Bran Castle

Bran Castle (Romanian: Castelul Bran; German: Törzburg; Hungarian: Törcsvár), situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73. Commonly known as "Dracula's Castle" (although it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend, including Poenari Castle and Hunyad Castle), it is the home of the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is, however, no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle, which has only tangential associations with Vlad III, voivode of Wallachia, the putative inspiration for Dracula. As discovered by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, the location Bram Stoker actually had in mind for Castle Dracula while writing his novel was an empty mountain top, Mount Izvorul Călimanului, 2,033 metres (6,670 ft) high, located in the Transylvanian Călimani Alps near the former border with Moldavia.

The castle is now a museum open to tourists, displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie. Tourists can see the interior individually or by a guided tour. At the bottom of the hill is a small open-air museum park exhibiting traditional Romanian peasant structures (cottages, barns, etc.) from across the country.

In 1212, Teutonic Knights built the wooden castle of Dietrichstein as a fortified position in the Burzenland at the entrance to a mountain pass through which traders had travelled for more than a millennium, but in 1242 it was destroyed by the Mongols. The first documented mentioning of Bran Castle is the act issued by Louis I of Hungary on 19 November 1377, giving the Saxons of Kronstadt (Brașov) the privilege to build the stone castle on their own expense and labor force; the settlement of Bran began to develop nearby. In 1438–1442, the castle was used in defense against the Ottoman Empire, and later became a customs post on the mountain pass between Transylvania and Wallachia. It is believed the castle was briefly held by Mircea the Elder of Wallachia (r. 1386–1395, 1397–1418) during whose period the customs point was established. The Wallachian ruler Vlad Țepeș (Vlad the Impaler; 1448–1476) does not seem to have had a significant role in the hi

story of the fortress, although he passed several times through the Bran Gorge. Bran Castle belonged to the Hungarian Kings but due to the failure of King Vladislas II (r. 1471–1516) to repay loans, the city of Brasov regained possession of the fortress in 1533. Bran played a militarily strategic role up to the mid-18th century.

In 1920, the castle became a royal residence within the Kingdom of Romania. It became the favorite home and retreat of Queen Marie. The castle was inherited by her daughter Princess Ileana who ran a hospital there in World War II: it was later seized by the communist regime with the expulsion of the royal family in 1948.

In 2005, the Romanian government passed a special law allowing restitution claims on properties illegally expropriated, such as Bran, and thus a year later the castle was awarded ownership to Dominic von Habsburg, the son and heir of Princess Ileana.

In September 2007, an investigation committee of the Romanian Parliament stated that the retrocession of the castle to Archduke Dominic was illegal, as it broke the Romanian law on property and succession. However, in October 2007 the Constitutional Court of Romania rejected the parliament's petition on the matter. In addition, an investigation commission of the Romanian government issued a decision in December 2007 reaffirming the validity and legality of the restitution procedures used and confirming that the restitution was made in full compliance with the law.

On 18 May 2009, the Bran Castle administration was transferred from the government to the administration of Archduke Dominic and his sisters Maria-Magdalena Holzhausen and Elisabeth Sandhofer. On 1 June 2009, the Habsburgs opened the refurbished castle to the public as the first private museum of the country and disclosed with Bran Village a joint strategic concept to maintain their domination in the Romanian tourist circuit and to safeguard the economic base in the region.

Hearst Castle

  

Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan, between 1919 and 1947, for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. Th

e California Park Commission voted to approve its inclusion in the California State Park System, which was approved by the California State Legislature in 1954 with a proposed admission charge of $1 per person ($9 adjusted for inflation) and a 50¢ bus ride. However, ironing out the details with the Trustees of the Hearst Estate and the Hearst Corporation took several years. Agreement was finalized in 1957, and it opened in 1958. Since that time, it has been maintained within the Hearst San Simeon State Park where the estate, and its considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours. Despite its location far from any urban center, the site attracts "millions of travelers each year".

Hearst formally named the estate "La Cuesta Encantada" ("The Enchanted Hill"), but usually called it "the ranch". Hearst Castle and grounds are also sometimes referred to as "San Simeon" without distinguishing between the Hearst property and the adjacent unincorporated area of the same name. The term "Castle" is a bit of a misnomer when it refers to Hearst Castle, as it is really a group of mansions.

