Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Robb Report

Jessica Pons Pons, a photographer, has turned her lens toward some of California’s most fascinating residents, from actress and comedian Maya Rudolph to Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown. For this issue, she added another to that list: architect David Hertz, whose otherworldly Malibu estate, called Xanabu, set the stage for an exploration of his transportive buildings (“Journey Home,” p. 136). “When I first arrived at Xanabu, it felt like a little world of its own,” she says. “My favorite part was the narrow and winding road that leads to the home and other parts of the property—it was almost dreamlike.” Mads Berg A Copenhagen-based illustrator known for his updated take on the Art Deco aesthetic, Berg has created works for A. Lange & Söhne, Wired and the San Diego Zoo,…

CONSIDER IT THE Caribbean Capri. Overlooking the ocean from the edge of a 100-foot-long infinity pool at Rock House, the new residential villa resort carved into a low limestone cliff on the North Shore of Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands, one could nearly mistake the view for somewhere rather more Italian; only the lovelier turquoise water gives away the trick. None of the illusion is by chance. Far from the rum punches and beach-chair panoramas of the typical TCI getaway, Rock House wears its Mediterranean inspiration on its sleeve, from its clean white stone lines to the free-flowing house rosé to the light, Adriatic-inflected cuisine (standouts include a refreshing gazpacho, served like a Bloody Mary in a spice-rimmed glass, and a daily seafood crudo, including a creamy scallop…

As president and CEO of Sovereign Brands, Brett Berish has created a slate of fast-growing wine and liquor labels known for their slick packaging and celebrity imbibers (and in some cases, buyers—in 2014, Jay-Z purchased Armand de Brignac Champagne, aka Ace of Spades, from Sovereign Brands for an undisclosed amount). The family-owned wine and spirits company, which Berish founded in 1999, is today responsible for such potables as Luc Belaire French sparkling wine, Bumbu rum and McQueen and the Violet Fog gin. But for all the gregarious, party-hard vibes his business provides—Luc Belaire was notably popped by the Los Angeles Rams following their recent Super Bowl victory, and Bumbu counts rappers Lil Wayne and Rick Ross among its admirers—Berish, 53, is a family man at heart. The father of six,…

REAL ESTATE HAS remained such a solid asset class that a slew of online investment platforms for commercial properties have popped up in recent years. Services such as Yieldstreet, CrowdStreet, Fintor and others leverage the power of crowdsourcing to allow for smaller shares of in-the-works developments to be purchased. In such scenarios, dozens or even hundreds of investors pool funds to buy into a project, not unlike owning shares of a corporation. With that trend gaining speed and the recent boom in second- and third-home ownership as a backdrop, it makes sense that a new platform would emerge—and more are coming—to bring the same crowdsourcing idea to residential purchases. Enter former Zillow exec Austin Allison and his start-up, Pacaso, which enables up to eight families to own a fraction of…

Surely, the thinking always went, a Ferrari that rolled off the line with a V-6 engine, a power plant common in Camrys and Kias, would signal the end times for Maranello. Yet the 819 hp Ferrari 296 Gran Turismo Berlinetta (GTB)—not just the marque’s first V-6-powered production car, but a plug-in hybrid V-6 production car—is a cracking start to a new age. More than that, it’s a revelation, and not only because of the way it inhales sections of track like a far heavier-breathing beast. Ferrari built its early legacy on cars with 12-cylinder bravado up front, but it’s had great motorsport success placing a V-6 behind the cockpit. Ferrari built its early legacy on cars with 12-cylinder bravado up front, but it’s had great motorsport success placing a V-6…

IF YOU’RE looking for something more rarefied from digital assets than non-fungible art and metaverse-exclusive sneakers, try this: Start-up Cloud Yachts has partnered with esteemed designer Gregory C. Marshall to create a $95 million NFTpaid in crypto, naturally—of the design for a 206-foot custom superyacht, to be built in real life by Delta Marine in Seattle. It’s a first for the yachting world—and, for that matter, the NFT space. But it makes sense to Marshall, who founded his eponymous naval-architecture firm in 1994, especially as he’s already using holographic technology to allow owners to virtually tour a yacht design, in real scale, from anywhere. “We create roughly a million digital pieces for a typical superyacht project, but [those] often end up scattered across many computers,” he says. “This NFT is…

