A little over a decade ago, Stanley Saitowitz was engaged to design a futuristic mega-home to be built atop the hundred-plus-acre King Mountain site in Marin, a site which has now hit the market listed for $39 million (as we first reported this morning).
Dubbed “Omega 3,” the modern home was envisioned as a series of four concrete and glass bars laid into the hill.
The home’s main bar was designed to contain the kitchen and family room, with playrooms below and bedrooms above. The eastern bar was designed as the master suite. The home’s entry and formal living areas are contained in the middle bar. And the western bar/bridge was designed to contain “the music archives, studio, and work room for the rock-star owner.”
And if a plugged-in reader is correct, the aforementioned “rock-star owner” is, or at the very least was, Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich. No official word on why Ulrich abandoned the project.
This may be appropriate.
Great, another Saitowitz detention facility, unfortunately this one planned in a beautiful natural area.
Oops, sorry. Thankfully, this will not happen…
[Editor’s Note: As we reported earlier today, “the existing plans for the estate call for a massive 34,000-square-foot villa, or a more modest 19,000-square-foot modern home with separate guest house and various other buildings, to rise upon the site.”]
I really wanted to triangulate a Weird Al version of a Metallica song for you guys, but I really can’t believe there that many readers who would appreciate the narrow Venn diagram intersection of 90’s metal and planning/building woes.
Existentially, I wonder if one professionally channels youthful discontent into stadium shows of loud angst, is it the opposite of metal, or the height of metal to own a hilltop compound.
This is the best I got for you on short notice:
ENTER PLANMAN
Know your codes, little one
Don’t forget, my son
To include every one
Turn them in, Expedite Bin
Anxious lobby din
Till the Plan Man he comes
Sleep with one eye open
1650 Mission right
Exit light
Enter night
Stamp my plans…..
Now DBI approval Land
Saw Weird Al at the Mountain Winery a few years ago. I realized that I remembered almost every word to most of his songs.
Your effort is greatly appreciated 😛
Simply. Awesome.
It looks like an office building. Maybe a high school. Actually there is a school in the Lafayette area that can be seen from the freeway and it reminds me of this. Or this reminds me of that.
No accounting for taste and it would have been his money.
Still, if it had been built and he eventually sold it I think the design cuts back on those folks who might want to buy a place on a hill in Marin. That pool of folks is small to begin with.
If I had that kind of money and were to build from scratch I’d go for a Mediterranean style or maybe a Cape Cod/New England look. A more intimate design..
I agree. Nice looking building but it doesn’t read as residential at all. Maybe a pharmaceutical corporation’s HQ?
I’d be inclined to build something more California native looking that blended in with the surroundings. A building that is invisible from a distance.
Cape Cod/New England? In California? With a big lawn and eastern trees, I imagine. Why not a faux Tudor castle with the staff dressed in Tower of London outfits?
No accounting for taste, I guess.
Holy cow! I can’t believe I haven’t seen this listing before. Has it been kept deliberately quiet? (Truly listing has it on the market for 180+ days.)
I live in the area and there is a very popular trail that rings King Mountain. The vast majority of locals think of this as open space. I think Marin NIMBYism might be even more intense than that seen in San Francisco. I can only imagine the public sh*tstorm if ground were to be broken to create this monstrosity, not to mention what would happen in response to the vineyards and stables promised in the video promotion.
The site map indicates that the King Mountain Trail has an easement through the property. Does that mean people can wander through your property at any time?
[Editor’s Note: See Plans For A 34,000-Square-Foot Villa In Marin, as linked above, for the answer.]
The Marin of today loves developers. Corte Madera has built hundreds of new homes and a couple of thousand condos and rentals units in the past two years. They are considering high rise construction as I write this comment. With all this growth, not one new road or bus line has been built or put in service. Welcome to Malibu North.
Where exactly are all the new roads going to be built?
And bus lines? Marinites riding a bus? ROFLOL.
Marin loves developers? Thousands of condos and rental units? You must be smoking something.
Still gonna die just like the rest of us.
Maybe, but he sure as hell doesn’t LIVE like the rest of us.
Anon, it was on the MLS, under lots for sale, not as a home
Lars Ulrich needs to find a better way to spread his wealth IMHO. This is just gross, and boring. And disheartening, given the spirit of the music with which he made his riches.
You mean like a large Baroque estate? You can always apply as his taste maker and financial adviser.
Metallica was and is horrible music.
(Oh, name link for proof. Lars cited Cream in a recent doc. Ginger Baker wasn’t having that.)
An abode worthy of Dr. Evil.
Does it come with its own fleet of Segways?
Turn it into a retreat for kids, campgrounds, and service center for urban kids, and disabled kids needing to get to the outer-city… a retreat, recovery center, or something better….
Lars, don’t be so wastefull, do something worthwhile with your money…
split face drone aerie; design by Stanley Saitowitz, music by Andrew Keiper
Cute
I grew up right next to this “property.” My understanding was that a Metallica member bought it and planned to build a giant house in the shape of a “M.” Trees were cleared, a work permit was up and fence put at the entrance of the property. The project was then clearly abandoned, way longer than ten years ago, and I am quite sure the property has been for sale for many, many years.
I have lived for years near here and the property does appear abandoned. With what happened in Middletown, this 160 acres of Scotch broom and downed trees represents a horrible danger to surrounding homes in Larkspur and Kentfield. I just went to a community meeting about fire danger in the area and the “fuel load” on King Mountain was brought up as a major issue that needs to be dealt with. The owner has got to be facing some liability issues if there ever is a fire.
Cut Lars some slack. He grew up in the 60% income tax paradise that Bernie Sanders is so fond of. There, you don’t do “something worthwhile” with your money, because (a) you don’t get to keep enough of it, and (b) you’re brainwashed to believe that the confiscated part is already being spent on “something worthwhile”.
BANANAS!
I was in Denmark 2 weeks ago and it was fabulous. Many of the taxis were Tesla Model S and there were no bums to speak of. I’ll take Copenhagen over San Francisco any day. The people are markedly happier there, too, BTW.
No they’re not. They have a higher suicide rate and a higher consumption of anti-depressants than we do here. Yes, it’s nice that you don’t encounter as many vagrants on the street, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t “bums”, just that they are given tax payer-funded apartments. Look deeper. I lived there over 10 years, I know whereof I speak.
You’ve done nothing to demonstrate knowledge of this subject. Quite the contrary, in fact. Denmark was recently polled as the 3rd happiest country on earth. Got any other topics you’re an expert on?
“Buncha assholes”
-The Dude