Hearst Castle is located near the unincorporated community of San Simeon, California, approximately 250 miles (400 km) from both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and 43 miles (69 km) from San Luis Obispo at the northern end of San Luis Obispo County. The estate itself is five miles (eight kilometers) inland atop a hill of the Santa Lucia Range at an altitude of 1,600 feet (490 m). The region is sparsely populated because the Santa Lucia Range abuts the Pacific Ocean, which provides dramatic seaside vistas but few opportunities for development and hampered transportation. The surrounding countryside visible from the mansion remains largely undeveloped. Its entrance is adjacent to San Simeon State Park.

Hearst Castle was built on Rancho Piedra Blanca that William Randolph Hearst's father, George Hearst, originally purchased in 1865. The younger Hearst grew fond of this site over many childhood family camping trips. He inherited the ranch, which had grown to 250,000 acres (1,012 km2) and 14 miles (23 km) of coastline, from his mother Phoebe Hearst in 1919. Although the large ranch already had a Victorian mansion, the location selected for Hearst Castle was undeveloped, atop a steep hill whose ascent was a dirt path accessible only by foot or on horseback over 5 miles (8 km) of cutbacks.

Hearst first approached American architect Julia Morgan with ideas for a new project in April 1915, shortly after he took ownership. Hearst's original idea was to build a bungalow, according to a draftsman who worked in Morgan's office who recounted Hearst's words from the initial meeting:

I would like to build something upon the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of going up there and camping in tents. I'm getting a little too old for that. I'd like to get something that would be a little more comfortable.

After approximately one month of discussion, Hearst's original idea for a modest dwelling swelled to grand proportions. Discussion for the exterior style switched from initial ideas of Japanese and Korean themes to the Spanish Revival that was gaining popularity and that Morgan had furthered with her work on the Los Angeles Herald Examiner headquarters in 1915. Hearst was fond of Spanish Revival, but dissatisfied with the crudeness of the colonial structures in California. Mexican colonial architecture had more sophistication but he objected to its profusion of ornamentation. Turning to the Iberian Peninsula for inspiration, he found Renaissance and Baroque examples in southern Spain more to his tastes. Hearst particularly admired a church in Ronda and asked Morgan to pattern the Main Building towers after it. The Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego held the closest approaches in California to the look Hearst desired. He decided to substitute a stucco exterior in place of masonry in deference to Californian traditions.

By late summer 1919, Morgan had surveyed the site, analyzed its geology, and drawn initial plans for the Main Building. Construction began in 1919 and continued through 1947 when Hearst stopped living at the estate due to ill health.[3] Morgan persuaded Hearst to begin with the guest cottages, because the smaller structures could be completed more quickly.

One57 – Manhattan, New York

One57, formerly known as Carnegie 57, (nicknamed "The Billionaire Building") is a 75-story (marketed as 90-story) supertall skyscraper at 157

West 57th Street in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Upon completion in 2014, it stood at 1,005 feet (306 m) tall, making it the tallest residential building in the city for a few months until 432 Park Avenue was constructed. The building has 92 condominium units on top of a new Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms, which is set to become the flagship Hyatt property.

The contractor is Lend Lease Project Management & Construction, and the developer is Extell Development Company. As of January 2015, it is home to the most expensive residence ever sold in New York City.

Extell Development Company’s founder and President, Gary Barnett, spent 15 years assembling the property and air rights on 57th Street. At first, he said he wanted to build a 300,000 square-foot building, but plans for views of the park took shape as the assemblage got larger and markets started rising to new levels.Foundation work started in January 2010.

In May 2012, it was announced a buyer had agreed to pay a record price in New York of more than $90 million for the 10,923-square-foot duplex penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors. Just two months later, the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, broke that record by agreeing to purchase a penthouse unit for $100 million.

After the sales offices had been open for six months, Extell announced One57 was 50% sold with $1 billion in transactions.

