Rose Bay House: Sydney’s newest waterfront mansion
A $20 million rebuild is set to reshape Rose Bay’s dress circle, with Tribe Studio proposing a sustainable, sculptural mansion to replace the existing trophy home and reclaim its coveted harbour views.
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What happens in one of Sydney’s most affluent suburbs when a neighbour’s trees block your panoramic views of the Harbour? You build a new $20 million house.
That’s the reality in Rose Bay, where there are plans for a knockdown rebuild of the trophy home Indah on the dress circle Bayview Hill Road. That last sold for just over $27 million in 2015 when it was bought by barrister Georgina Black.
Two years ago, Black sought to have four recently planted palm trees on her neighbour’s property removed because they obstructed her view of the Sydney Opera House.
Council rejected the application, so Black took the matter to the Land and Environment Court. They also sided with her neighbour.
Now a new four-level home is planned for the prime 888 sqm block. The documents suggest it will be more in keeping with its location than the existing five-bedroom, glass-swathed mansion.
In its Design Statement submitted to Woollahra Council, Tribe Studio Architects described Rose Bay House as an “ambitious project.” They said they aim to set a high watermark for sustainable and Country-centred design.
Ironically, the report notes that, in a traditional sense, they are “being a good neighbour to the surrounding sites.”
“We are honouring shared views, we are creating landscape buffers, and we have liaised closely with neighbours where possible to secure their support for the proposal,” the report states.
They also say they are driven by being a “good neighbour” to the Harbour.
“In this prominent location, the house is a shared foreshore for everyone using the Harbour. The design reinstates a sandstone, bushy foreshore and reduces the sense of highly reflective, large glass spans that dominate the existing dwelling.”
“We hope to inspire a new generation of luxury that is not reliant on imports and extraction, but rather is inventive, crafted and responsible.”
The elements of the home are categorised for longevity to manage maintenance, upgrades, and overall durability. Permanent elements are designed to last for hundreds of years.
The new home will span four levels. The entry level will feature an open-plan kitchen, living, and dining area opening to gun-barrel views of the Harbour.
Two levels will sit below ground. The lowest level includes a natural pool and a quarry-like, double-height outdoor dining area and undercroft pool zone. Tribe drew inspiration from the Ca’n Terra House by Ensamble Studio in Menorca, Spain, converted in 2020 from an abandoned limestone quarry.
The entire top level will be a dedicated master suite with a dressing room and ensuite. In total, six bedrooms are proposed, along with several home office spaces and lounge areas.
It would be realistic that given the purchase price of the home a decade ago, and a $20 million rebuild, the new trophy residence would become one of the priciest in Rose Bay.
The current Rose Bay record was set earlier this year when a harbourfront home on Tivoli Avenue, with three separate residences on the 1,138 sqm block, sold for a reported $82.5 million.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
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Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
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