Though memories of lobster rolls and clambakes may be fast fading, here's a chance to catch up on all the important stuff that happened, Curbed-wise, while you were tanning this summer. Memorial Day and Labor Day may only be three calendar months apart, but this year they were filled with the lion's share of real estate and design news. Here goes:
JUNE:
· Gianni Versace's old home in Miami, recently reborn as Casa Casuarina, hits the market for $125M, tying L.A.'s Fleur de Lys as the most expensive officially listed home in the country. Here's a look at other properties in that stratosphere.
· Dwell and New York Magazine announce plans to join forces on City Modern, a standalone design title that will coincide with NYC's city-wide architecture festival in October.
· Brat Pack novelist Bret Easton Ellis puts his Manhattan loft on the rental market for $5,000 a month. It's basically a one-room studio.
· China announces its grand plans to build the world's tallest tower—the 2,500-foot-tall Sky City Tower—in just 90 days.
· Twitter founder Jack Dorsey scoops up a cliffside home in San Francisco's swank Seacliff neighborhood. He paid around $10M for the property, which was first listed for $18M in 2008.
· Elle Decor releases photos of Sandra Lee and Andrew Cuomo's home in Westchester. Cue the domestic bliss!
· Software billionaire Larry Ellison buys 98 percent of Lanai, a 141-square-mile Hawaiian island. The deal includes 88,000 acres of land, two resorts, two golf courses, and more.
· Gwyneth Paltrow shells out some $10M for an L.A. home that was featured on the Oct. 2011 cover of Veranda and used as the setting for the magazine's first-ever showhouse last year.
· In Sagaponack, N.Y., a 33-acre estate hits the market for $65M, becoming the priciest listing in the Hamptons and threatening to shatter real estate records there.
JULY:
· Presidential decorator Michael Smith opens his modernist Los Angeles home to WSJ. Magazine, where he calls the place "both a set and a character." · Über-developer Mohamed Hadid puts his Middle Eastern-influenced spread in Beverly Hills on the market for $58M. As is true of many of Hadid's creations, his own home is thousands upon thousands of square feet of pure party potential.
· Not far from Philly, architect Louis Kahn's noted Fisher-Kahn House hits the market for the very first time. Ask? $600K.
· Speaking again of Mohamed Hadid: his Palazzo di Amore, owned by billionaire real estate tycoon Jeff Green, is rumored to be quietly seeking a buyer for a staggering $150M. Its best feature, hands down, is that revolving dancefloor set inside a 24-car garage.
· A Berlin-based architect releases One-Sqm-House, a house that measures one square meter. Loosely defined, it's the smallest domicile in the world.
· In contrast, the Sundance documentary The Queen of Versailles hits theaters, profiling one couple's ill-fated quest to build the country's largest home. Here are the floorplans.
· Silicon Valley-based publisher Zimbio acquires Lonny, the original shelter title, along with its vast photo archives.
· President Obama's college-era Manhattan apartment, where he lived as a Columbia student, hits the rental market for $2,400 a month. It's not that special, but the brokerbabble fosters the notion of possibility: "Who knows, you just might end up in the White House one day."
· Reclusive billionaire Dawn Arnall is rumored to be hunting for a buyer for Owlwood, her massive Beverly Hills palace. She apparently wants $150M for the estate, which has a pretty incredible history—Cher once owned the place and installed gold bathroom sinks and "a thousand yards of fabrics."
· Reese Witherspoon opens her country home in Ojai, Calif., to Elle Decor. Designer Kristen Buckingham describes the place as "fresh and thoughtful even though it's traditional."
· In Manhattan, a triplex penthouse comes to market for $100M. For that price, you'd think someone—whether it be the developer or the designer—would want credit for the interiors. But nope, it just may be too ugly.
· A Martha's Vineyard estate has the audacity to ask $92M—even though there's no house on the 266-acre waterfront land.
AUGUST:
· The entire ghost town of Woodside, Utah, is listed for $3.9M. As the real estate agent points out, "You can be the sheriff, the judge and executioner of your own town."
· Swimming sensation Michael Phelps, fresh off earning the title as most decorator Olympian ever, sells his Baltimore townhouse for $1.25M, down from the $1.699M he paid for the place in 2007. It's one of the few losses the bionic man-fish has ever taken.
· Yankees third-basemen Alex Rodriguez lists his 20,000-square-foot dream home for $38M. The property is sited on 275 feet of Miami Beach water frontage and has a batting cage, a 16-camera security system, and a roof deck.
· Former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel sells his Malibu mansion to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison for $37M.
· Funnyman Robin Williams puts his Napa Valley vineyard and estate on the market for $35M. Included: a 20,000-square-foot main house, a solar farm, and some vines.
· Confirmed: Matt Damon buys the "best house in the Pacific Palisades." The actor forked over $15M for the Grant Kirkpatrick-designed mansion, which boasts 35-foot ceilings.