On June 20, 2012, it was announced that framework for the top floor had been completed. Shortly after, it was revealed the 13,550-square-foot “Winter Garden” duplex penthouse, located on the 75th and 76th floors, had gone into contract for an undisclosed amount.

In October 2012, entrepreneur Michael Hirtenstein and One57 developer Gary Barnett had a public clash regarding a unit Hirtenstein agreed to purchase in the building. Hirtenstein claimed he would not spend $16 million for a unit without seeing it, and that the view from the unit he purchased was obstructed. Barnett has been strict about not permitting buyers to view apartments prior to purchase, and as Hirtenstein paid a construction worker to show him his unit, Barnett refunded Hirtenstein's funds and canceled the contract.

On October 29, 2012, during Hurricane Sandy, the construction crane on the building partially collapsed, causing thousands of residents and hotel guests in the neighborhood to be evacuated for six days. By November 5, the crane was secured and through traffic in the surrounding area was allowed.

In response to the crane collapse, a class action lawsuit was filed by dentists in the surrounding area, complaining that the incident caused them to evacuate their offices, with subsequent loss of income. The New York City Department of Buildings also stated they had received multiple complaints about the work site. However, the crane was inspected a week earlier and considered in good shape. City officials called the failure of the boom a freakish occurrence.

In May 2013, Extell announced plans to hoist a new crane on May 10–11. The plans endorsed by the New York City Buildings Department involved a mandatory evacuation of the neighboring Alwyn Court as well as the Briarcliff Apartment Building during the process. The residents of the building would each receive up to $1,500. The coop board at Alwyn Court announced that it would seek a court order against the forced evacuation, saying the Department of Buildings appeared to be "an arm of the developer." The crane was hoisted on May 11 as planned after Extell and Alwyn signed an undisclosed agreement. Its tasks completed, the replacement crane was removed on November 11, 2013. 

The tower is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning French architect Christian de Portzamparc. The interiors are by New York-based designer Thomas Juul-Hansen.

The use of dark and light glass on the building’s exterior creates vertical stripes, while also manipulating sunlight and maximizing views. The tower is characterized by its rippled canopies and numerous setbacks on 57th Street, its mottled fenestration, curved tops, scoops and accentuated verticality.

One57 was named "Worst Building of the Year" in 2014 by Curbed.com: "Pretty much everyone (or at least most archicritics) agrees that its wavy blue facade is ugly. Justin Davidson of New York magazine called it 'clumsily gaudy.' James Russell, formerly of Bloomberg ... lamented the 'endless acres of cheap-looking frameless glass in cartoonish stripes and blotches of silver and pewter.' Michael Kimmelman of the Times had similarly harsh words: "[The building] unravels as a cascade of clunky curves ... chintzily embellished, clad in acres of eye-shadow-blue glass offset by a pox of tinted panes, like age spots.'"

15 Central Park West Penthouse – New York

15 Central Park West is a condominium building located at the corner of West 61st Street and Central Park West in New York City. Construction started in 2005 and was completed in 2008, costing a total of $950 million. The building was designed in a New Classical style by Robert A.M. Ster

The building was constructed by developers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf of Zeckendorf Development, grandsons of real estate developer William Zeckendorf, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings Inc. Eyal Ofer, also owns the Altria Building, 18 Gramercy Park and a new luxury residential tower at 50 United Nations Plaza, which was completed in 2014.15 Central Park West is considered by some to be one of New York's most prestigious residential addresses. The location, described as "the most expensive site in Manhattan," (worth $401 million in 2004) comprises an entire, albeit small, city block on Central Park West, formerly occupied by the somewhat dilapidated Mayflower Hotel (a 1926 Neo-Renaissance building designed by the architect Emery Roth) and a vacant lot.

As per Robert A. M. Stern's designs, 15 CPW is divided into two sections, a 19-story tower on Central Park West known as "the house" and a 35-story tower on Broadway, joined by a glass-enclosed lobby. It includes such amenities as a private driveway to screen residents from paparazzi, a cinema with 20 seats and 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) fitness center which has a 75-foot (22.86 m) swimming pool.

