GGH Development LLC, an affiliate of Canada’s Great Gulf Homes, has set up a home marketing center in Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s Cedar Springs office.
And oh my, what a home it is.
GGH is the company bringing us Ltd. Edition/No. 2505 Turtle Creek, a 22-story, 60 unit tower that will soon be seen on a 1.4-acre site at Turtle Creek Boulevard and Fairmount Street. The planned residential building is designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects of Toronto.
And guess who was in town Tuesday night? Siamak Hariri himself, one of the most charming men I have ever met. He personally showed me the beautiful model he has created of the spectacular building, which he told me has been in design for more than three years.
Christopher J. Wein of Great Gulf, Siamak Hariri and Katye Sloan
“Because we wanted perfection,” he said.
The building will be designed as an arc so it is constantly capturing the view of the park, much like, he told me, the time lapse of a flower. All units will face the park-side; exteriors will be clad in light gray masonry and glass. Every unit will have a private elevator. There are twenty foot terraces. And there are no columns, which overjoys Siamak Hariri to no end because of the design possibilities it affords. And then there are those terraces, lush, filled with huge planter boxes and foliage, outdoor kitchen and garden and water features.
GGH figured out that in Dallas, we love to live outside and one thing most homeowners consider when they contemplate shedding their very grounded mansions for high rise living is that connection to outdoors — the patio, the gardening, puttering in a little dirt (but not too much).
“People may miss their yards,” said Katye Sloan of Briggs Freeman Sothebys who is marketing this amazing property with fellow agent Jeffrey Lester, “but they don’t have to give them up to live in this high rise.”
The design is contemporary with carved stone pillars, floating fireplaces, lots of open spaces and gardens. Full time concierge and valet, of course, and service extraordinaire. Kitchen counter islands will be of native carved stone which we were able to get glimpses of in the new marketing center. The fireplaces are smooth marble, floors are marble, and the walls — I mean entire walls — are wrapped in smooth sheets of American Walnut millwork. We looked at a typical unit of 3848 square feet with an 1871 square foot patio. That is why they are being called estates in the sky.
Siamak asked me to coffee, but I had a frantic day and could not meet him, which was highly disappointing. He did, however, chat with Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster and I can hardly wait to read what Mark writes. Meantime, I’ve decided to go to Toronto later this summer (like in August) and check out GGH developments — Siamak tells me I will never be the same.
He also told me he is working on a home for a most notable billionaire, the Canadian equivalent of Bill Gates. That would be Mark Lazaridis — Siamak didn’t say, of course, I checked google. Lazaridis is apparently building a 26,000 square foot home on the shores of Lake Huron that was reported to have a helicopter pad, private art gallery, and a movie theater with a control room inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Actually, those are rumors.
In reality, the house will be much more than a second home, however grand, for one of the country’s top tech innovators and one of its wealthiest men. It will be an exclusive retreat for the world’s leading scientific and political minds, an awe-inspiring space where they can talk, exchange ideas and dream big. A place for the Stephen Hawkings of the world, as the building’s architect puts it.
“My hope is that when they come here, they’ll see all the good and be inspired by it,” Mr. Lazaridis says during a first-ever media tour of his project earlier this week. “[I want]to inspire the groups to think and think big and be bold. That’s something that has worked for me for decades and I can’t see it stopping. I’m not done yet.”
That building’s architect is Siamak Hariri. And he tells me Stephen Hawkings was just visiting his client. Think of that for a moment, and think of what Siamak is creating for us here in Dallas.
He spent his afternoon sans Candy driving around and looking at our homes and architecture. Siamak also adores the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth.
(J’espère te revoir bientôt, Siamak! Nous le ferons à nouveau.)
Speaks volumes to the high caliber of architectural integrity and design coming right to us at 2505 Turtle Creek, with ground breaking starting any day.
Oh! If you are in Uptown, or anywhere near the Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Real Estate office at 2500 Cedar Springs, please do stop in and view the marketing center. And then please email me — I want to know your reaction.
