Aspen
It lurks in the mountains in a place that is frightening, especially if you have a credit card limit.
It takes in moisture and water and carbon dioxide.
It breathes out oxygen.
It sucks heat from the Earth itself.
The house (here please feel free to scream) is alive!
OK, the house isn’t exactly alive. But the 200-foot-long, 13-foot-high wall of Montana rock covered with living, growing lichen and moss that sits inside the house, well, that’s alive.
And if that doesn’t scare you, the price tag will. The house, on 200 acres just down the road from this mecca of Look At Me in the village of Snowmass, is on the market for $37.5 million.
The opulent property is called Wildcat Ridge. It is 14,300 square feet of marble and black walnut and massive windows all capped with a copper roof, a house so grand that even the guy who designed it just a few years ago doesn’t know how many rooms it has.
“It has 13 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms,” said famed New York architect Bartholomew Voorsanger, reached via his cellphone Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport just as he – and you can’t make this stuff up – stepped onto a jet bound for Paris.
Just 11 bedrooms, 11 baths
Actually, the home officially lists as having only 11 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. Although there are two additional “powder rooms.” All of which would come in handy when the house is packed with swanky guests, you’ve just chugged an entire $450 bottle of Roederer Cristal champagne and, to use the snooty old expression, you “have to powder your nose like Secretariat.”
Here’s the best part about the house: It is heated and cooled by 60 wells. The 49- to 52-degree heat of the earth some 350 feet beneath the surface is taken from the wells and converted via 70 tons of heating and air conditioning equipment, ensuring that the poodle stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
And while the price might seem a bit out of reach for the average homebuyer, it’s really not. Because if you figure an estimated $1,500 a month utility bill savings with the geothermal wells, the $37.5 million house would just about pay for itself in 2,083 years.
The home is owned by Leon Hirsch and his wife, Fannie. He was the founder of U.S. Surgical, a medical equipment firm he sold in 1998 for $3.17 billion.
Voorsanger, the architect hired by Hirsch, has designed other spectacular homes and several museums. As he boarded his flight last week he said he’s particularly fond of the Aspen home and its living wall.
“It’s a wonderful moss stone brought from Montana,” he said of the interior wall. “It’s sprayed with water twice a year and the lichen and moss grows. Like your children, you can’t pick one favorite. But I certainly love that home as well as any of my projects.”
The business of selling it rests with Joshua Saslove of Joshua & Co. of Aspen. It was on the market for most of 2005, when it was listed at $35 million, taken off the market for about five months and officially relisted last week at the higher price.
(With a traditional 20 percent down payment of $7.5 million and a 6.75 percent annual interest rate on the $30 million balance, you’d have a monthly house payment of $194,579.43. Not including taxes or insurance.)
2nd, 3rd or 4th home
But Saslove said a buyer won’t likely be making any monthly payments.
“A person who would buy this property is one of substantial wealth,” he pointed out. “They would use it as their second, third or fourth home. It is an extraordinary house with extraordinary architecture. It is a house that cannot be replicated.”
Saslove failed to mention that the $37.5 million includes, according to his website listing: “a wood-burning fireplace, refrigerator and washer/dryer.”
Oh, and it also comes with a central vacuum system and lawn sprinklers.
Because nothing is as frustrating as spending $37.5 million for a house and then having to drag a noisy canister vacuum around behind you on cleaning day, pausing occasionally to wipe away the sweat and look out the window at your brown, dry lawn.
And so Saslove is officially accepting offers.
“The property has been looked at closely by people from all over the world,” he said. “There is a stronger probability it will be sold to a U.S. citizen than to a foreigner.”
(Aspen is littered with expensive properties owned by what Saslove called “foreigners,” people of great wealth from mysterious lands such as Saudi Arabia and Texas.)
But even at this level, Saslove expects some bartering.
“People who can afford this house are smart people, and smart people don’t buy a property without trying to negotiate,” he said.
Then he hinted that submitting a low bid on it would be akin to slipping an Aspen bellhop 50 cents. In either scenario, you’re not likely to see your luggage inside right away.
“I’ve already had offers on this property,” he said. “But they were beneath the asking price.”
Staff writer Rich Tosches writes each Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at rtosches@denverpost.com.
