Monday, December 27, 2010

The George W. Vanderbilt III Estate

The George Washington Vanderbilt III estate designed by Treanor & Fatio c. 1937 in Sands Point. George, a son of Alfred Gwynne and Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt, was a self-taught marine biologist and paleontologist and founder of the George Vanderbilt Foundation. George W. Vanderbilt III committed suicide in 1961 when he fell from his 10th floor suite in the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. Click HERE to see the G.W. Vanderbilt III estate on google earth and HERE on bing.



Pictures from the Library of Congress.

8 comments:

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Treanor & Fatio as in Maurice Fatio - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Fatio

Holiday photos featuring the LIGC mansions? Weren't these people around for the holidays? I was surprised are decorator brethren didn't have more dish on Rose Cummings and Otto Kahn. Any stories DED, AAL???

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Coincidently Fatio's equal in Palm Beach, Addison Mizner worked on this structure next door - http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.8642476&lon=-73.7224728&z=18&l=0&m=b&v=8&show=/4081476/Addison-Mizner-Designed-Tennis-House

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Off topic story thats in the news -

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&pwst=1&&sa=X&ei=lowYTaflMo6RnweN7YTrDQ&ved=0CBcQvwUoAQ&q=serengeti+road&spell=1

The road is meant for the easy transport of minerals used in everyones cell phones - through the great Serengeti - OUTRAGEOUS!

Anonymous said...

hello to all,
i am surprised that D.E.D. and H.P.H.S. have not weighed in on the complete banality of the surrounding expensive "modern" architecture that is clogging up the site lines, and the old grounds of this estate.
a shame that while in the presence of a great looking house some of that style could not have rubbed off on the neighbours. such is the world we live in, so little time so much junk.

The Down East Dilettante said...

D.E.D., although not at all the sort who imbibes too much, nevertheless went to seven parties in four days, and is a bit slow this morning...

So, about Rose Cumming I know a bit, and about Otto Kahn I know a bit more, but about the two of them in the bedroom, I know little. But I know who would know, and have an email out to him asking for more. And of course, in the meantime, AAL might show up..

I think this Vanderbilt place is way cool---Vogue Regency meets Art Moderne---as glamorous as a movie set, but I do confess in that low ceil'd room, I could do without being eye to eye with those innocent victims of slaughter by safari...

So, let's see: This George Vanderbilt would be the first cousin once removed of Anderson Cooper. We New Englanders are very good at sorting degrees of separation.

The Down East Dilettante said...

As to the clogged site lines, it's so sadly true that style does not rub off on those in proximity. In my misspent youth, Party Central for our crowd was a very similar house to this, pure International style, conveniently next door to the yacht club, built for an heiress to the Sage fortune in 1938, glamorously furnished with a mix of streamlined moderne and 18th century family heirlooms, with serious art (Miro, Klee, Picasso, Tanguy--who was her brother-in-law, Schwitters)...ah youth.

And the fate of this wonderful streamlined boxy house, with its metal casements and glass brick interior walls? When it was sold in the eighties (good-bye parties with the B-52's, good-bye misspent youth), the new owners immediately had an architect in to colonialize it in best Williamsburg style. Quoins were applied to the corners, a pineapple scroll pediment doorway to the front, and a hip roof replaced the flat. Coulda been in Scarsdale. And the point of this long reminiscence is that quality is certainly no assurance of preservation anywhere, as we know from daily reading here. There are always two impulses at work---people need to piss on their territory, and apparently the greater public has an infinite appetite for the mundane.

Anonymous said...

D.E.D.,
once again you have touched all the bases and highlighted that you can lead a designer/architect to greatness but not be sure that they will drink the water. keep up the effort on this and your blog,

Anonymous said...

I know the current owner. House is almost the same. The upstairs was redone. The dining room is the same and the living room. What an amazing house.