The New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote that 15 CPW was designed to "echo" Central Park West's many notable late Art Deco buildings. He described the building in Vanity Fair as an "ingenious homage to the classic Candela-designed apartment buildings on Park and Fifth Avenues." He compared 15 CPW to the great apartment houses of the 1920s, 778 Park Avenue, 834 Fifth Avenue, 1040 Fifth Avenue and 740 Park Avenue. 15 Central Park West's limestone facade uses material from "the same quarry that was a source for the Empire State Building". The floor plan was designed so that almost all rooms have an open view and layouts that borrow heavily from the styles commonly found in the 1920s.

Noted residents include or have included Ernst Toller, Robert De Niro, Sting, Norman Lear, Denzel Washington, Bob Costas, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev and his daughter Ekaterina Rybolovleva, former Citigroup executive Sandy Weill, businessman Min Kao, NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon and professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez.

The Manor – Holmby Hill, LA California

The Manor, also known as Spelling Manor, is a mansion located in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, across the street from Holmby Park. Constructed in 1988 for television producer Aaron Spelling, it is the largest home in Los Angeles County. It is currently owned by British heiress Petra Stunt, daughter of Formula One racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone. Stunt purchased the home for $85 million after it had been on the market for two years with an asking price of $150 million, making it the most expensive residential real estate listing in the US.

The Manor is a French chateau-style mansion with 123 rooms and 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2) of space on more than 4.6 acres (1.9 ha). It is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Aaron Spelling—widely known as the television producer of series including Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Charmed—built The Manor as his private residence.

Designed by architects James Langenheim & Associates and built in 1988 at a cost of $12 million, the two-story house is 51.5 feet (15.7 m) high with a basement and an intermediate level for closets between the second story and attic. The house includes a screening room, gym, bowling alley, three rooms for wrapping presents, four two-car garages, tennis court, and pool. The parking lot accommodates 100 vehicles, and there are also 16 carports.Spelling razed the mansion which previously occupied the site[4] and had been built in 1932 by Gordon Kaufmann and later owned by Bing Crosby.

At the time of its construction, the project spawned a controversy over its massive size and ostentatious architecture. The Los Angeles Times asked:

What's bigger than a football field, smaller than Hearst Castle, has a bowling alley and an entire floor of closets, and is making some people very annoyed? Aaron and Candy Spelling's 56,500-square-foot (5,250 m2) mansion in Holmby Hills. The French chateau, under construction now for two years, has turned the corner of Mapleton and Club View drives into a gawker's paradise. Sprawled across 6 acres (2.4 ha) on what once was the Bing Crosby estate, the house dwarfs the sizable mansions on the block and looms large over tranquil Holmby Park near Wilshire Boulevard.

After its completion, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Sam Hall Kaplan panned the structure as one of the region's worst projects built in the 1980s:

Aaron Spelling residence, which at 56,500 square feet (5,250 m2), should be considered a congregate living facility and not a single-family home, and therefore in violation of Holmby Hills zoning. What Spelling's folly is, of course, is a sad commentary on the distorted values that have taken the architectural form of monster mansions at a time when tens of thousands of persons are homeless.

Spelling died in the mansion on June 23, 2006, from complications of a stroke, at the age of 83. The house was discussed in his obituary:

Mr. Spelling himself, though a self-effacing and extremely shy man in private, put his own vast wealth on display in the late 1980s when he and his wife, Candy, supervised the construction of their home in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. The structure, which like his shows drew mostly scathing reviews, eventually contained 123 rooms over about 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2). It was said to include a bowling alley, an ice rink and an entire wing devoted to his wife's wardrobe.

The Manor was listed for sale in 2009 at an asking price of $150 million—making it the most expensive home listing in America. When the house was listed, Candy Spelling called it the "greatest entertainment house ever" with a "kitchen where you can cook for two or 800". In her 18 years living at The Manor, Spelling recalled, "All the stars came through, Prince Rainier, Prince Charles, Jackie Kennedy—every star from every one of Aaron's shows."

In July 14, 2011, the house was sold to 23-year-old socialite Petra Stunt, daughter of Formula One racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone for $85 million—one of the largest real estate sales in Los Angeles County. Subsequently the chandeliers, wall lights and fireplace mantels were removed by the new owner and the interior was updated. But by July 2014, it was reported that she was looking to sell the mansion for $150 million.

