Most expensive home ever built will overlook Mumbai slums, 27 floors for family of six

[Liberal_in_LA]

Mumbai billionaire's home boasts 27 floors, ocean and slum views

Mukesh Ambani is at the top of the growing list of billionaires in India, where some are proud of his ostentatious house while others see it as shameful in a nation where many children go hungry.


Reporting from New Delhi — India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is having a little housewarming in Mumbai this week to show folks around. It could take awhile. The $1-billion home, seven years in the making, is 400,000 square feet on 27 floors, all for a family of six.

Don't worry about parking. The building, which looms over the city's skyline like a Lego set gone awry, boasts a 168-space lot. Or avoid Mumbai's nightmarish traffic altogether by landing on one of three helipads.

Need to cool off after the stressful drive? Of course there's a swimming pool and yoga studio. Or, by some accounts, an ice room to escape the Mumbai heat, infused with man-made snow flurries. Then there's the mini-theater, three balconies with terrace gardens, the health club, spectacular views of the Arabian Sea (and the Mumbai slums).

It's being billed as the most expensive home in history. Anywhere.

"It's a stupendous show of wealth," said Hamish McDonald, author of "Ambani & Sons: A History of the Business." "It's kind of positioning business tycoons as the new maharajah of India."

The muscular display comes as India boasts 69 billionaires — a near-tripling since 2008 — and the country's stock market is flirting with its pre-global-meltdown high. Recently, an Indian record was set when 148 Mercedes-Benzes were delivered to a midsize city near Mumbai … on a single day.



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-rich-20101025,0,1248685.story

[Crankie Avalon]

1. "Does it have a real second bedroom or is it only big enough to be an office or nursery?" nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. lol. And does it have granite countertops and stainless steel appliances?

[jmowreader]

17. The second bedroom is only big enough to be an office.

An office for a Fortune 100 corporation, that is.

[raccoon]

2. That's obscene. nt

[booksenkatz]

4. With isinglass curtains you can roll right down, in case there's a change in the weather! nt

[Dawson Leery]

16. LOL!

[flvegan]

5. Ah, but is it awash in rich, Corinthian leather?

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Note the big W built into it!

Maybe it's just me, but if I spent that much, I'd want it to look a little nicer than that.

Might be big, but it looks partially demolished.

[Greyhound]

7. My God! A monument to a total void of taste. n/t

:kick: & R

[aquart]

8. Not like they could think of anything else to do with the money.

[Lance_Boyle]

9. Towering Inferno in 3... 2... 1...

Clearly some people *do* deserve to burn alive in their 27-story obscenities.

[enlightenment]

10. Meanwhile, the homeless children begging in the streets

below will continue to starve; continue to die from drug abuse and STI's; continue to live what has become a generational pattern of existence on the margins.

There are, by most estimates, over 35,000 orphaned, runaway (many from abuse), or discarded (often because families can't afford them anymore) street kids in Mumbai - over 400,000 in Delhi. That's just two of the major urban areas.

And this ARSE has the gall to build his vertical palace over their heads. I rarely wish ill-luck on anyone, but I am tempted to do so in this case.

[LibertyLover]

11. Several months ago I read a magazine article on this obscenity

According to the article, it has several living rooms and dining rooms done in different styles. The article mentioned that there were rooms done in the traditional style, which I thought would be interesting. The photos of the "traditional" rooms showed them as being decorated in quasi-British Raj style with chintz and hunting prints rather than the somewhat uninspiring Euro-modern of the rest of the "house". Given the scope of the building, I confess that I was expecting the traditional rooms to be a bit more Bollywood.

[kestrel91316]

12. Proof that Americans don't have a monopoly on bad taste.

[MrScorpio]

13. Does it have an outdoor bathroom, so the owner can piss down on everybody? n/t

[Up Quark]

14. There is tacky, then gauche, next obscene, and then this...thing.

plonk

[Odin2005]

15. Obscene and disgusting!

:puke:

I hope the poor in Bombay burn that monstrosity down.

[lunatica]

18. Yeah but think of the jobs for the army of servants to maintain it!

:sarcasm: added because someone will think I'm serious.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Apologists in 3... 2... 1...

[Romulox]

20. That penis is withered and mis-shapen! The entire building looks like a Freudian slip! nt

[phasma ex machina]

35. An impotent (important) man by the looks of it. nt

[BrentWil]

21. It is amazing the wealth created in India

Over 300 million out of absolute property. That is more then the population of the United States.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. What's "absolute property"?

[BrentWil]

23. Here you go..

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Absolute_poverty

Absolute poverty is a level of poverty at which certain minimum standards of living -- for example for nutrition, health and shelter -- cannot be met. The people in this condition earn less than $1 per person. The term "Absolute poverty" is perhaps slightly misleading, since there is no "absolute" standard that defines absolute poverty: the level of income necessary for these minimum standards is often referred to as the poverty line, which various institutions and individuals define differently.

[joeybee12]

25. I think the question was because you mistyped poverty as property...n/t

[BrentWil]

26. Oh yeah...

I think it is to late to change it.

[Sal Minella]

36. Cue someone complaining about "spelling Nazis" and

"typo Nazis" making a fuss over nothing.

The line between coherent writing and incoherent writing grows ever fuzzier.

[readmoreoften]

34. And how many more put in "absolute property" around the world?

Get a clue. Neoliberal development has helped no one.

[Rex]

24. Sick, but predictable.

Someone had to do it! What an ugly ass building tho.

[quinnox]

27. I don't know which is worse

This billion dollar high rise for one family, or getting the entire lower teeth in your mouth replaced by diamonds re- Kanye West.



I hope he has good security, because this city is infamous for terror attacks, and this display of immense wealth seems like it would be a prime target for terrorists.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

30. You think so?

Were I a terrorist, this kind of building - something that a lot of people would not grieve to see destroyed - would be the last thing I would blow up.

[WinkyDink]

28. No Hell hot enough.

[thereismore]

29. "We're proud of our billionaires. They're our jewels." What a load of rightwing crap. nt

[geek tragedy]

31. He must have cheaped out on the architect, though.

What a hideous building--both morally and aesthetically.

[BreweryYardRat]

32. Reality emulates fiction.

There's a bit of Star Wars canon that says Darth Vader built a palace overlooking a planet's worst slum. Why? So he could enjoy the misery that the slum produced and use it to amplify his power over the dark side of the Force.

Never thought I'd actually see someone do something like that in real life. And since there's no Force in the real world, it looks like Mukesh Ambani is strictly motivated by enjoying the suffering of poor people.

[snagglepuss]

33. An eminent left-wing Indian journalist spoke about this in Toronto. Link to

speech below. Award-winning journalist, Palagummi Sainath spoke at York University about globalization and the creation of the uber-wealthy in India. From what I recall something like 2/3 of India's wealth is controlled by 56 families.

He is a wonderful speaker and very uplifting as he is so relentlessly dedicated to uncovering Indian corruption and improving the plight of India's powerless. The talk he gave is about 40 minutes. I can't recommend it highly enough.



http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bi?1273352400000

[Vehl]

37. Probably one of the most horrible designs ive seen

What were Others thinking? Is this a case similar to the emperors new clothes, where everyone kowtow's Ambani's taste just cos he likes it?

It looks god-awful!
Yet more proof that Money cannot buy taste, in most cases. Some of the Palaces of the Oil Sheiks also look damn ugly