CNET networks founder Halsey Minor is plans to drop a cool $15 million on renovation efforts for 3800 Washington Street, an 8 bedroom, 7 bathroom, 17,895 square foot Presidio Heights trophy property he snapped up last year for a mere $22 million. (Not his first major local real estate investment: Do recall Minor's Sea Cliff property, which was on the market for a hot second or two back in 2003; then asking: $24 million. Built in 1904 by the Koshland family, the property was modeled, to somewhat tragic results, on Madame Pompadour's Petit Trianon, the Rococo/Neoclassical bastard child that sits on the grounds of Versailles. (Paging Kirsten Dunst ... ) Halsey has recruited Elle Magazine's 2003 Designer of the Year, Michael S. Smith, to manhandle what he calls "a grandiose monstrosity" that "needs a lot of work .. to go to a real house." Smith had better stay on point: Minor owns quite the art collection, and is also litigious as all hell— Mister Minor just launched a counter lawsuit against Sotheby's after the venerable auction house failed to make a financial disclosure or two when selling some of Minor's works. Perhaps even more disconcerting is Valleywag's recent report on Minor's temper: after scrapping with British bad boy artist Damian Hirst over another sales glitch, his office walls are said to be riddled with "gaping, fist-sized" holes where Hirst's works once hung in his San Francisco office. Ouch.
· Halsey Minor’s “Grandiose Monstrosity” [SF Luxe]
· 3800 Washington Street [Byzantium Brokerage]
[Images courtesy Byzantium Real Estate via SF Luxe]
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