Thursday, January 19, 2012

Vera Wang's Glass House in the 90210

Undoubtedly any number of property snobs and surely some of the more mouthy children are gonna gripe and snipe til the cows come home about being subjected first this morning to ice queen Oksana Bauil's glitzy two bedroom condominium just outside of New York City in the suburban New Jersey community of Cliffside Park. For those folks (and everyone else) Your Mama has an afternoon peace offering.

In the late days of last summer word began to slip slide down the celebrity gossip grapevine that wedding dress designer turned lifestyle guru Vera Wang spent nearly ten million smackers on a very glassy, minimalist-minded pied-a-terre in the oh-so-trendy (if exceptionally pricey) Trousdale Estates area on the eastern edge of Beverly Hills, CA.

Listing information we scared up from the time of the sale shows the low-slung single-story residence was originally built in 1967,  exhaustively re-worked over the last three years by high-end house flipper/designer/real estate agent (and seller) Steven Hermann, and purchased by Miz Wang in August (2011) for $9,200,000.

The 4 bedroom and 4 bathroom pavilion, defined by high-gloss surfaces, voluminous spaces, and steel-framed walls of full height glass panels that suck up the sweeping views across the vast glittering sprawl Tinseltown and spill effortlessly out to the backyard entertainment spaces that include dining and sunbathing terraces, an elevated spa, in-ground swimming pool and a thin strip of well-watered lawn.

It only took a few short months for Miz Wang to roust her army of style and design mavens to whip her west coast landing pad into pristine, publication-ready shape. A recent piece in Harpers Bazaar penned by fashion writer Derek Blasbergavailable online here—featured scrumptious pictures of Miz Wang's very spare Bev Hills getaway snapped by the devastatingly handsome, liberally mustachioed and generously talented photographer Douglas Friedman who maintains a image-driven blog called The Fascinator Your Mama has been rather smitten with the last few months.

While Mister Friedman's photos present a slightly more pared-down day-core than the already very spare day-core seen in the 2010 listing photographs, it appears to Your Mama's boozy and sometimes unreliable eyeballs that Miz Wang (may have) acquired and kept much of the furniture installed by Mister Hermann when the home was completed and prepped for it's unveiling in March 2011 when it was listed with a $10,900,000 price tag.

Anyhoo, in addition to her minimalist manse in Los Angeles, Miz Wang maintains a number of other properly pedigreed and exceptionally tailored residences including but not limited to a suburban mansion-sized duplex apartment at the insanely posh, unreasonably expensive and much ballyhooed building at 740 Park Avenue in New York City. Miz Wang dropped an astounding $23,100,000 on the massive apartment in late 2007 when she acquired it from the estate of her then recently deceased businessman father Cheng Ching Wang who himself owned and occupied the apartment with his wife Florence since 1983 when he paid canned soup heiress Elinor Dorrance $350,000 for the gargantuan co-op.

In case any of y'all missed the earlier link, nearly a dozen lush but brutally austere photographs of Miz Wang and her west coast abode can be seen here.

photograph: Douglas Friedman for Harper's Bazaar

20 comments:

Jayne said...

Gorejuss,but bring lots of Windex.

Anonymous said...

It looks about as comfortable as going to bed with her would be.

Desert Donna said...

I much preferred the listing photos in the original post Mamma. Interesting that Elinor Dorrance was the seller of the NY apt. Bennett Dorrance who must be her brother, lives here in Paradise Valley AZ, and owns my health club..and a multitude of other things. He is the wealthiest person in AZ last I heard..

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm. I don't know what I was expecting, but Miz Wang's home looks cold and uninviting to me. Probably one of my least favorite houses I have seen here in a long time. Bless her heart. She must really think she looks better than she really does.

Anonymous said...

I don't like her at all. She's capitalized tremendously on the guilt women have to come to believe that they MUST have an expensive bridal dress to wear ONE EFFING SINGLE TIME.

Besides, she wears way too damn much black.

Anonymous said...

ugly and overpriced. it looks like a 3 million dollar home at most.

Anonymous said...

Mama, it seems you don't have a lot of fans of minimalism on your blog. I think the house is gooorgeous. That view !!! A couple of models in that pool, some champers and a few lines of....and you have a weekend. Since Ms Wang will use this home less than half the year at most, perhaps we should pop in sometime for a private tour, hang out a while? Eddy LA

Anonymous said...

She is greedy greedy greedy... Not that there's anything wrong with that. The views from this place look magnificent but the house itself seems unlivable.

Anonymous said...

Trousdale is on the Eastern edge of Beverly Hills, not the Western edge...just thought I'd point this out because Momma, you've made this mistake more than once lately...

Anonymous said...

i guess im the odd one out, because i think that vera wangs house is one of the most stunning houses in all of los angeles. Steve hermann can do no wrong in my mind.

Anonymous said...

I love it...
http://realestated.blogspot.com/

angie said...

Basically I like this house a lot. If Vera had chosen to finish it less like a public museum and more like a personal home, I'm sure I could love it. The indoor/outdoor flow combined with an incredible view is California dreamin' realized and drool worthy.

Anonymous said...

Never cared for the woman, she seems vapid, soulless and generally dead inside in addition to just plain greedy.

Her house and her wardrobe reflect that.

Ice Queen.

Anonymous said...

I have to say, unacceptable! Have the children taken an overdose on psycho pills? Mama has given us a rare jewel with the posting on Vera Wang and her West Coast pied a terre, and all I hear is complaining. Clearly this amazing home by Steve Hermann is not only stunning, but has to serve as a visual respite from Vera's other properties. She has stated this home is all about the view and did not feel the need to clutter her home with useless pieces of furniture. Does any of the children has second homes? Nope, I didn't think so. What is with all of the hating on Vera?? She has worked her ass off, married well, came from a very wealthy family, and this makes her soulless? Puhleez. EVERYONE in LA would sell their soul to have a home like this one. The only question I have is where have lil gay boy and St. Paul snowman gone?

Unknown said...

That looks like a beautiful Home!

Eeny Meeny Miney Homo said...

I agree with 12:07.

Regardless of whether you want to live in Wang's new and very minimal house, it's clearly a stunning if not particularly ground breaking piece of architecture and design.

Why is it that so many people are proudly unable to appreciate architectural styles that don't represent their own fantasies of a dream house?

I don't want to live here. It's far to austere for me. But it's beautiful to look at and probably a thrilling place to attend and summertime pool party or sun-downer cocktail gathering.

As far as the wedding industry? It creeps me out but of course I'm not allowed to get married to the person I love.

Anonymous said...

Love it, love it, love it.

Don't know enough about VW to have an opinion, but her house is perfection.

lil' gay boy said...

Yoo hoo! Anon 12:07, over here!

Desirable livability for an über-couple or wealthy single, but introduce kids to the mix & it's all over. One look at those magnificent expanses of glass festooned with cutesy kiddie decals to keep them from slicing themselves to bits and all the glam evaporates faster than Mama's liquid lunch in the sun.

And I still say the proportions are off on that one wing...

Anonymous said...

Vera Wang is so shockingly ugly and anorexic.

Sorry, I had to say it.

The house is OK...

Anonymous said...

Stunning home. Love it.