Even in these inflationary times, it’s rare to hear of a $100 million Tahoe vacation home described as a “bargain,” even if it does come furnished. But this is no ordinary property.
Tranquility, the 210-acre estate of Tommy Hilfiger co-founder Joel Horowitz and his wife, Ann, located near Zephyr Cove, is extraordinary. It’s both a showcase for their international collection of art and a showcase in itself.
The view of the lake and Mt. Tallac from the 20,000-square-foot main house’s kitchen/ breakfast room and the master bedroom above is spectacular. Behind the main house and the pristine white conservatory with a retractable glass roof is the estate’s equally inviting five-acre lake, ringed by granite outcroppings and aspen groves.
Custom copper filigrees adorn the cupolas. At next glance, you’ll find old growth cedar shingles on the main house’s second floor façade and Montana moss rock on the lower level. Marble floors are patterned after the design in the New York Public Library. A cigar lounge reminiscent of the St. Regis Hotel is situated across a sparkling white sitting area, framed with an Old World Delph tile mural. Both are within a few steps of an elegant main staircase replicating that of the S.S. Titanic – down to the domed skylight and chandelier overhead.
Tranquility comprises eight buildings in total. In addition to the main house, there’s a guesthouse, a stable and an indoor basketball court with three NBA backboards, an electronic scoreboard and uniforms for two teams. The double Dutch doors of the art house perfectly frame the boathouse across Tranquility’s lake and Mt. Tallac beyond the water.
There are 11 fireplaces, a 19-seat movie theater, a 3,200-bottle wine cellar, nine bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, five half-bathrooms, 16 garages and a couple of par-three golf holes requiring a shot across a corner of Tranquility’s lake.
The 300-year-old St. Fargeau plank flooring in the dining room originates from a French manor and was installed by French artisans. Directly above, Ann commissioned a ceiling mural depicting plants and animals of Tahoe.
Horowitz purchased the undeveloped property in 1996 for $4.5 million. The guesthouse was constructed first. The main house was completed in 2000, built in 30 months by Reno-based Q&D Construction.
When it went on the market last summer, Tranquility was one of the country’s most expensive home listings, topped only by Donald Trump’s $125 million Palm Beach property and Saudi Prince Bandar’s $135 million estate in Aspen.
Simply cataloguing Tranquility’s price and amenities doesn’t begin to describe the spirit and majesty of the property. “Mother Nature has really blessed Lake Tahoe, but I think it sprinkled a little bit of extra magic for Tranquility,” says Shari Chase, whose firm, Chase International, lists Tranquility.
Despite its size and opulence, Tranquility is no generic McMansion. This feels like a family vacation home. It’s swanky, for sure, but without the stuffiness of a museum. Part of the warmth comes from the exterior design’s mix of stone and shingle, a pastiche of European country estate and Old Tahoe.
As Tranquility’s architect, Jeff Lundahl says, the goal was a marriage of Old Tahoe and European craftsmanship. Tranquility was designed to look like the buildings had been there for a century. “To design a house of this magnitude, this square footage, one of the challenges was to make the spaces not only flow from one to another and be integrated in terms of design, but also to have a scale where they were intimate and not overwhelming in size,” Lundahl says.
Tranquility’s Great Room features seven-foot-tall mantel pieces showcasing two portraits from the Castello di Uzzaro near Florence. These aren’t overwhelming in a room with a 30-foot-ceiling, and seem perfectly at home with the lattice of rough-hewn beams overhead.
The old saw is that the “devil is in the details.” At Tranquility, the details are actually the delight. “Every time I come into one of the rooms I see something new,” says Sue Lowe, a Chase vice president. “Theamount of detail in some of these rugs alone makes them absolute pieces of art. The house really is a work of art itself.”
A handsome frieze faces across the back courtyard to a man-made waterfall. Kitty-corner from the Delph lounge, on the other side of the home’s L-shaped bar – a bar bigger than many kitchens – is the billiard room. Dark wood walls and an antique fireplace, a piece of which is being restored by Ann in her art studio, are almost eclipsed by the room’s two massive green tiffany lamps above the pool table, suspended from the second floor ceiling.
So arresting are the big lamps that initially the six smaller ones on either side might go unnoticed, as might the line of coat-of-arms tiles running along the top of the walls. Ann picked out every light, calling them, “the jewels of the house.” From the square, Moorish-influencedoutdoor lights under the master suite’s balcony to the Great Room’s chandeliers, her eye is meticulous. For a conservatory with a retractable glass roof, Ann chose pinkish turnip-shaped lights with a psychedelic swirl of Murano glass.
Two of the more remarkable views are either looking up the center of the home’s nautilus-like spiral staircase, which leads to the library and the movie theater, or looking down its curves to the lower level where the tunnel that connects the main house to the conservatory is located.
Seeking the wine cellar? It’s easy to find. In the observatory, which features a splashing fountain in its center, there is a bronze relief door formerly in the collection of William Randolph Hearst. At the door’s center is a bust of Dionysius, the Greek god of wine. Clusters of grapes abound. At the door’s edges, satyrs play lutes.
The Horowitz’s are not without a sense of whimsy. Behind the plush reclining chairs of the theater and above the projection area is a balcony occupied by two nearly life-size, locally carved, matronly marionettes, dressed to the nines. Perhaps they know a bargain when they see one!
