$500,000,000 spec house...nothing shocks me anymore

Looks like a space ship landed among all those poor little L.A. million dollar mansions...100,000 sqft of complete unadulterated opulence being built in Bel Air, without an actual buyer, and being dubbed "The One". 

Through my job, I've become desensitized to what people do with their wealth. Last year, I did the landscape lighting on two 20,000+ sqft estates and over the years have designed several other estates that have exceeded 40,000 sqft. So far this year, I'm working on another 20plus sqfter and trying to secure another exceeding 50,000 sqft. I used to ask myself all the questions of "why" and "how could they", but now I just say thank you and go on my merry way. 

To put all this in perspective, the average neighborhood Wal Mart exceeds 45,000 sqft and the average discount Wal Mart is roughly 140,000 sqft. So basically, "The One" falls right about in the middle of all those isles of craziness. Here's the link to a recent article with developer-builder Nile Niami and if you don't want to read the article completely, just take a look at a bit of what "The One" has to offer.

• Five swimming pools
• Night club
• Casino
• Jellyfish tanks
• Cigar lounge
• Sky deck
• Putting green
• 30 car garage
• 45-seat IMAX theater
• 5,000 sqft master bedroom

Here are a couple architectural renderings from McClean Design.

McClean Design

McClean Design

The only things I keep thinking about is spec house and the part in the movie Tin Cup where Cheech Marin, caddying for Craig Sadler says "you have extra large juevos"! Good luck Mr. Niami.

What's everyones initial thoughts?

E2 Illumination Designs is a design-build-maintain landscape lighting company based in Dallas and continually works throughout the country wherever fine outdoor lighting design is demanded. Please contact us with any questions.

360 House in Roncesvalles, Spain

Architecture Firm- Subarquitectura

Reference Site- Architizer

To quote Subarquitectura "We seek the poetic in all that seems to have been considered from the merely pragmatic point of view. The result is the literal construction of a use diagram. In this instance, form does not follow function, but is instead function itself." 

Sometimes I'm amazed at what I find myself drawn to in architecture. There is absolutely nothing about the 360 House I would like for myself (besides the pool, land, views, location...other than that absolutely nothing!!), but I have an immediate reaction to it that requires me to look deeper. In today's online world, we tend to look at something creative and instantly start to dissect whatever it is we don't like or would change from that "first" look. During initial client meetings, I show a plethora of photo illustrations of past projects to directly observe that immediate reaction. It's that immediate reaction, both positive and negative, that dictate my landscape lighting design. Whether too bright, too dark, wrong color, I need their feedback to create the nighttime ambiance they desire. Lighting, as with architecture, is subjective... 

In creating my designs, I never enjoy designing purely function, as with security lighting. However, I hope to be able to create an illumination effect like the 360 House, encouraging viewers to "seek the poetic".