Soaring Luxury Sales in Dubai and London; Remembering Two Legendary Architects
By: LX Collection
Prime Markets Soar in Dubai and London
In Dubai, luxury property sales soared 230% in the first quarter compared to the same time last year. By way of Property Finder, the United Arab Emirates’ largest real estate website, ABC News reports that prices in some of Dubai’s top-end areas rose by as much as 40% in the first quarter. The real estate consultancy Property Monitor reported that 90 properties worth 10 million dirhams ($2.7 million) sold in April, beating out the 84 that sold in March. (Last year, by comparison, there were only 54 transactions in that price range.)
In London, meanwhile, high-end property sales have also soared as buyers clamber to take advantage of the market. “It now looks as though buyers are themselves calling the bottom of the market and acting on the perceived value—a window of opportunity that could close quite quickly,” Frances Clacy, a research analyst at Savills, told Mansion Global. “This is particularly true of domestic and U.K. domiciled buyers, who’re able to take advantage of the low levels of competition from overseas buyers until travel corridors reopen.”
Sales of homes costing £5 million ($7 million) or more in London amounted to more in the first quarter than in any year since the market’s most recent peak, in 2014. Along with the increase in activity comes a boost in the value of the sales. In the first quarter, 142 properties priced at £5 million-plus traded for £1.42 billion, amounting to 32% more than in 2020, and 63% more than in 2019, and setting the average deal price at just over £10 million.
Remembering Two Prolific Architects Who Died This Week
Art Gensler, the founder of a small eponymous practice that grew to become the largest architecture studio in the world, died on Monday from lung disease. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Gensler, 85, passed away in his sleep at his family home in Marin County, Calif.
Photo Credit: Lyn Alweis/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Along with his wife, Drue, and draftsman James Follett, Gensler founded the studio in 1965 in San Francisco with a focus on designing office interiors. Over the years, the firm grew to become an internationally respected practice that oversaw the 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower and the expansion of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, a collaborative project with Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
Gensler now has offices in 50 global cities and employs thousands. In 2019, the firm reported a revenue in excess of $1.5 billion—more than double that of the next largest practice, according to an annual list compiled by Building Design + Construction and cited by CNN.
“My dad was a regular guy, respectful and friendly and never pompous,” said David Gensler, the late architect’s son. “He loved serving clients through the power of design.” Although he stepped down as chairman in 2010, the elder Gensler stayed on in an advisory capacity and never relented to his illness. At the time of his passing, he still had a full calendar of meetings scheduled with clients.
The German-born architect Helmut Jahn, 81, also died this week after a traffic-related cycling accident in Campton Hills, Ill. Most known for his postmodernist buildings in his adopted hometown of Chicago, Jahn built a repertoire that earned both praise and puzzlement from supporters and detractors of his work. The architect Philip Johnson once called Jahn “a genuine genius” and “a comet flashing in the sky,” but then added: “I don’t know about him yet.”
One of Jahn’s most original works—and perhaps the project he held most dear—is the 17-story James R. Thompson Center, a government building in Chicago’s Loop. Various governors have talked about selling the site to developers—an idea that was reactivated by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration earlier this month. “He was very upset about it,” Jahn’s wife, Deborah, told the New York Times. “It was his hope to rescue it.”
Arte Surfside residence balcony with oceanfront view in Miami, New York.
(Photo Credit: Craig Denis)
At This Miami Building, You Can Pay For Your Condo With Crypto
Arte Surfside will accept cryptocurrency for all of its remaining residences, making it the first Miami new development to welcome this form of payment. The oceanside boutique condominium has partnered with the blockchain platform SolidBlock to create a digital infrastructure that will make these transactions seamless for buyers paying in Bitcoin or Ethereum.
The initiative nods toward Miami Mayor Frances Suarez’s vision to make the South Florida city a global hub for cryptocurrency. “The embrace of cryptocurrency and emerging technologies across all sectors of industry is precisely how Miami will become the city of the century,” said Suarez. “Arte is setting an important precedent and I won’t be surprised to hear similar stories in the near future.”
New Dumbo Condo Will Change the Brooklyn Skyline
A new luxury condominium coming to Dumbo, the small and picturesque Brooklyn neighborhood sandwiched between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, will be a dramatic new addition to the borough’s skyline. The 33-story Olympia, designed by Hill West with interiors by Workstead, will bring 76 one- to five-bedroom residences (priced from $1.65 million) to the desirable neighborhood. The building will feature 38,000 square feet of interior and exterior amenities, plus large private terraces and unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline. Sales will begin later this year.
See The New Retractable Floor Coming To The Colosseum
The Italian government has approved a design for a retractable floor for the Colosseum, Dezeen reports. Designed by architecture studio Labics and Fabio Fumagalli with engineering firm Milan Ingegneria, the floor is meant to replace the original one, which was removed in the 19th century. It will allow visitors to stand in the center of the Colosseum for the first time since the 1800s. A series of slats will enable the hypogeum—the lifts used to bring gladiators and animals into the arena—to be visible at times.
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