From a dock at Bjørvika in central Oslo, a man rows into the fjord, following a ribbon of silver water as sunset flames the clouds. His wooden boat is naggingly familiar to anyone from northern Europe: high, pinched bow and stern; as slippery as a fish. In such designs, from this very fjord, the Vikings conquered and traded from Constantinople to Newfoundland. What’s extraordinary about this image, though, is what’s behind him. The dock bristles with a panoply of double-take architecture. There’s the glass-skinned Deichman Bjørvika public library, its upper story fanned out at an implausible angle. Jostling for space behind is a design book’s worth of office and apartment blocks: cubes, cantilevered rectangles, ziggurats. There’s also the Opera House I’m standing on, beside a young family having a picnic,…

THE AUCTION MARKET’S primary suppliers are said to be the “three Ds”— death, divorce and debt—all of which can prompt the selling of artworks. The acrimonious divorce of New York City octogenarian real-estate barons Harry and Linda Macklowe produced a spin on the tradition: a court-ordered auction of their mind-boggling art collection, amassed over five decades. The first 35-piece installment of the modern and contemporary trove already set a record for the biggest one-day sale from a single-owner collection, fetching $676 million at Sotheby’s New York in November. This month comes Part II, offering 30 works in the same venue. Expectations, understandably, are high. “The collection is best in class, and the Macklowe name itself is an imprimatur at this point,” says New York art adviser Liz Klein. The top…

As the menswear pendulum continues to swing further away from suited-and-booted propriety, it’s safe to assume that anyone dealing in footwear has a sneaker in their collection. George Cleverley, maker of superlative bespoke English shoes, however, was a notable holdout—until now. George Glasgow Jr., Cleverley’s CEO and creative director, was well aware that a brand known for handmade, chisel-toed dress shoes couldn’t hop lightly on the athleisure bandwagon. “It had to be the best trainer on the market,” he says. After years of prototypes being tweaked and tweaked, the Jack sneaker launched in March (an initial pre-sale of 250 pairs sold out in six hours, thanks to loyal fans including Jason Statham and Henry Golding). The game changer, Glasgow Jr. says, was the discovery of soles made from virgin Hevea…

Cradle, Gloster One might mistake the Cradle as a piece in a modernist playground—those sturdy, solid teak slats practically invite climbing (social or otherwise)—but the design is meant to lend a sense of retreat. Left bare, the rhythmic frame allows one to catch some sun and enjoy the tiniest bit of separation from the gang. Accessorized with sunshades (so it looks less like a hamster wheel), the sculptural sunbed becomes a secluded shelter. This ultra-functional objet’s versatility isn’t surprising, given the fact that designer Henrik Pedersen has a background in fashion. From $15,915 Boulevard, MamaGreen The Boulevard is sleek enough to set up several in a row while still offering autonomy. The integrated side table means you needn’t share, and if your poolside companions don’t understand that you’d rather soak…

California The very name of Villa Okeanos attests to the old-world atmosphere of this gracious estate above 17-Mile Drive in California’s Pebble Beach community. With 200-degree panoramas of the Pacific, this home and guest house—on the market at $22.95 million—encompass 8,000 square feet and seven bedrooms, with some 3,000 square feet of stone terraces edged by formal gardens. Inside, superlative craftsmanship is evident in bespoke details such as gold-leafed domes, antique ceilings, ornate ironwork and carved French limestone. Among the seven legendary Pebble Beach golf courses, the Pebble Beach Golf Links stands out as the site of the annual AT&T Pro-Am tournament in February and the automotive Concours d’Elegance in August. Jeannie Fromm, Sotheby’s International Realty–Carmel Brokerage, jeannie.fromm@sothebys.realty Hawaii Kahalawai A: Hale’ Akoakoa, on Kauai’s south shore, embodies Hawaii’s casual…

