World's Largest Single-Family Monster Home Built in India

From: http://www.treehugger.com/

 
Photo: Frédéric Soltan / Corbis (via Time)

Rising like an monument to immoderation, the world's biggest monster home has finally been completed in Mumbai, India. Built by the world's fourth richest man, Mukesh Ambani to the tune of $1 billion, the gargantuan 27-storey high-rise will be inhabited only by Ambani and his family -- in addition to a corporate facility. Nicknamed "Antilia" after a mythical island, TreeHugger Lloyd also called it one of the dumbest so-called 'green' buildings ever. No wonder too -- despite this behemoth boasting vertical gardens, according to Time the rest of the building is positively excessive:

The lavish building... is 173 meters high and has 37,000 square meters of floor space -- more than the Palace of Versailles. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one swimming pool, a ballroom, guestrooms, a variety of lounges and a 50-seater cinema. There are three helicopter pads on the roof and a car park for 160 vehicles on the ground floors. It's obviously quite a job keeping all this running smoothly, so the house, if you can call it that, also boasts a staff of 600. And all this for just Ambani, his wife and their three children to enjoy.

World's 20 Biggest Yachts

World's 20 Biggest Yachts

#1, Eclipse

Image: Getty Images

Some have missiles; some have swimming pools; some have 90-person staffs—all of these boats are enormous vessels of power, expense, and luxury.

The newest yacht in Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's fleet is the largest private yacht now in existence. It boasts a missile-detection system, a luxury spa, two helipads, a swimming pool, and a miniature submarine. It reportedly cost more than $400 million. To keep out the prying eyes of the paparazzi, the yacht has an electronic "shield" that can detect light sensors in digital cameras and make them unable to take photos.

Click here for the FULL GALLERY: World's 20 Biggest Yachts

The 16 Hottest Billionaire Daughters

by: joePA
from: http://www.brobible.com/

Just like banging a porn star and hooking up with a cougar housewife during a blackout bender in Vegas, dating the successor to a billion-dollar fortune should be pretty high on every Bro's bucket list. Just think, while your drinking buddies are slaving away in middle management waiting for happy hour, you can be spending your summer Fridays teeing up on a golf course her father owns or jetting off via Gulfstream to her family's bungalow in Saint Tropez. Unfortunately, there's more bros in the world than hot billionaire daughters, so the odds of shacking up with a 10-figure heiress are probably just as slim as being the coveted third notch in Meagan Fox's bedpost.

Billionaire daughters have a bad rap as high-maintenance trust fund babies and socialite ladies of pleasure. Also, let's not forget that wealth is not always synonymous with good genes. Not every tycoon and captain of industry in the exclusive billionaires' club has drop-dead gorgeous offspring. In order to help you navigate the tiny sea of billionaire darlings, we've compiled a 16-item guide to the hottest billionaire daughters in the world. What would it take to date one of these girls? Besides being a professional athlete or a Hollywood A-lister, the obvious answer is a parent or family member with a similar position on the Forbes list. Connections and opportunity are everything when it comes to bringing a date home to a daddy who's in the upper stratosphere of world wealth. Most of the selections are industrious and individuals who work hard to fill the giant shoes of their family's business legacy and financial accomplishments. Of course, others are simply hard-partying runway models. Enjoy the hotties after the jump.

Marta Ortega Pérez

Age: 26

Billionaire Father: Amancio Ortega Gaona

Family Fortune: $25 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #9

Three years ago Amancio Ortega Gaona's youngest daughter, Marta Perez, began her quest to inherit her father's Inditex fashion retail empire with a no-frills job stocking shelves and dealing with customers service at a Bershka fashion store. Inditex now boasts some 4,500 stores in 73 countries, including chichi designer brands such as Bershka, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti, and the massive Zara chain. The daughter of Spain's richest man is reported to be an avid equestrian and still single, so a little horse whispering might be the quickest way to winning the heart of this billionaire heiresses.