Copper Beech Farm – Greenwich, Connecticut

Copper Beech Farm, the 50-acre Greenwich estate that thundered onto the market last May with a record-setting $190M price tag, has sold this morning for $120M, according to Greenwich Time. Though it sold for just 61 percent of its initial ask, the property still managed to edge out a win over the reigning champ of single-family residential sales in the United States, a nine-acre Silicon Valley spread that sold for $117.5M in January 2013. (It did not, in fact, beat Montana's Broken O Ranch, which sold in 2012 for $132.5M—though most would consider that a working farm and not a single-family home of the Copper Beech breed.) In all: quite a feat for the debt-saddled mansion, which endured a monstrous PriceChop pummeling, first down to $140M in September, then down to $130M just after the New Year. According to the Greenwich Town Clerk's office, the buyer is "Conservation Institute LLC"—more information forthcoming, no doubt.

Sold by timber mogul John Rudey, the property comes stocked with a 12-bedroom mansion, 4,000—yes, four thousand—feet of water frontage, and two offshore islands. Rudey originally told the Journal that he was selling the spread, which he bought 31 years ago, because his kids had grown, but that may have been only half of the truth. According to a followup piece in the Times, Rudey's timber holdings had been decimated by transportation issues, endangered species conservation, water limitations, and the spruce budworm, a tree-burrowing insect. These setbacks might not have impacted the Copper Beech Farm property at all had Rudey not used the sprawling waterfront estate as collateral on a series of huge loans. At one time, according to the Times, the debt attached to the property totaled a whopping $203M. (After the 2006 collapse of one of Rudey's timber holding companies, the banks came calling. In 2011, Bank of America began foreclosure proceedings on a portion of Copper Beech Farm. The bank later backed off, but Rudey may have been forced to sell off much of his remaining timber holdings, and his $16.5M Fifth Avenue apartment, to keep creditors at bay.)

Copper Beech Farm dates back to the 1890s and was once owned by the Lauder Greenway family, which made its fortune helping Andrew Carnegie start up his steel business. Other stats: the living space measures 15,000 square feet and includes a dining room with a tracery ceiling, as well as a "huge solarium with a coffered ceiling with plaster detailing and three exposures," according to the brokerbabble. Also on the property: formal gardens, a grass tennis court, two greenhouses, an apple orchard, a 75-foot-long heated pool, and a 1,800-foot-long driveway.

From the onset, listing agent David Ogilvy admitted to the Journal that pricing is a bit of a guessing game with properties this valuable—and it's true, there's ample evidence that many nine-figure places endure harsh PriceChops. (Some, meanwhile, tap their fingers on the desk waiting for a buyer to match their absurd demands.) Take the old Versace in Miami, which first hit the market for $125M, fell to $100M, then $75M, and finally sold at auction in September for—ouch—$41M. Though Copper Beech Farm has the lack of 24-karat gold-encrusted mosaics and six-person gilded showers going for it, until now no publicly listed Greenwich property has ever sold for more than $45M. But, then again, until two weeks ago nobody had ever paid $102M cash for a house in L.A. before, either. Only time will tell what fate awaits Dallas' $135M Crespi-Hicks Estate, which is still the most expensive megamanse listed for sale in the country right now.

Upper Phillimore Gardens – Kensington South-West London

The Phillimore Estate is centrally located for the owners to enjoy and have easy access to the local schools and amenities as well as Holland Park and Kensington Palace Gardens.  Contracts for the five-storey house in Upper Phillimore Gardens are believed to have been exchanged in recent weeks. The buyer is thought to be Ukrainian businesswoman and philanthropist Elena Franchuk, a friend of Sir Elton John. For her money, Ms Franchuk owns a Victorian villa, which has been rebuilt and refurbished at an estimated £10 million, but is not yet ready for occupation.

Ms Franchuk, the daughter of a former Ukrainian president and married to oligarch industrialist Viktor Pinchuk, has long been involved in charitable activities in her home country.  In 2003, she established the first and sole foundation in Ukraine committed to fighting HIV and Aids, aimed at drawing attention of opinion makers, government and business leaders to the problem.

