Is it really a home if it has a nightclub in it? A 10,000-bottle wine cellar? A beauty salon and juice bar?
Yeah, no.
Anna Bahney at CNN Business reported on this mega-mansion in her article of September 15, 2021. Ten years in the making, it still isn’t quite finished. Originally valued at $500 million (valued on what? The idea? The cost to build?), you may soon be able to get it at a steal, like for maybe $400 million.
This is ridiculous, of course. Billed as ‘The One,’ this monstrosity is meant to be the largest personal residence / urban property in the world. As if that’s what the world needs right now.
It’s not the seven pools or 20 bedrooms, the four-lane bowling alley, tennis court, or putting green. It’s not even the 50-seat movie theatre that declares this colossal mistake to not be a home. It’s the nightclub and 50-car parking lot.
Entertaining friends is one thing. And I’ve seen plenty of huge places with way too much wasted space just in the spirit of entertaining friends that are flown in on private planes. But a nightclub? No. Entertaining friends at your nightclub is a night out - that’s not a night at home.
At least, that’s my opinion. What do you think?
You can take a virtual tour of this place here on YouTube. Note, if you watch it, how the developer says several times that he did certain things to make the place comfortable and warm. Like suede wallpaper (which is a light grey). And designing the main living room after The Plaza hotel in New York. You tell me – does this 105,000 square foot mansion feel warm to you?
And then there’s the problem of how this was built on a hilltop in Bel Air. Dear Mother Earth, this is wrong in so many ways.
Ok, your turn. I want to know what you think. Does this place actually deserve to be called a home? Does it feel warm? Would you feel comfortable living in it? What would it take to make this place feel like home?
It's funny, outrageous and pitiful all at once.
I felt sick watching the whole thing. But I was humbled by his emptiness and almost inspired by manic persistence.
It made me reflect on my own values. It made me wonder how one ends up like this.
When I read the title I was expecting something to do with relationships: maybe about how 'The One' with every attractive quality of our dreams can turn out to be a soul-less empty shell. A lie. An illusion we create to insulate ourselves from pain.
The One can be a job, person, career, perspective, a thing... None of us is immune to this grandiosity in even the most minute of things.
The One is represents the respective altars at which we're all willing to sacrifice our souls...
I hope Nile finds peace and acceptance especially now that he's lost the property :/
It doesn't appear to be a "home" to me...and is a truly disgusting mis-use and over-use of precious resources, including the land. In a word: "Ugh"