Lowes boss lists $30m Whale Beach super-estate
Lodge Dauphin, a sprawling designer compound above Whale Beach, hits the market with expectations around $30 million, offering a private resort with ocean views.
2 min
It’s only fitting that the CEO and co-owner of menswear giant, Lowes, has fabricated an extra-large family compound overlooking one of Australia’s most exclusive beaches.
Linda Penn and her dentist husband, David, have just listed their clifftop villa, Lodge Dauphin, at Whale Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Although no public price guide has been announced by the father-and-son agent duo, David Edwards and BJ of LJ Hooker Palm Beach, a source places expectations at “about” $30 million.
More than just a glamorous trophy home, Lodge Dauphin is a self-contained resort, complete with a private golf course, sauna, spa, and infinity pool.
The Penns bought the mansion in 2012 for $3.075 million, according to title records, but took three years to craft a show-stopping estate with the help of an expert team of award-winning designers.
Acclaimed architect Michael Suttor crafted the sandstone main residence, while designer Deanne Rooz curated its sophisticated interiors. Outdoors, landscapers Richard Unsworth and Paul Bangay created a waterside wonderland with terraced fairways on the 2150 sq. metre site.
A private playground with sweeping ocean views across Whale Beach up to the Central Coast, the expansive Whale Beach property cascades down the clifftop, surrounded by towering pine and gum trees as well as gardens bursting with native flora, manicured hedges, and immersive garden zones.
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home was built from more than 1000 tonnes of stone, and features multiple living spaces over three primary levels. Rich natural materials are showcased throughout the property, with stone, solid oak, marble, brass, and European Oak antique basket-weave flooring all elevating the luxury interiors.
Beyond a central entry court, the everyday spaces include a palatial lounge and dining area with high cathedral ceilings, a central marble fireplace, and a vast balcony with enviable views.
This same level houses a state-of-the-art kitchen with an integrated Sub-Zero fridge and freezer, a Wolf oven, a gas stove, and a separate drinks fridge.
The upper level features a separate lounge area and four bedrooms, each with a private ensuite and built-ins. In the primary bedroom, there is an opulent open ensuite with a handmade freestanding bathtub, twin vanities, a powder room and a walk-in wardrobe.
Three of the four bedrooms also have personal balconies.
A self-contained guest bedroom with a kitchenette on the entry level is an ideal space for visitors or live-in staff.
Resort-style amenities on the lower floor include a large gym or games area with a wet bar, a sauna, a wine cellar, and a vast terrace spilling out to the heated infinity pool, “egg” spa, and poolside lounge room.
Taking resort-style living to another level, the landscaped grounds also feature more than 50 smart-zoned areas, 200 LED copper garden lights, and A4 Bent Grass greens on the personal golf course.
The high-tech compound has the latest smart home integration, including lighting, seven-zone air conditioning, Vintec air filtration, 30 security cameras, Sonos sound, and irrigation.
Additional features of the property include three water tanks, Wi-Fi throughout the grounds, an elevator to all levels, underfloor heating, three powder rooms, and a double-lockup garage with a turntable.
Lodge Dauphin at 143-145 Whale Beach Rd, Whale Beach is listed with LJ Hooker Palm Beach agents BJ and David Edwards.
For Central Element, the start of work at Pearl represents another step in the company’s growing eastern suburbs pipeline.
All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.
4 min
For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.
The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.
“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.
That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.
Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.
The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.
“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”
Collecting instead of decorating
Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.
Collecting is less conclusive.
A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.
That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.
A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.
The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.
For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.
Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.
A design perspective shaped by travel
International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.
Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.
More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”
Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.
Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.
A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.
The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.
Designing the complete experience
FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.
The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.
That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.
Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.
The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.
Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.
The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.
A home that can keep changing
The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.
Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.
“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”
That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.
The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.
This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.
Fact box
- Designer: Jack Freeman
- Role: Founder and managing director
- Practice: FREEMAN & CO
- Base: Australia, with international projects
- Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
- Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
- Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
- Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
- Website: free-man.co
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