Ivanka Trump

Age: 28

Billionaire Father: Donald Trump

Family Fortune: $2 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #488

If being an attention whore is a disease, it must run in the Trump family. The Donald's sexy Wharton-alum daughter has been adorning magazine covers since 1997 and an "Apprentice" boardroom fixture since 2006. The daughter to Donald's ex-wife Ivana, Ivanka was a runway model before entering the family business. In October 2009, Ivanka dashed the hopes of aspiring underlings everywhere by converting to Judaism and marrying real estate heir and media upstart Jared Kushner.

Anna Anisimova

Age: 23

Billionaire Father: Vasily Anisimov

Family Fortune: $1.6 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #616

In May 2005, a young Manhattan model became a nightlife party girl with a lot of buzz when New York magazine published a exclusive profile about her gallivanting. Widely recognized as "the Russian Paris Hilton," Anna Anisimova's enterprising Russian father amassed his billions by establishing a prosperous aluminum mining company after the Soviet Union collapsed. Now an NYU student, Anna's freewheelin' spending habits on premium real estate have raised the media's collective eye-brow. Her dad once fronted her $550,000 in cash for a summer rental in Southampton, New York. It's also been reported that she dipped into daddy's wallet for a $23 million West Village townhouse that she converted into condos and a $15 million crash pad in the Time Warner Center.

Paige Johnson

Age: 24

Billionaire Father: Robert Johnson

Family Fortune: $1 billion (2008)

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #1,062 (2008)

Robert Johnson, the visionary founder and CEO of BET, became the first African-American billionaire in 2001. One year later he started the Charlotte Bobcats NBA team, earning another page in the history books as the first African-American principle owner of a sports team. His daughter Paige, grew up in the Washington D.C. area and claims to be quite the horse enthusiast. In 2009, Forbes revoked her father's ticket to the billionaires club, reporting that Johnson's fortune shrunk by almost half. To make matters worse, last week the Daily Beast speculated that Johnson's recent sale of the Bobcats to Michael Jordan reflects his dire financial situation.

Charlotte Casiraghi

Age: 23

Billionaire Family: Grimaldi Family of Monaco

Family Fortune: $1 billion

A granddaughter to the late Grace Kelly and an eligible heir to the throne of Monaco, Charlotte Casiraghi is a 23-year-old editor-at-large for Above fashion magazine. Her inheritance isn't limited to her grandfather's royal fortune and her grandmother's good looks. At the age of 17, this elegant fashionsita was gifted a private island off the coast of Sardinia.

Amanda Hearst

Age: 26

Billionaire Family: The Hearst family

Family Fortune: $1.5 billion

The great granddaughter of one of America's first media moguls, William Randolph Hearst, is a smoking'-hot model who graduated from Fordham.

Holly Branson

Age: 28

Billionaire Father: Richard Branson

Family Fortune: $4 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #212

Rather than milking her father's fortune from the Virgin empire, Richard Branson's bombshell daughter briefly decided to pursue a pediatric medical degree at University College in London. After smelling the roses that her father is one of the coolest billionaires in the world, Holly left her medical ambitions to intern at Virgin and begin the climb up the company ladder. Although she's still single, there's been tabloid speculation that she might be a suitor to Prince William.

Tamara Ecclestone

Age: 25

Billionaire Father: Bernard Ecclestone

Family Fortune: $4 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #212

Tamara Ecclestone's father, Bernard, has managed to capitalize on the explosion of interest in F-1 racing around the world, tying him with Richard Branson at the #212 spot on the 2010 Forbes list. Tamara works as a racing television host in Britain and her Croatian mother is a former Armani model.

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Dylan Lauren

Age: 36

Billionaire Father: Ralph Lauren

Family Fortune: $4.6 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #173

Ralph Lauren's Polo empire began in a working-class neighborhood in the Bronx and blossomed into the most iconic American fashion success story. Ralph's oldest daughter Dylan is the brainchild behind Dylan's Candy Bar, a boutique candy store with locations in New York, Houston, and Orlando. At 36 years old, she's definitely moving into cougar territory, but still brings fiery good looks. It's an obvious sign she's not overindulging on the sweets.

Ariana Rockefeller

Age: 27/28

Billionaire Grandfather: David Rockerfeller Sr.