 

Located on one of London’s finest residential addresses, this ten bedroom house has been extensively remodelled and re-designed to the most exacting standards and utilising some of the most luxurious finishes available. 

Builders have for the last 18 months been installing an underground swimming pool, gym, sauna and cinema. Due to be completed in April, the house has at least 10 bedrooms and a secure "panic room".  

Set back from the street, behind its own landscaped front garden, the entrance to the house is approached via steps that lead up and into the gracious entrance hall which in turn leads onto all three of the principal rooms on the raised ground floor.

The drawing room is an elegant room with a stunning bay that features french windows leading directly onto the garden and to the formal dining room. The kitchen/breakfast room offers a more relaxed informal style with huge south facing windows flooding the room with natural light.

The Phillimore Estate is located to the north of Kensington High Street between two of Londons most beautiful parks, Holland Park and Kensington Palace Gardens/Hyde Park. Number 23 is located at the north western end of the street generally considered to be one of the most prestigious positions on the estate. Access to the world famous shops and restaurants in and around Knightsbridge, South Kensington, Mayfair and Notting Hill is very easy, as is access out to the M4 for Heathrow Airport. The house is also extremely close to some of Central Londons finest schools. 

The lower ground floor comprises of a large family room that leads out to the south facing gardens. There is also a fifth bedroom that is ideal for staff or guests. There is a separate entrance to the side of the house.

The Phillimore Estate is centrally located for the owners to enjoy and have easy access to the local schools and amenities as well as Holland Park and Kensington Palace Gardens. A six-storey house in Belgrave Square is due to come on the market in the spring for around £90million.

One Hyde Park Penthouse – Knightsbridge, Central London

 One Hyde Park is a major residential and retail complex located in Knightsbridge, London. The development includes three retail units (Rolex, McLaren Automotive and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank) totalling 385,000 sq ft (35,800 m2) and 86 residential properties marketed with prices starting at around £20 million.

The building is owned by Project Grande (Guernsey) Limited, a joint venture between the Christian Candy-owned CPC Group and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar. Graham Stirk led the trem at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners who designed the building. built by Laing O'Rourke It was financed via a £1.15 billion development loan from Eurohypo AG. Candy & Candy were the development managers and interior designers for the scheme.

An outstanding 5 bedroom, 7th floor apartment located in One Hyde Park, the first European Residences at Mandarin Oriental and one of the most exclusive addresses in the world. EPC: C. Approximately 781 sq m (8,412 sq ft).

The apartment is arranged over the entire 7th floor and provides generous entertaining rooms including a large drawing room with terrace facing Hyde Park, dining room, family room, media room, study, family kitchen/breakfast room, chef’s kitchen, laundry room together with secondary access for staff. In addition there are five generous bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, four of which benefit from spacious dressing rooms. 

World class leisure, spa and entertainment facilities combined with the legendary service of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group ensure that One Hyde Park delivers ultimate perfection and a unique experience on every level - underground parking for 2 cars, wine storage room, full concierge service and leisure facilities including cinema, spa, conference/function room, golf simulation and library

Planning consent for the building was granted in June 2006. Demolition of the previous building on the site took place between July and December 2006. Construction work began in January 2007. The superstructure of the building was completed in March 2009. Fitting-out of the building began in April 2009. In August 2010 a penthouse in the development was rumoured to be sold for £140 million, making it the most expensive residential property in Britain. Also in that month it was announced that McLaren Automotive would be opening a car showroom in the building in early 2011. However, a newspaper report at the time of the development's launch party in January 2011 indicated that according to Land Registry records the sale of only five properties had been completed - the 'recordbreaking' £140 million penthouse[9] being sold to the development's own financial backer Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani for £40.5 million in August 2010. One to an Indian family in mining and oil and an adjoining penthouse to One Hyde Park developer Christian Candy, who reportedly paid £31 million, "about £100 million less than the asking price".

In September 2013 it was reported that a one-bedroom apartment in the complex worth £5.25m had been repossessed.

