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With Labor Day about to close out the summer season, people are leaving the vacation homes behind and flocking back to New York in droves. For Hamptonites, this means performing the ancient ritual of Tumbleweed Tuesday, in which you sit in your car in traffic so long, by the time you get home it’s almost Memorial Day again.

Before the Hamptons became the go-to destination though for New York’s high society, Newport, Rhode Island was the place to be. In gilded-age New York, New York’s biggest bold faced names summered further north, in the seaside town, constructed their own mansions that today remain historically preserved on the waterfront, and offer museum-styled tours of several properties.

The Breakers

This mansion, originally constructed for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, was built in an Italian Renaissance design, and covers nearly 125,000 square feet. The 70-room house is five stories tall and covers one acre roughly with the building. The yard also runs down toward the cliff walk, with views over the Atlantic Ocean.

Beechwood

First owned by Daniel Parrish, a wealthy businessman in New York, the Parrish mansion was sold in 1881 to William Backhouse Astor, Jr. The Astor Family name is also the reference behind Astor Place, the Waldorf Astoria, and the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. Beechwood was remodeled by architect Richard Morris Hunt, and outfitted for the Astors’ love of entertaining. The building has a ballroom, library, and wallpaper imported from Paris. The mansion is rumored to be haunted by the spirits of those who loved attending parties and social gatherings at the mansion.

Chateau-sur-Mer

This palatial estate was the original grandest home in the area until the Vanderbilt family constructed The Breakers mansion. It was build for William Shepard Wetmore, a wealthy businessman from the China Trade. At his death, Wetmore bestowed much of his fortunate, including the estate, to his son Geroge Peabody Wetmore, who would go on to become the governor of Rhode Island. He remodeled the building, using now-reknowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, who had gone on to create the New York Tribune Building, and the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

Miramar

This 30,000 swuare foot, French neoclassical mansion was built in 1915 for George Widener. Widener was a business man in Philadelphia who would later go on to pass away in the sinking of the RMS Titanic. When Widener had passed, the building was still in the early design stages. His widow, Eleanor Elkins Widener, was rescued from the shipwreck in a lifeboat, and took on the project to its completion in 1915.

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In fact, it’s too much for the owners of 71 Franklin Street in Tribeca. So they’re scaling back the eight-unit, five-story condo building—converting the 52-foot-wide edifice into one eye-popping single-family mega mansion with at least seven bedrooms and 18 baths spanning nine levels of living space. The numbers are so staggering, it’s practically math. Speaking of staggering math, the mansion can be delivered furnished for an estimated $65 million, or can be purchased clean for a mere $50 million (and then renovated).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Turret Collaborative Architects has been commissioned to convert the multi-unit space into a ludicrous 20,000-square-foot Vanity Land for some über wealthy, wine sipping, art collecting, basketball playing narcissist. Goodbye to current façade, fire escapes, window air conditioners, and residents! This condo configuration and interior walls will be demolished in favor of a plunge bath, climbing wall, rooftop farm, and a two-car vertical lift garage. And that’s not all.

Owners of this eight-unit Tribeca building intend to convert it to a seven-story, 20,000-square-foot mega mansion that will be sold for an estimated $65 million to a wealthy person who will have little reason to ever leave home.

The proposed sprawling mansion will boggle (and perhaps break) the imagination. The home will be ready-made for work, relaxation, leisure, entertaining, and virtually everything else—with its home office and conference room, gym and glass-walled yoga studio, 59-foot lap pool, 540-square-foot recreation room, and even a spa (with a shower, treatment room and sauna). Will the eventual owner ever need to leave the house? While most wonder why they never use their little office nook, this owner will contemplate the frequency of Spider-Manning the massive climbing wall by the stairs. Or the owner could set up Duke-Wisconsin-style contests on the regulation basketball half-court.

Room service? No problem, two staff quarters will be on call. Plus, there’s a nanny suite, children’s playroom, and kid’s study. Entertaining? Try the music room, 20-seat home theater, 540-square-foot art gallery, or the 235-square-foot wine cellar and tasting room with terrace. Whatever floats your boat (sadly there are no proposed gondolas or gondoliers…yet). Security?—check. There’s a “valuables storage” in the duplex walk-in closet and just in case Jodie Foster buys it, there’s a hidden panic room with self-sufficient power and reinforced walls, floors, and ceiling.

The new mansion will boast an urban rooftop farm, climbing wall, wine tasting room, art gallery, basketball court and panic room.

Plans are in place to convert the 52-foot-wide building into a home, which is listed with Leonard Steinberg of Compass. Buyers have the option to build-out themselves, by which the property can be purchased as raw space for $50 million, Steinberg told The Wall Street Journal. Converting the building would take 18 to 24 months, he said.

The 71 Franklin building was constructed in the mid-1800s and originally intended for industrial purposes. Since 1968 it has been owned by Mordy Lipkis and his family, and it has since been converted to apartments. The property became a favorite haunt for artists who may be permitted to visit the art gallery if the new owner is so generous. Currently, the building only has one residential and one retail tenant, who will be leaving the premises soon. Rising Tribeca real estate values compel the family to let the property go—for a fortune.

According to proposed plans, the architectural features of the mega mansion sound like a prank (a math prank)—a 10-story stairwell, 24-foot ceilings, a 25-foot bridge (yes, a bridge inside of the house), another mezzanine bridge (two bridges!), and a 53-foot-long cast-iron façade with a six-bay arched arcade. This could be the headquarters for a new Roman Empire.

The living space? A fourth-floor living room is 1,325 square feet with a three-story fireplace. There's no word on whether this fireplace comes with its own fire department, but we'd call three-story flames a bonfire. The 650-square-foot formal dining room has a balcony and skylight (dwarfing the informal 220-square-foot dining room with its grill). Throw in the rooftop amenities for good measure—terraces, kitchen and grill, urban rooftop farm, bar (one of many in the home), hot tub, outdoor shower and the home is complete.

Of course there’s not enough space (or time) here to mention everything—like the heliport. Just kidding. A heliport would be over the top.

The post Proposed Mega Mansion in Tribeca Will Be a $65 Million Vanity Land appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Le Palais features 48,000 sq. ft, 1.9 acres, seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, swan pond, lalique-style chandaliers ad doors, formal and informal dining rooms, massive pool, parking for ten vehicles, 5,000-bottle wine cellar, 200-person ballroom, 40-seat screening room, Turkish hammam and Moroccan room, according to Curbed. Is there anything this gorgeous estate doesn’t have?

Photos courtesy of Curbed

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