While the workers are still finishing up, the sale of the spec-tacular 625 Duncan closed escrow last Friday (11/7/08) with a reported contract price of $5,818,000 ($432,000 under asking).
Modern and masterful, 625 Duncan has been brilliantly executed to capture an enormous amount of space in an aesthetically pleasing and functional manner. A steel [cantilevered] entry staircase ascends through terraced [concrete] walls and gardens to the 4bd/4.5ba main house and 1bd/1ba apt below.
And as it’s not a single family, the record seeking 3816 22nd Street still has a shot. We’ll keep you posted. And of course, plugged-in.
UPDATE: The current record holding house: Ogrydziak/Prillinger Architects: The T House (purchased for $5.3M in 2005). And yes, just down the street.
Ahh … to have more money than brains
Not for long!
Crap-tacular is more like it.
It looks like one of those tacky lodge-style houses you see in Tahoe.
Wow. Nice to be so rich you don’t care about the economy… spend spend spend!!
I’m gonna go buy a lottery ticket now.
Crimey, that’s an ugly bloated building. I think with the modesty that will come from hard times, that house will look repulsive.
I boldly predict that $5.818M will be the high sales price in Noe Valley for the next 15 years.
This purchase is what is often referred to as “top ticking” a market.
Still, though, if they like living there and have the money, why not? It’s only money, and maybe they have so much of it that they couldn’t think of anything better to do with it.
a few things:
it’s surprising how close the artist rendering looks to this picture. Socketsite: did you go out and try to perfectly match your picture to the rendering? well done!
and as I said when we first saw this place a few months ago: I’m honestly shocked that this house sold for so much. Luckily, I’m usually pretty cognizant about how out-of-touch I am with San Francisco RE pricing! (except for the St. Regis Penthouse, that is!)
this home definitely looks better than I thought it would. I’m still not sure that I like it, but overall they look like they did a good job. I hope they put in an elevator though.
lastly: clearly one of these days I’m going to have to agree that Noe is a premier neighborhood… it’s just so hard because Noe is so… Noe… but $6M don’t lie!
this one is hard to believe. that with 6 mil you would buy this house, now.
is it certain that is really closed??
this is not the real noe valley
I would be concerned about the vacant lot next door. Who knows what kind of monstrosity could appear there in the next year or so.
It may be interesting to see if this “sale” was so the developer could payoff the (probably recourse) construction loan and get a (non recourse) permanant loan. In Bakersfield a developer got caught paying people cash to buy/overpay for the last of his homes so he would not be stuck with them…
Ok, question for folks on this thread: what do you think this type of house (size of house, size of the lot, great views, new construction, probably not-too-far-from-work) would go for in say Pac Heights or Russian Hill?
I’m definitely not suggesting NV is on par with those places, but just curious as this area of NV is sorta now showing up as the ‘prime’ of NV due to this sale and another one (awhile back the current record NV sale was nearby to a googler, I think).
My guess is if this same type of house was in Pac Heights with good views like it has / same size / and brand new construction (a big point because if you are paying this much you want exactly what you desire, not a 80yr old kitchen that you have to re-do), it would go for about $7-$8M or maybe more.
I’d say it’d go for $7.5M in PacHeights, and thus, maybe this isn’t that unbelievable.
[Editor’s Note: The aforementioned Noe Valley record holding house: Ogrydziak/Prillinger Architects: The T House. Purchased for $5.3M in 2005. And yes, just down the street.]
Hard to judge the price without interior photos and the floor plan. Would love to see them if they’re available somewhere.
[Editor’s Note: Agreed. Tipsters?]
I actually like its cubist look.
Architects out there : is “cubist” the proper term for this sort of design ?
Someone bought their dream house and for 5 mil, you can bet its probably pretty nice on the inside. If you want a this kind of product, you have to pick this up now because you probably won’t see another for another 3 to 4 years.
Wait a minute. I thought GOOG was at 310! How is this possible?
no, I wouldn’t call this cubist. that refers more to a style of painting. It’s an eclectic-modern house for sure.
This is Noe Valley, that’s for sure..the more hilly part but nonetheless NV..
I live near by and very happy with the design..and the sales price.
after all…this is Noe.
Prague has some cubist architecture. It is not terribly dissimilar to this place, but this would be cubist-lite. The “white guy with bad posture” ornament out front is definitely “Noe.”
I talked to the GC at the site 2 months ago. The couple (who purchased the shell) did in fact have more $$ then sense and over paid for stupid not even custom finishes (floors cabinetry plumb etc)from the design center and paid FULL RETAIL—this project has given the gc HEADACHES from the neighbors (look at the complaints at sfgov) and the profit for the gc/developer duo is probably not a lot. Nice house on a lot that is too small in the wrong NIMBY neighborhood- not a lot of love for the new neighbors I bet
A co-worker of mine just closed today on the same street on a newly-remodeled 3 brm 2 bath for $1.1. I wonder how that comp in conjunction with this sale will affect the neighboring sales.
Where is the T House in Noe?
Someone in Noe is always going to complain about any construction site. Why the heck is that? Is every disctrict like this, or are Noe neighbors worst than most.
I actually was thinking architecture, not painting. To me cubism in general is the disassembly of an actual tangible form and reassembly into that same form as perceived through an aggregated experience : over time or at different angles for example for visual media like paintings or building facades. The concept has little to do with the geometric solid “cube” but more to do with mapping perceived experience to a form.
Cubism in 3-D sculptural space is really hard to pull off. There seems to be an inherent conflict. The Czech movement feels like it was inspired but stumbled. Some buildings even have sort of a New York Deco look to them. It would be easier to perform a cubist dance than construct a true cubist building.
Some sites with photos Czech cubist architecture :
http://lava.ds.arch.tue.nl/gallery/praha/tcubism.html
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/prague/prague_cubist_architecture.htm
I’m still a bit mystified by cubist architecture. Any help here gladly appreciated !
Here’s a picture of a woman coming down the “cubist” stairway.
http://www.beatmuseum.org/duchamp/images/nude2.jpg
no, I wouldn’t call this cubist. that refers more to a style of painting.
I didn’t know about cubist architecture either. I knew there was cubist sculpture, of course. This one is a very famous Picasso: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/scultpureplastic/SculptureHistory/European20thCentury/CubistsculpturePicasso/PicassoHead/PicassoHead.htm
The pictures inside those links Czech buildings are very beautiful. The style is very sort of imperial, isn’t it? Very Eastern Europe, and fitting.
Ah yes, Duchamp : the original one hit wonder of cubism (of course he had many more significant hits in Dada and other forms). Interesting how so many artists of the period dabbled in cubism and abandoned it like a fad. Only a few like Picasso really stuck with it.
I found this interesting paper from Vancouver Island U. on cubist architecture : http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/praguepage/cubismlecture.htm
The author strives to answer exactly this question. In summary, the Czech architectural meaning of “cubism” seems to be almost completely unrelated to the western European concept.
does it have an elevator? so, now we know where the market is for the spectacular-spectacular
This house was bought by Bruce Gilpin Jr., COO of MobiTV, a TV and radio service for mobile phones.
JKD: But how does he get to work in Emeryville on muni ? 🙂
Have you always been such an anti-transit guy dub dub? How did you get around when you lived in Noe Valley?
I realize the comment was made in jest, but just for the record, there’s a free shuttle in Emeryville that takes shoppers/workers/residents to and from BART to the business areas, and there is also an express bus to/from the City that stops right in front of MobiTV.