Attached Link: A billion for this?

Twenty-seven stories high -- the first six are just for parking -- and IMHO this is one uuuuuuuuuuughly piece of architecture. You'd think, for a billion bucks, they'd come up with something slightly more interesting than this.....

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider

All that money spent and no spaceport ? Some people have no imagination :P And yes that has to be the ugliest piece of architecture i'v ever laid eyes on. It looks like someone designed it using a bunch of legos or something.

Personally my fav house, if we're talking eccentric rich dudes, is that of Richard Garriott (the creator of the ultima series of games) You know you've got a winner when:

Quote - Britannia Manor was a full contact attraction. Patrons often had to run, jump, paddle and crawl their way to safety. Potential patrons had to pass a fitness test before being allowed to enter. The actors at Britannia Manor could and would touch you as you made your way through the attraction, dissolving that personal wall of safety patrons hide behind. “Watching people crawl through a tunnel, become disorientated and then removing them from their friends was one of my favorite things to do,” recalls Garriott. Some of Britannia Manors challenges were as easy as paddling a boat across a large pond, where a water demon, (an actor with  scuba gear) would come up to shake your boat. Others were more risky, like grabbing a rope to swing across a ravine. Surprisingly Garriott was only sued once, when a patron hurt his ankle swinging over the ravine. The matter was settled out of court for an un-disclosed amount.

In addition to large pyrotechnics, it was not unusual for live high voltage electricity to be included in the experience. One of Garriott’s favorite gags was to separate one member of a group into a Faraday Cage. Actors would lock the door and shoot bolts of electricity at the cage. Many victims wet their pants instantaneously but otherwise were unharmed. One year as patrons crossed the “yard” of the Manor they were accosted by a flying demon swooping down only feet above their heads, (one of Garriott’s employees in a complicated demon costume sliding down a zip wire over patrons.) An infamous way Garriott used to disorientate patrons was the Closing Wall. Patrons entered a very small narrow padded room. The door would close behind them and the walls began closing in until the patrons could not move. Suddenly, the entire contraption fell over on its side depositing the shocked group in another room. The walls would relax and patrons had to crawl out.

http://www.hauntedattraction.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=46

http://www.cityes.org/antilia-tower-mumbai-india.html

Yep. Pretty darn ugly!

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

 All fine and dandy, but where are the poser Models of these houses?  

I wonder if the husband or wife after spending all this money on that house are now complaining about the upgrade price to PoserPro :laugh:

Gary

"Those who lose themselves in a passion lose less than those who lose their passion"

And funnily enough, that original design looks much nicer, almost like a cybernetic interpretation of a giant tree or something.

Why the heck did they get it changed to this... this monstrosity anyway ?

Also, did you see he found a great way to write off the expenses of building his new home? He is going to use the ballroom for some business functions.  Because he is opening up his home for "some" business, instant write off!  So the tax payers are essentially paying for his ugly billion dollar home.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi

Price does not always equal quality.  Gads, the Queen Mary 2 didn't cost that much (around 500,000,000 bucks) and with her you have a change of scenery and a planetarium.  Jan

If it's in the states and he uses any part of it for business, they will tax him 15% of the profit if/when he sells it.

It seems that money and good taste do not go hand in hand. 

Since it has views of the Arabian Sea, I doubt it is in the US. No idea how they do taxes over there LOL.

it's not a billion dollar home; it's 5 200-million dollar homes stacked on top of each other...;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

Sorry, didn't follow the link. Though I wouldn't laugh about it it's probably our gas prices that are paying for it.    8^)

It's a ridiculous expense to inflate his ego, but, I guess if your net worth is $43 billion dollars, what else are you going to spend your money on?

Hopefully an earthquake won't turn it into a $2 billion pile of rubble in the future.  But, then again, I'm sure he'll have it insured for $4 billion when it's all done.

Actually there are plenty of Poser models of this house.

Search freestuff for "Dalek" and you'll get them.

My python page
My ShareCG freebies

looks like a lego kit gone wrong

I want a house like Tony Stark's in Ironman.  Second thought,  forget the house,  I want the ironman armor!

Quote - Twenty-seven stories high -- the first six are just for parking -- and IMHO this is one uuuuuuuuuuughly piece of architecture. You'd think, for a billion bucks, they'd come up with something slightly more interesting than this.....

Imagine how many houses could have been built for those who have none for that amount of money.

My brain is just a toy box filled with weird things

That is kind of the point of the owner's building it in Mumbai (Bombay) - surrounded by some of the very poorest people on the planet.  12 million people, most of whom live in abject poverty.
http://www.archidev.org/IMG/pdf/Aspects_of_urban_poverty_in_Bombay.pdf
*"Over one-half of these people live in slums or are homeless; they live in tenements and huts, on pavements, along railway tracks, under bridges and in other spaces available to them.(3) The conditions of life under which the homeless and slum dwellers of Bombay live are conditions of terrible poverty, squalor and  deprivation."

I guess it's not any fun building a billion-dollar house for six people to live in, unless you can take a leak off the balcony onto millions of peons below you.

My Freebies

Disgusting in more ways than one.

Palace of Versailles.

Current estimates of the cost to construct this home run also at about 2 billion (conservative) and probably were actually at lot higher.

So calling your modern version the first billion dollar home are distorting the truth. Many times this has been attempted and several times homes on this scale have been constructed (although several have never been occupied by any living soul, sometime intentionally).

I'm sure several of these ancient (or just old) constructions were also considered very ugly at the time, so maybe there is hope and maybe we will appreciate the new building in time (if it manages to remain standing).