Cantoni Celebrates 25 Years of Contemporary Design and The Bugatti Grand Sport
Well, now I’m really offended. I see that my colleague Kristiana Heap got to actually DRIVE the Bugatti Grand Sport , while when I asked to have a photo taken in it (just to give my husband apoplexy) I was told, no way. Please step away from the car. The $1.96 million dollar, 16-cylinder, 1001 horsepower (Jeeze Louise) auto was parked last evening in the pristinely beautiful garage of the new Cantoni show home at 5903 Lakehurst, another listing kudo for Briggs-Freeman, agent Linsey Barnes. Oh yes, I forgot: I write about homes and real estate; Kristiana, who is young, fun and beautiful, writes about fast cars.
At it’s Metropolitan Home sponsored debut party Thursday night, the new Cantoni house cradled these puppies as eye candy. There was the newest Bugatti and a few Bentleys ranging in price from $135,000 (the cheapest) to $1.1 million, I think, my head was swimming once I saw a car priced for more than a million dollars. Good thing I toured the contemporary masterpiece the previous day; the 7500 square foot home was bursting at the seams and loaded with every design/architectural Who’s Who in Dallas, from the 22 foot long counter connecting the bar with the kitchen to the exterior pool-side linear fire pit. I could see why they wanted the cars there — the Cantoni homes’ garage is like a piece of art, with clean lines, porcelain tile floor, and sliding glass doors. Perfect showplace for designer cars. The idea, which is so smart, is that you arrive home every night in your garage, you see this room every day, sometimes more than you’d like. Why not make it attractive? Or enjoy the same foyer your guests enjoy — the house is designed so that you enter the front foyer from the garage and walk into the most beautiful formal rooms first thing. The view from the garage is spectacular.
The home, which was conceived, drawn and designed right at Cantoni on Alpha Road, utilized all the Cantoni Design Studio resources, taking into consideration a total design plan for the interiors. This approach is unique in the Dallas area, and Cantoni, now in the building biz, aims to change the way contemporary homes are built and purchased in this market.
The Cantoni house has a name –Axis. It is derived from the whole experience of walking through the house around an “axis”. Enter through the large steel pivot front door and your view is first a dazzling outdoor sculpture. The architects wanted every axis in the home to end with a dramatic focal point — at times a sculpture, another time a fabulous tree, pool or the lush gardens.
You will be hearing a lot about this home over the next few months, as it marries Cantoni’s 25 years of great design with superb, sleek construction. How gutsy, I thought when I first stepped in, is it of a furniture and decor store to take on new construction (like now), but how smart are they to capitalize on their brand from not just furniture but to cabinets and drawers. Oh — go up and see the media room, most beautiful I have seen in ages. A second Cantoni home in the Uptown area is already underway — I can hardly wait!
Awards | Archives | Reprints | Custom Publishing | Jobs | Advertiser's Index
I saw the Cantoni Axis House yesterday and was underwhelmed. Not. That. Impressed.
I thought the “axis” design and concept was pretty interesting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very modern and sleek pad (would be fabulous for throwing parties), just not mind-blowing, and it is overpriced at $3.9 million. ALso, I can’t help not to mention the flooring throughout the majority of the house. While Cantoni claims it is textured ceeramic tile, the plastic, resin like feel and sound is odd. I overheard a couple mention that if they “didn’t know any better, it seems like something you’d find in Ikea”. Ouch.
Cantoni is focusing so much on the concept of how the Axis House is designed for “artful living”, how this house, unlike most, was “built taking into consideration the design plan for the interiors of the home”. However, the mention of ammenties and construction that went into this home is grossly lacking. These are some of the things serious potential buyers want to know about. Were there not any green features incoroprated into this home? If so, there isn’t any mention of it. That I feel in this day and age, is something that should be taken into “consideration”.
While the furnishings do really help create an ambiance and work to help reinforce the Cantoni brand (all the furnishings btw, can be purchased separately in conjunction with the artwork and electronics for an additional $300k) that would not be the selling factor for most for this home. What would bother me is the unknown future of the older, traditional house next door. Most likely it will eventually be bought and scraped. I would be wary of spending this much on a home with no idea of what will be built next to it in the future.
A truly fantastic house will sell itself – it doesn’t need any gimicks to help create a buzz. It is any coinidence that the entire first paragraph of your article is devoted to the Bugatti that was on display for the opening reception? I think not.
Oh, and as far as this listing being a kudo for Linsey Barnes – that’s an easy one. Linsey is Pogir’s wife. Pogir being not only one of Cantoni’s top design consultants, but also the owner Michael Wilkov’s cousin.
Linsey’s only listings that she ever sold were 2 homes in Valley Ranch around $300k ea. in 2006. She is not that experienced in the luxury housing market and just recently moved over to Briggs from Virginia Cook – not doubt thinking the BF clout will help in the marketing of this home.
I am very interested to see what this home eventually sells for and how long it sits on the market. Why in the world would Michael Wilkov already start another similar project? The smart thing would be to see how well this one does before attempting to duplicate it’s success (or lack of it, as I’m afraid it may turn out to be). I hope Michael doesn’t take a bath on this one….
I fully respect your opinions. The beauty of design is in its personal interpretation by the individual.
In regards to the “green” sustainable initiatives that were incorporated into the home design here is a quick list of the major elements we incorporated:
1) Habitat for Humanity was invited out to tour the existing home prior to demolition to take any elements they desired.
The A/C system was zoned to allow the occupants to turn down areas not in use for better efficiency.
2) We kept all the large old growth trees on the site and utilized their locations for shading the home by designing around them. The large tree in the front courtyard shades the large southern exposed window, the others help shade the Eastern exposure and second story balcony.
3) Initial sun studies massing on the site reinforced the long axis design on the site. This format minimized southern exposures and maximized the eastern sun for daylighting. The home requires little to no artificial lighting in the daytime.
4) All glazing on the project is a full 1″ IGU system with 1/4″ Low-E glass.
5) The exterior walls are all 6″ studs allowing for a R-22 value to further minimize heat gain.
5) The flat roof utilizes a low albedo roofing system and the low pitch minimizes solar heat gain.
6) As much as possible we used regionally harvested and extracted materials to minimize transportation costs.
7) The tile selection was twofold. Mainly the tile was selected for its inherent beauty, which was reinforced by the amount of people asking where they could purchase it, but it also was a better environmental choice. Porcelain tiles are not susceptible to the staining and wear issues of natural stone and the process of manufacturing them is far more environmentally friendly than raw stone extraction. Also, I could not find any tiles, let alone linen textured porcelain tiles, on Ikea’s site.
Our passion for good design is only eclipsed by our passion for sustainable design and this project was no exception.
Sincerely,
Ben Callison, LEED AP
Feel free to email me if you have any additional questions regarding the home, I would be glad to answer them:
bcallison@mohment.com
Think you for listing all of the above. I am so glad to know of all the green features and thoughtful choices that went into the designing and construction of this home. I truly hope this property is marketed better with more mention of these things. That to me, and I am willing to suspect many others, is a lot more important than the design plan of the interiors, which doesn’t even come with the house anyway.