‘ Living sculpture’ city home seeks art- loving owners
Picture /( below) Nick Reed Take a sneak peak at the apartment at nzherald. co. nz An outrageous inner- city pad with a drive- in art gallery, sculpture- like staircases and bespoke features throughout is on the market for the first time.
The Auckland home designed by Virgil and Fay Roberts was well ahead of its time when it was built 12 years ago
Windows and privacy screens close at the touch of a button, touchpads control the lighting and heating and an electric and candle- lit chandelier lowers automatically.
The stunning three- level townhouse on Hopetoun St is being sold through Andrew Wall of Graham Wall real estate.
It boasts four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a gallery, cellar and seven car garaging spread over 463sq m.
There is copper, chrome, aluminium and real gold in the fixtures and fittings and on the walls.
“People thought we were crazy because we spent a lot of money on it,” Virgil Roberts said. “It’s a living sculpture with design solutions and interpretations that suited us.”
The house features artistic staircases including one that starts with concave steps and ends with convex which “went well over budget”, and another that you enter through a giant stiletto.
The spacious seven- car garage doubles as an art gallery. The cars, including a Batman style Lamborghini and a bespoke pink VW Beetle, feature as works of art in their own right.
Wall said interest in the property had been high — from professionals looking for a work from home space to families looking for a central location with top security.
He said it was near impossible to put a price on the property, which had a 2014 CV of $ 3.25 million, because it was freehold in the city and no expense had been spared in the build.
Properties in Auckland city sold for between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 per square metre, according to building estimates, putting the 463sq m property between $ 5m- 7m.
The couple, whose t wo older daughters have now left home, are excited about their next project.
They have bought a couple of apartments in the Oasis Boutique Apartment project in nearby Myers Park.
“We have a lot of new ideas, quite different from what we have here, a few curves, purple oak timber flooring. It’s exciting stuff,” Roberts said. .