Family Fortune: $2.2 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #47 Ariana's last name is Rockefeller -- as in John Rockerfeller -- which tells us she's a future heiress of a family that built it's fortune on Texas gold. Her father, David Rockerfeller Jr., manages the an estimated three billion in assets through Rockefeller Financial Services, which holds court in the family's namesake midtown Manhattan plaza.

Josie Ho Chiu Yi

Age: 35

Billionaire Father: Stanley Ho

Family Fortune: $2 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #488

Stanley Ho is a self-made Hong Kong-based developer who built his fortune by investing in casino and gambling operations in Macau. Two years ago the New York Times called his 35-year-old daughter Josie Ho one of the "most recognized faces in Chinese entertainment," even though her movies and television shows are barley a blip on the radar in the United States.

Georgina Bloomberg

Age: 27

Billionaire Father: Michael Bloomberg

Family Fortune: $18 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #23

Georgina Bloomberg, the daughter to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is both an accomplished equestrian and New York Knicks fan, where she's frequently spotted with her billionaire father. In November, Georgina dished to Page Six magazine about choosing an equestrian career over college and her father's meteoric rise on the billionaire list. Most recently Georgina landed a sports modeling deal.

Hind Hariri

Age: 26

Billionaire Father: Rafik Hariri

Family Fortune: $1.1 billion (2008)

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #1014 (2008)

When billionaire Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005, his youngest daughter inherited an estimated $1.1 billion from her father's oil exploration and contracting fortune. Before getting married, Hind was a fixture on the Parisian fashion scene.

Samantha Perelman

Age: 19 or 20? (born in 1990)

Billionaire Father: Ron Pearlman

Family Fortune: $11 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #52

The daughter of billionaire Cigar Aficionado investor and leveraged-buyout king Ron Pearlman attended the University of Pennsylvania, where the Pearlman family name adorns a campus quad. While billionaire heiresses don't tend to share their thoughts online, she's one of the few on this list besides Paris Hilton that you can follow on Twitter.

Paris and Nikki Hilton

Age: 29

Billionaire Grandfather: William Hilton

Family Fortune: $2.5 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #374

You didn't think we'd snub the hottest mess in Hollywood from a list of billionaire daughters, did you? Unflattering words such as "cretin," "good for nothing," and "dunderhead" are often associated with the "One Night In Paris" co-star and her socialite younger sister. Fortunately, her grandfather William Hilton -- the head of Hilton Hotels and son of the company's founder, Conrad Hilton -- has pledged most of the Hilton Hotel fortune to charity, so it's doubtful we'll ever see this amateur porn star and her tabloid fixture sis join ranks with the other billionaire daughters on this list.

Kathrine and Cecilie Fredriksen

Age: 25

Billionaire Father: John Fredriksen

Family Fortune: $7.7 billion

Position on 2010 Forbes Billionaire List: #88

Norwegian-born shipping magnate John Fredriksen has been called "a modern day Onassis." The shipping tycoon has amassed an impressive fortune by building oil tankers and drilling equipment for maritime oil exploration. His 25-year old twin daughters are Scandinavian smoke shows who work in companies controlled by their billionaire dad.

Baccarat Meets Bomb-Proof Glass on the High Seas

A Russian billionaire's $300 million, Philippe Starck-designed yacht makes waves

By ROBERT FRANK

FROM: http://online.wsj.com/

Anja Wippich

The yacht's three pools include a high-powered jet pool for laps that can be switched from salt to fresh water.

BARBADOS—At the top of a spiral staircase lined with scalloped, silver-leaf walls (the banister cost $60,000) is a door accessible by a fingerprint security system. It opens to an all-white, 2,583-square-foot master suite wrapped in bomb-proof, 44-milimeter glass. There, a king-sized bed sits on a giant platter that rotates with the press of a silver button. Another set of buttons rotates the bed itself. The combination of the rotating bed and the rotating platter allows limitless angles for watching the sunset, sunrise or the 60-inch plasma TV, which retracts from the ceiling.

Designed by Philippe Starck, the "A" has quickly become the most loved and loathed ship on the sea. WSJ's Robert Frank takes an exclusive tour of Andrey Melnichenko's 394-foot mega-yacht.

