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An Insult to Steve Jobs' Taste
Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion

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RollsRoyceRevenge
07/15/09

In reply to An Insult to Steve Jobs' Taste
Trivia alert: George Washington Smith was one of the nation's first African American architects and one of the most talented designers of the Mission-inspired Hollywood style during the 1920s through the early 1950s. If I am correct, the Beverly Hills Hotel is the best known of his designs.

I could see uber-nerd Jobs wanting something a little less, um, superglamorous, but Smith's work is of national significance and should be accorded at least the degree of "protection" described here.
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Edited by RollsRoyceRevenge at 07/15/09 2:34 PM RollsRoyceRevenge was starred

Lizawithazee
07/15/09

In reply to An Insult to Steve Jobs' Taste
There is something weird about buying (and then keeping for years) a house you hate. Maybe there's buried treasure on the lot.
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unclevanya
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
Smear smear smear. Rinse, repeat.

Looking at the house, I'd say that even if it weren't in disrepair, I'd have an argument against the Heritage Blahblah people in terms of its significance. It give s me a cold feeling too.

Yeah, he should have sold it a long time ago, but if he loves the land but hates the house, and there was no provision in his original contract about preservation, then tough noogies.

If this is all you have on him at the moment, I'll sleep tonight.
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Moonshine Mike
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
Do what everyone else does and BUY THE PLANNING COMMISSION. C'mon, it's worked for people for decades, why stop now? Steve can afford the local vig the Doris the zoning matriarch.
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iplaudius
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
Very few homes in California should be protected for "historical preservation." I’d venture to guess that nothing in Woodside warrants that distinction. This is not so much evidence of Jobs’s intransigence as it is of the locals’ pretentiousness.
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Astigmatism
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
Anyone who has ever dealt with a planning board (outside of NYC, where the LPC appears to have been staffed with slinkies made of Jello) knows that they're staffed by an equal mixture of one part bored-old-coot, one part contractor-who-will-vote-for-you-if-you-use-his-company, and one part overgrown student council secretary, none of whom have a clue about architecture ("This looks pretty modern; I think a colonial would be more in keeping with the neighborhood" ad infinitum), and all of whom are drunk on the immense power they wield over their neighbors' building projects.

What do we know about this project? Not much from the above, but we know that (i) it's not someone putting up a McMansion on a postage stamp they just bought, and (ii) it's pretty unlikely the house has any historical value because, let's face it, it's Woodside. Not to mention that this is the same area that Larry Ellison has dotted with mock shogun castles. So it's none of the commission's damn business, and it's certainly none of our damn business. Let the man build the house he wants on the land he owns, already.
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CaptainFantastic
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
No! Not Memphis! [gawker.com]
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FormerEnglishMajor
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
When you tear down a house to put up a new one, you end up carving out a big basement (environment) to support something ginormous to justify the cost of the land/house you just purchased.

Go walk around the nouveau riche areas of suburban NYC - Westchester and Fairfield Counties, commutable NJ - and see what "hey, just let 'em build what they want" gets you: mile after mile of stone-in-front, clapboard-on-the-sides 7,000+ square foot mansions with enormous cellars that cause flooding for the neighbors' property, stick out like sore thumbs, and are unsellable to anyone.
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Baroness
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
Those NeXT employees (and Jobs) look really foolish sitting there on mulch. Dirty hippies. Daresay they're all high as kites. No wonder I lost a bundle on NeXT when I was a naive ten-year-old investor.
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bkdlays
04/27/09

In reply to Steve Jobs and the Abandoned Mansion
Hmm lets see.. its his house.. its old... he OWNS it... so who cares?

Besides being old did something historical happen there? I for one am not a fan on anyone telling me what to do (within reason) with my property.

Personally if this was my house I wouldn't be surprised if the old wiring caught fire to the house and it had to be demolished!
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Nic Fit
04/27/09

@bkdlays: How many Libertarians does it take to screw in a light bulb?

I don't know, but it's certainly not the government's responsibility.
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