Centurion

Price: 120 million$$$$$$$$
+ An additional $10-20 for furniture and painting. With an expensive house like that you can't go off to Ikea or homedepo for furniture shopping, right

Tycoon

No thanks, don't like it and it's too much money.

Michael

That house is in West Palm Beach, Fl?

SDNR

That is a quintessential example of American luxury.

I much prefer this grand old American masion in Newport, Rhode Island. It is called Rosecliff.

Michael

Wow. Very Thomas Jefferson if you ask me.

Not bad Roberto.

Centurion

I wouldn't call Rosecliff American, though. It looks very French to me.

SDNR

Ah yes Lu, very true ...it is quite similar to "La Belle Époque" architecture style in France.

Michael

I see many students in the architecture school designing many comtempory pieces. I see a lot of this design resurfacing now, I guess it can be considered some post post-modern architecture. What are the main differences between French and American?

SDNR

Hmmm, that is an interesting question BMWFREAK.

Classicist style architecture is an almost universally understood language today -- and for the most part, it is used to express wealth, power, and prestige. Most of these huge mansions completely lack a sense of scale and proportion -- proportions are of utmost importance in classicism.

The Rosecliff mansion was built in 1902 and has very good proportions, but the Trump mansion, like so many others, seems to lack a genuine sense of elegance.

Michael

Even though the Rosecliff mansion was built in 1902 it looks as if one designed this year. I think it is rather interesting to drive through wealthy neighborhoods in which you can see modern houses and old ones as well. The old ones, which may have been built in the 70's, or early 80's, seem to show a distaste for the past, which I think we know as post-modernism. This is where we see a design change in architecture basically going against the 'traditional' design. However, you are right Rob, it seems that classic design still lives, no matter what, and it is a way of communicating, via design, to the world that you are wealthy, prestigious, and may come from a royal family blah blah blah. I guess this is why at the end of the day one can argue that RR is a traditinal classic car and it will always retain that prestige just because of its past. So, it doesn't matter who you are, but if you drive an RR, you are classy, and if you own a victorian styled house, you are just simply a gold bar walking around.