The sculpture Search for Enlightenment by Simon Gudgeon was unveiled on 19 January 2012 to mark the first anniversary of One Hyde Park. The bronze sculpture is of two human profiles, one male and the other female and faces Hyde Park and the Serpentine.

In November 2011 it was reported that only nine out of the 62 apartments that had been sold at One Hyde Park were registered with Westminster City Council for Council Tax. Despite prices ranging from £3.6 million for a one-bedroom flat to £136 million for a penthouse, only four properties were paying the full £755.60 a year Council Tax plus the £619.64 Greater London Authority charge (collectively below the national average), while five were paying the Council Tax at the 50% reduction for a second home. Westminster North MP Karen Buck stated: "When council spending is under unprecedented pressure, it is scandalous that residents in luxury apartments can avoid their share of council tax liability. It sometimes seems as if the more money you have the less you are required to pay." Nicholas Shaxson from Vanity Fair discovered that 60 apartments are owned by companies registered in tax havens as foreign companies and therefore don't have to pay taxes on the apartments. The owners of the companies remain anonymous

Kesington Palace Gardens – London, UK

Kensington Palace Gardens is a street in west central London with some of the most expensive properties in the world. It was the location of the London Cage, the British government MI19 centre used during the Second World War and the Cold War.

A tree-lined avenue half a mile long in the heart of embassy land, Kensington Palace Gardens is often cited as the "most exclusive address" in London, according to real estate agency Knight Frank. It is one of the most expensive residential streets in the world, and has long been known as "Billionaires Row", due to the extreme wealth of its private residents, although in fact the majority of its current occupants are either national embassies or ambassadorial residences. As of mid-2012, current market prices for a property on the street average over £22 million.

It is immediately to the west of Kensington Gardens and connects Notting Hill Gate with Kensington High Street. The southern section of Kensington Palace Gardens is called Palace Green.

It is unexpectedly complicated to write about Britain's most expensive street since its inhabitants, members of a super-rich elite, are not generally willing to give interviews to the Guardian. More problematic still is the hostility which the street's security guards display towards people walking along the road, writing things down in a notepad. Kensington Palace Gardens – where global plutocrats such as Roman Abramovich, Leonard Blavatnik and Lakshmi Mittal own stuccoed mansions, and where one house belonging to a Saudi prince is discreetly on sale (which I think means it isn't on any property websites) for around £100m – is regularly listed as the most expensive place to buy a house in London.

At first glance, there is nothing overtly ostentatious about this quiet road, where the average property was last year valued at around £41m, more than 165 times the value of the average UK home (£248,863). There are no yellow Lamborghinis or Hummers blasting music. The overwhelming impression is one of tasteful reserve, of glistening cream paint and shining green and black railings – until you pause to examine the enormous heft of the houses: vast, detached palaces, with too many windows to count, on a scale dwarfing other private homes in London.

There are armed police officers at both ends of the street, and security huts, where Crown Estate officials control bollards that sink into the ground allowing cars to enter or leave once they have been cleared. It is hard to think of another road in London protected in this way. The need for security is intensified by the presence, just behind the street, of Kensington Palace – home to Prince William, Kate and their baby – and police officers patrol the daffodil-covered lawn in front of the building, followed by sniffer dogs. All of which makes for a rather unfriendly environment; weird and secretive, and slightly reminiscent of somewhere such as Minsk in Belarus, under Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian rule.

Construction of the street, which runs along Kensington Gardens between Notting Hill and Kensington, began in the 1840s; even then the scale and grandeur of the properties bankrupted one of the first developers, John Blashfield. By 1860 it was already known as "millionaires' row" and was occupied by merchants, landowners and fund managers. These huge houses required large numbers of staff to maintain them; in 1871, the census shows, one house was occupied by a team of 20 servants, tending to their two employers.

Gradually, throughout the 20th century, the houses became unaffordable to run as family homes, even for bankers, and the buildings were sold off as ambassadors' residences. It is only in the last couple of decades, as oligarchs and industrialists have accumulated new extremes of wealth, that the buildings have been transferred gradually back into private hands.