And of course, everything's afloat.

In the battle among Russia's billionaires for yacht supremacy, Roman Abramovich's upcoming 540-foot Eclipse may soon become the biggest, but Andrey Melnichenko's 394-foot "A" has become the most talked-about yacht on the seas.

With its radical shape—more sleek submarine than boxy pleasure boat—and reams of custom parts and finishes (including bath knobs costing $40,000 apiece), "A" is a conspicuous marker of an ocean-going plutocracy that's largely been untouched by the recession. The boat, designed by Philippe Starck and completed in mid-2008 for more than $300 million, has spawned a flotilla of copycats emulating its low-slung hull and design scheme. Numerous companies involved in its construction went bankrupt, done in by the novelty of the project and the level of customization required.

For all its fame, "A" remains a bit mysterious. Its owner, a 38-year-old banking, steel and fertilizer czar, is intensely private and requires all his construction crew and staff to sign strict confidentiality agreements (he declined comment for this article). He and his wife only rarely entertain on board, and few public images of the boat's interior exist.

Dirk Kloosterman, "A"'s project manager and a veteran of the world's largest yachts, recently provided an exclusive tour of the boat's 23,600 square feet of living space.

The boat's interior departs dramatically from most conventions of yacht design. Instead of the usual overstuffed couches and mahogany walls, there are Baccarat-crystal tables, shiny white finishes and polished silver, a kind of Manhattan-loft-meets-Vegas aesthetic. Many of the rooms have floor-to-ceiling mirrors, which Mr. Starck says have a built-in "mathematical beauty" that also refer to the "mathematical genius" of Mr. Melnichenko.

Inside 'A'

View Slideshow

Anja Wippich

Deck Relaxation Area

World's Largest Yachts

View Slideshow

AFP/Getty Images

A look at some of the world's largest and most ostentatious yachts.

The walls of one room are covered in white sting-ray hides, while another is covered in hand-stitched calf's leather. The main deck features two Michel Haillard chairs made from alligator hides and Kudo horns. Known for his mischievous streak, Mr. Starck outfitted "A" with risqué touches like the suite dubbed the "nookie room" by the crew, with its white circular bed with padded walls and a ceiling-mounted TV.

Mr. Starck says that while most megayachts are "vulgar" statements of wealth and power, "A" was designed to be in harmony with the sea and nature. "This boat has elegance and intelligence, it is not trying to show the money," he adds.

As with many Russian-owned yachts, "A" is highly secure. Its rounded exterior and knife-like hull make it difficult for intruders to board. It has 44 security cameras and more than a dozen exterior cameras fitted with motion-detection systems and a night-vision infrared system.

It is also designed to outrun threats: Twin, high-speed diesel engines deliver 24,000 horsepower and push the 5,959-gross-ton ship to 24 knots, roughly a third faster than most boats its size. The boat, which is stabilized by fiber-optic gyroscopes and four giant motorized flaps, is rumored to also be equipped with a pod-like escape system, but the staff declined to comment.

A transom door in the rear of the boat, which swings with open to become a swim deck, is fitted with so many hydraulics, locking pins, rotating stairs and electronics that it cost around $25 million to build. The company that made it eventually went bankrupt, along with the company that made the bomb-proof wrap-around glass encasing the master suite and the company that built the hydraulic gangways. The ship's two main landing boats are mini-yachts themselves, stretching to 36 feet, boasting plush interiors and costing more than $1 million each.

There's little sign that the billionaire boat boom is ending. The recession has certainly hit the "middle-class" yacht market, as banks cut back on boat loans and mere millionaires struggle to rebuild their fortunes. Orders for boats of more than 80 feet fell to 753 last year from 992 in 2008, according to Showboats International magazine. Yet orders for superyachts, or those more than 250 feet, were actually up more than 20% in 2009, according to Showboats.

View Full Image

Guillaume Plisson

'A' has an unusual, swoopy design, a low-slung hull and twin engines that deliver 24,000 horsepower.

