The word ‘palatial’ is bandied about readily in the real-estate world, but this chateau certainly qualifies. Its livable floor space amounts to 48,000 square feet, making its ten bedrooms and fourteen baths seem a little bit scant. But the house is designed as an aesthetic and existential panacea, with little, if anything, left to chance.
Controversial developer’s Mohamed Hadid, former developer of Ritz-Carlton hotels, still lives in the sandstone Bel-Air home, which is located on the most prestigious avenue of the upscale neighborhood. In 2010, he sold it for around $70 million, which was apparently below the cost of construction. He has leased it since.
The attention to detail is almost neurotic, as is the design’s compulsion for stylistic inclusion. The results are as beautiful as they are self-indulgent. The master suite alone runs to a couple of thousand square feet. Floors are comprised of Bavarian walnut. Sixteen fireplaces are contrived out of Italian marble. A home theatre seats fifty, and features a hand-painted mural arching across its ceiling. A wine cellar boasts its own dining room. There are many hand-carved wood accents, and there is much hand-laid tile. The interior design arises out of Western European, Middle Eastern and even Gothic sensibilities. It is a feast for the eyes, blurring the line between artistic and artisanal.
The property exterior is as extraordinary, with fountains, a seventy-foot infinity pool, a thirty-six foot high Jerusalem stone wall that demarcates the 2.2 acres of land, and a guard house. A twenty-car garage encourages automotive collecting, and a swan pond offers a hint of European country estate expanse.
A former restorer of antique cars, Mr. Hadid was born in Palestine. He became an owner of Ritz-Carlton hotels in the 1980’s, and has developed several properties in Bel Air, among them Villa Vecchio, his most controversial development, a behemoth property-in-construction—which features its own Imax Theater—that has been mired in zoning and legal disputes for over a year. This past summer, facing criminal charges over the ongoing project, Hadid demolished parts of Villa Vecchio.