The arrival of this growing roster of private owners, ready to pay unthinkable sums to temporarily own these houses (which have 100-year leases before returning to Crown Estate), has made this street symbolic of the widening gulf that divides London, which itself has become unrecognisable to the rest of the country because of its soaring house prices (up this year by 18%, creating the biggest house price gap between London and the rest of the country since records began).

Does it matter that bits of London feel so removed even from the rest of the capital? Should we just gawp and shrug at excesses like Kensington Palace Gardens? Or should the extremes here trouble us? At the very least, the road is emblematic of how peculiar London has become; a place where some people think nothing of parting with tens of millions to lease a home, while just a couple of miles away others are signing leases to move into garden sheds.

Some anti-poverty campaigners say they don't care too much about the tiny numbers of super-rich, whose lives are so off the scale that they distract from the more pressing problems associated with getting a fairer deal for those on the brink. But it is remarkable how quickly, in the past 20 years, a new top strata of extreme wealth has taken hold again.

If you walk down the street, the houses give little insight into lives of the inhabitants, because their existences are shielded behind net curtains and slatted shutters and privet hedges, which on closer inspection conceal CCTV cameras. More informative are the vans purveying luxury services to the residents.

Eskimo Ice services draws up outside one house – the company delivers ice sculptures for parties, and its website shows glassy ice lions and carved statues of the London skyline. Elsewhere, a van – Anglo-Italian marble installation – is delivering bespoke marble, granite, limestone and porcelain tiles. Gardeners arrive in a van marked Siddeley landscape design (a company that also appears to work on mammoth private estates in China and Russia). British Security Technologies is parked outside another mansion, its van promising in italic lettering: "We'll Keep You Safe 'n' Sound Tonight." A vehicle drives up to provide swimming pool and whirlpool maintenance.

Xanadu 2.0, Seattle, Washington

Originally named after the film Citizen Kane and adding a 2.0 as an easy reference to the technological world.  It shouldn't be too surprising that one of the wealthiest people in the world also has an insanely extravagant home.  No word on how big the trampoline itself is, but we can imagine it would be a fun alternative to your standard exercise routine.

The house, a modern-yet-rustic high-tech complex, is built into the side of a hill and looks out over Lake Washington. Mortal comforts include an electronic pin worn by resident and visitor which triggers the personal preferences, like the temperature and lighting of a room or even the art that will appear on high-definition monitors throughout the property. Now that is personalisation!

Known world-over for its world-class design and state-of-the-art technology, Xanadu boasts of heated floors and driveways, an underwater music system in the swimming pool, private library with an Oculus and a gym that is so big, it resembles a tiny palace. Now here’s the part where it really gets interesting. If you’re invited as a guest to Xanadu, you’ll be asked to wear a pin that allows you to adjust the room’s temperature, lighting and even music that you’d prefer. Talk about playing the ever-gracious host! But that’s not even the best part. The best part is that the house is an earth-sheltered house, built to maintain temperatures. It doesn’t stand out because of its main façade or its surface dimension, it stands out because of its technological capabilities.

Bill Gates, who is worth $67 billion is the owner of this incredibly high-tech house. It is worth $120.5 million, according to 2012 tax assessments. It boasts a pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500- square foot gym and a library with domed reading room, among many other rooms bursting with technology.  The 2,300-square-foot hall could seat up to 150 people for a dinner party, or 200 people standing up at a cocktail event. A six-foot-wide limestone fireplace dominates one wall, while another wall has a 22-foot-wide video screen. The 60-foot pool is located in its own separate, 3,900-square-foot building. People in the pool could swim underneath a glass wall to come up to a terrace area on the outside.

The property is built into the side of a hill that overlooks Lake Washington. It is eco-friendly by using its surroundings to insulate the property and save energy. Bill Gates has included some extravagant features to the property making it one of a kind, including an indoor trampoline with a 20ft ceiling, a swimming pool with an underwater music system, a sensor system so that guests can control a room’s temperature and lighting and many more high tech additions, which maybe isn’t so surprising being the home to Microsoft’s co-founder.

Owner: Bill Gates, worth $67 billion

Market Value: $120.5 million, according to 2012 tax assessments

The high-tech Lake Washington complex owned by the world's second-richest man boasts a pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500- square foot gym and a library with domed reading room.