016 issue of Homes & Estates.