Twisted North America KNOWN FOR: High-performance V-8 and electric-powered Defender rebuilds MODEL NAME: NA-V8 110 PRICE: $330,000 DONOR VEHICLE: Defender 110 (for registration) ENGINE: 6.2-liter GM LT1 V-8 POWER: 525 hp TRANSMISSION: Eight-speed automatic NOTABLE FEATURES: A 22-year-old mainstay in the UK, Twisted has expanded stateside and features a design center in Austin, Tex., and a production facility in Elizabeth, N.J. Its 90, 110 and 130 models are constructed and tuned using proprietary technology that involves hundreds of hours of testing, which is why these hot-rodded trucks drive remarkably well for their bulk.EV aficionados will find even more poke in Twisted’s electrified models, which produce up to 900 hp and run upwards of $370,000. Coolnvintage KNOWN FOR: Aesthetically authentic reinterpretations of Land Rover Series trucks MODEL NAME: Build 115 PRICE:…

Sixteen years after Volvo Penta introduced its first joystick boat control, the yachting world is planning its next step toward autonomous piloting with assisted-docking systems. But don’t let go of the wheel just yet: The ability to have your boat automatically pull into a slip while you and your guests sip cocktails on the foredeck could still be 5 or even 10 years away. “It’s coming,” Anders Thorin, Volvo Penta’s product manager for marine electronics, insisted to me back in 2018 during a stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was at the helm of a fully self-docking Volvo-powered Azimut as it effortlessly eased itself between a pair of priceless race boats. That system, despite its flawless demonstration, wasn’t quite ready for prime time, but last year…

On one day in April 2020, American airports were so empty that the TSA screened around the same number as it might have in the late 1960s—just under 90,000, a figure down 90 percent from the more than 2 million who’d breezed through regularly each day a few months earlier. It’s startling, then, to compare figures now: According to the TSA, commercial airports have gained back more than half of those pre-pandemic fliers, and private-jet flights stateside are up 9.5 percent over last year, per business-aviation analysts at Argus. So travel is roaring back to life, flush with much-needed passengers—and cash. Isn’t that a good thing? The surge at the luxury end of the market should be a foolproof boon for trip-starved travelers and financially struggling operators. But it’s not.…

When former French president François Hollande strode through the doors of red-hot Parisian restaurant Mosuke last fall and greeted chef Mory Sacko as though they were old friends, Sacko was . . .stunned. Sure, the dining room had been packed every night since Sacko had become the first Black chef in Paris to earn a Michelin star—just four months after Mosuke’s September 2020 debut. Even so, when the restaurant had received a call requesting a table for two under Hollande’s name only an hour earlier, he waved it off as a prank as his team hustled to make room just in case. “The fact that he came in and called me by my first name was crazy,” Sacko says. “He was very curious about the culture of African gastronomy and…

Raffles Doha VS. Xigera Safari Lodge DEFINING ARCHITECTURAL FEATURE The hotel’s extraordinary curve looks like something from the props cupboard of the Avengers—perhaps a device that opens a wormhole to the next galaxy—but it actually symbolizes the crossed scimitar swords on Qatar’s national seal. Suites and walkways are built on steel stilts, raising everything above ground and preserving the ecosystem of the delta. It also means you won’t step on the hippos (or vice versa). ACCOMMODATIONS 132 suites on the Doha waterfront along with butler service, shopping, restaurants, movie theaters and a cigar lounge. 12 suites with private access to 15,000 acres of the Moremi Game Reserve. BUT THE ROOM YOU WANT IS The two-story, 10,000-square-foot Royal Duplex Suite has its own gym, plunge pool, billiards table and hammam. And…

Back in 1991, after the Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King, Nick Cave started to create the first of what would become his celebrated series “Soundsuits.” Distraught over the racially induced violence, Cave, a Black man, designed the wildly imaginative, wearable sculptures to serve as metaphorical armor, cloaking the full body and disguising the race, gender, class and age of the performers donning them. Twenty-nine years later, he was working on what he calls version 2.0, inspired by his teenage fantasies of what the new millennium would bring, when a harsh 21st-century reality intruded: A Minneapolis cop murdered George Floyd. “You can feel this sense of sadness and despair. But underneath, you get this glimpse of something even more exuberant and more elaborate.” “That created this veil, this shroud,”…

