Height 20 m | Function Mansion | |
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Similar Palace of Versailles, Updown Court, Nemours Mansion and Gard, The Manor, Château de Marly | ||
Versailles is a 90,000 square-foot house belonging to Westgate Resorts founder David Siegel and his wife Jackie Siegel — and under construction at 6121 Kirkstone Lane, Windermere, Florida, in the gated community of Lake Butler Sound in Orange County. USA. Named and modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France, the completed project will be one of the largest single-family homes in the United States.
Contents
Construction began in 2004 and stalled in 2009 when 60% completed as Siegel's company encountered financial difficulties. The house was susbsequently listed for sale at $65 million.
With Westgate Resorts' improved finances as of 2013, Siegel now owns the property outright and construction has resumed, with completion scheduled for 2016. Expected to appraise at over $100 million, the project will be the fourth most expensive house in the United States.
Designed as the primary residence of the Siegels and their children, the home and its owners were the subject of the 2012 documentary film The Queen of Versailles as well as an episode of CNBC's Secret Lives of the Super Rich.
Design
Constructed on a man-made hill on 10 acres of lakefront property, the residence will include 11 kitchens, 14 bedrooms, 32 bathrooms, a 30-car garage, a two-lane bowling alley, an indoor roller rink, three indoor pools, two outdoor pools, a video arcade, a ballroom with a 500 to a 1,000 person capacity, a two-story movie theater with a balcony inspired by the Paris Opera House, a fitness center with a 10,000 square-foot spa, yoga studios, a 20,000-bottle wine cellar, an exotic-fish aquarium, two tennis courts, a baseball diamond, a formal outdoor garden, and an elevator in the master bedroom closet. Because the Siegels' children were older, modifications to the original plans included turning playrooms into a yoga studio and a teenager’s cave with a second movie theater.
Doors and windows are constructed using some of the last remaining Brazilian mahogany, at a cost of $4 million. Exterior walls are precast concrete with Pavonazzo marble veneer; the entryway will feature a 30-foot stained-glass domed oculus; and the residence will have ten staff quarters, each with a jacuzzi and a kitchen.
Criticism
Though not yet completed, the home has been called "gaudy" and "absurd". Matt Hickman, writing for the Mother Nature Network, called the mansion a "wretched excess". Alyssa Rosenberg of ThinkProgress called it "a monument to bad taste" and "a testament to waste".