"A" has a crew of between 35 to 37 people, including stewards and stewardesses, mechanical engineers, security staff, housekeepers, deck hands, galley crew and chefs. The crew also has specialists for surfing, jet skiing, water skiing and cycling. All of the crew wear Starck-designed uniforms—crisp white dress shirts and white pants for daytime, and tight, black T-shirts and slacks for evening. The boat costs over $20 million a year to maintain; Filling the gas tank costs more than $500,000.

There are many discussion groups and forums about "A" online, with titles like "The Ugliest Yacht in the World" and "Should Philippe Starck Design Boats?" Debates can get heated: On the "Insider's Guide to St. Bart's"—a Web site frequented by vacationers on the upscale Caribbean island—dozens of "A" spotters tracked the boat's daily movements.

"That's pretty Cool!," wrote one St. Bart's vacationer. "Finally a real designer yacht!".

Added another: "Who would call their Yacht 'The A'? Seems like you're setting yourself up big time." ("A" stands for both Andrey and Aleksandra, Mr. Melnichenko's Serbian-born supermodel wife).

Some yacht designers and brokers describe "A" as too futuristic and aggressive for the leisurely world of yachting. "Initially I was very skeptical," says Jonathan Beckett, chief executive of London-based Burgess, the yacht broker. "When you just see photos, it's a very strange-looking boat. But when I saw it cruising in the Caribbean this year, I have to say I was impressed. It's a very exciting boat to watch. It's simply unlike anything that's ever been done before."

Crew members often joke about the Melnichenkos' penchant for the spontaneous, with frequent changes in itinerary or travel. The boat doesn't spend much time in any one port, since Mr. Melnichenko prefers to roam the seas for weeks at a time. Last year he spent several months in the Mediterranean; this year he's mainly in the Caribbean.

"The fun thing about working on 'A' is you never know what the next hour will bring," says Mr. Kloosterman, "A's" project manager. "This boat is all about the unexpected."

Write to Robert Frank at robert.frank@wsj.com

A Look at America’s Billionaires

Stan Reybern
From http://www.billshrink.com/

America’s billionaires are an elite and diverse group of people who either through luck or hard work and strategy have managed to build fortunes that most of us will only ever dream of having. Have a look at how these individuals propelled themselves into the world of the ultra-wealthy and fantasize about what you’d do if you had billions to play with.

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Russian Billionaire Installs Anti-Photo Shield on Giant Yacht

• By Charlie Sorrel

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built in to his latest oversized yacht. The 557-foot boat Eclipse, the price tag of which has almost doubled since original plans were drawn to almost $1.2 billion, set sail this week with a slew of show-off features, from two helipads, two swimming pools and six-foot movie screens in all guest cabins, to a mini-submarine and missile-proof windows to combat piracy.

It might not seem like somebody with such ostentatious tastes would crave privacy, but along with these expensive toys, Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi “shield”. Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt of light right at the camera to obliterate any photograph. According to the Times, these don’t run all the time, so friends and guests should still be able to grab snaps. Instead, they will be activated when guards spot the scourge of professional photography, paparazzi, loitering nearby.

We dig it, although the British courts might not be so pleased. UK photo magazine Amateur Photographer asked a London lawyer about the legalities of destroying photos from afar. Here’s what he said: “intermeddling with goods belonging to someone else, or altering their condition, is a trespass to goods and will entitle the photographer to claim compensation without having to prove loss.”

Any sentence containing the word “intermeddling” is of course wonderful. The lawyer spoils it somewhat by (inevitably) mentioning James Bond and mixing up lasers with laser guns: “I would also be worried that lasers cause collateral damage, both to the camera and/or the claimant’s health.”

Roman Abramovich zaps snappers with laser shield [Times]

Celebrity Photographer ‘Laser Shield’ - Is It Legal? [Amateur Photographer]

Top photo: An older ship owned by Abramovich’s, Pelorus, which is only 377 feet long and lacks anti-CCD lasers. Photo credit: Alexander Andreev/Flickr

Homes Of The Billionaires

Where the world's richest head at the end of the day... In today's tough economic climate, Warren Buffett is setting a good example. The world's second richest man lives in the same five-bedroom, gray stucco house he bought in 1958 for $31,500.

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