Gleneagles is about to spread its wings. This spring, the golfing resort in the Scottish Highlands will add a second site, its 33-room Townhouse, in a conversion of the Bank of Scotland (formerly the British Linen Company) in Edinburgh’s city center. This will be more than just a luxury hotel, though: 1,000 locals will also be invited to join its members club, paying annual dues of around $2,900 for the privilege. And while one restaurant on the property will remain general access, all other onsite offerings, including the rooftop bar and extensive gym and wellness facilities, will be available only to current guests and those select in-towners; members will also receive priority in-room booking and discounted rates. Gleneagles managing director Conor O’Leary tells Robb Report it’s a natural model for…

RH (formerly known as Restoration Hardware) is renowned for its enormous sofas and tables crafted with weighty slabs of salvaged wood. Now the furniture manufacturer is taking a seat (as well as making them) at the aviation and marine tables with RH One, its private jet, and RH Three, its refitted yacht. They’re not corporate vessels but rather a splashy part of a larger experiential initiative that also includes the brand’s hospitality venues such as its restaurants in Napa Valley, Chicago and, on the horizon, San Francisco. The goal with this foray into planes and boats is simple: bring a trained design eye—and the feeling of home—to these often-overlooked interiors. However, the execution took some engineering to achieve the brand’s signature aesthetic with lightweight wood and marble veneers rather than…

“A livery sends a message: ‘I’m here’ or ‘I’m not,’ and everything in between,” says David Hedley Noble, CEO of Aerobrand, a London-based aviation-design firm. “A good design often matches the personality of the owner. Sometimes that’s good,” he says. “And sometimes that’s bad.” Compared to lavish, high-design interiors on which many owners spare no expense, jet liveries tend to be the middle children of private aviation—subdued, conventional, often overlooked. Many private fliers demand anonymity, while others, like heads of state and multinational corporations, prefer only subtle identifiers on their business jets. But that’s changing, if slowly, with more owners and designers now viewing the exterior as a canvas for creativity. “Ninety percent still go for the humdrum,” says Edése Doret, president of Edése Doret Industrial Design in New York…

Nansen Explorer Greenland One of the most remote itineraries in this group, cruising Greenland’s majestic icebergs and glacier-covered plateaus with alpine troughs and tundra wildflowers presents a landscape that hasn’t changed for centuries. Areas such as Ilulissat offer kayaking near the icecap, while more kayak exploration awaits at Eternity Fjord, with its towering mountains and hanging glaciers. Refitted last year, Nansen Explorer is the only yacht in this group that sells individual cabins—seven cabins for up to 12 guests—with simple Scandinavian style and luxe features including floor-to-ceiling windows, two chefs and large staterooms. From $16,500 per person via EYOS Expeditions Pacific Yellowfin British Columbia This 113-foot classic yacht will moor in Desolation Sound, with its dramatic mountain backdrop, as well as explore other pristine areas of British Columbia. Composed of…

When Craig Murray initially motored his boat through Kenneth Pass and into Nimmo Bay, a remote inlet deep within British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, it wasn’t love at first sight. The gray fog was so thick that summer afternoon in 1980 that he could barely see his boat’s bow, let alone the surrounding untamed swath of ancient cedars. But when he cut the engines, he heard the gentle rumble of what he was seeking—the waterfall local loggers had told him about. A quick wander on shore led to the source of the sound: a powerful cascade coming down from 8,711-foot Mount Stevens. At the time, he wasn’t thinking of its beauty so much as its potential to provide power and drinking water to a fishing lodge and family home. Murray,…

It had been 36 grueling hours since we’d entered the storm, and the ship had begun to rock and creak and groan. We swung from starboard to port side, as I lay in my bed drifting between lulls of sleep and moments when I felt as though I was levitating above my mattress. By morning, my espresso machine had found its way to the floor and a heavy table had wedged itself against my bed. Harrowing episodes like this one are common on the Drake Passage, a notoriously rough body of water between the tip of South America and Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands. Sometimes it’s known as the Drake Lake (when it’s calm) or, in an instance like this when the weather is rather less pleasant, the Drake Shake. For…