Exclusive: The Plans For Steve Jobs New House [Exclusive]

You knew Steve Jobs was tearing down his old mansion . You didn’t know what he was building as a replacement. Earlier.

After nearly a six years of detailed cost comparisons, environmental impact surveys, court appeals, and unrelenting legal kung fu with state and local preservationists , it seems that the 1920s Woodside mansion Jobs bought in 1984 will finally have its date with the bulldozers .

In its place, the Apple CEO plans to erect a today’s $8.45 million single family home. And what might a man who’s described design as ” the elemental soul of a human-made creation” do when given the likelihood to build a new residence? Exactly what you’d expect…and also sort of not.

But first, some history. The house that currently occupies Steve’s lot, the ( now dilapidated ) Spanish Colonial Revival home designed for copper baron Daniel Jackling, contains 30 rooms, 14 bedrooms and 13 1/2 bathrooms. Jobs initially purchased the mansion back in 1984, lived in it for approximately 10 years, and then intermittently rented it out. It’s been vacant for just about a decade. Back in 2004, the Woodside Town Council first approved Jobs’ application for a demolition permit, but agreed with the preservationist group Save Our Heritage that the building was a historic resource. What’s followed has been a fierce legal battle between an unsentimental future-oriented tech CEO and a bunch focused only on the past. It hasn’t been pretty.

As for Jobs’ new home? It couldn’t be more different than the Jackling estate. Measuring in at about one third the scale (4,910 square feet) of the prevailing main property, Jobs’ future residence is the ne plus ultra of utilitarian modesty-even while you remove the billionaire standards.

If anything, the conceptual plans submitted to the Woodside Town Council depict more of a small, private retreat than any towering glass-and-steel tech chapel or totem of wealth. In step with these initial designs, Jobs intends to populate the 6 acres with an assortment of indigenous flora; a straightforward three-car garage; a modest 5 bedroom home with loads of windows and decks; a network of lighted stone walkways; and even a personal vegetable garden. Everything is neat, tight, pragmatic, and as a substitute.

While the pared down modernist home will occupy a similar basic location as the existing George Washington Smith-built manse , nothing will remain of the estate’s former grandiosity. In lieu of the 8 bedroom/9.5 bathroom main residence, Jobs has opted instead for an unassuming living/working space that’s half the scale. No chauffeur’s cottage, no cook’s cottage, and no tennis courts. In truth, in comparison something like Larry Ellison’s $70 million feudal Japan themed estate located right up the road, Jobs’ new digs seem downright monkish-if not Buffettian.

” The positioning plan definitely shows unnatural restraint for somebody of wealth,” notes Christopher Travis, both a managing partner of Austin-based Sentient Architecture and the founder of a start-up that’s developing software to predict how people respond to the built environments around them.

” This sort of thing only happens when the customer gives the architect specific instructions to be sparse and utilitarian,” Travis adds. ” The natural tendency is to move ‘McMansion.’ I might say this plan is a right away result of a selected requirement by Jobs to make it plain and simple…It’s almost Zen, with a vaguely oriental simplicity to it.”

That strict adherence to simplicity becomes less surprising if you discover the origin of the plans: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson , an analogous architectural firm liable for some of Apple’s most iconic stores , was also tapped to work their magic for Jobs’ new property.

While initially submitted as component of a legal agreement to quantify the monetary difference between restoring the Jackling estate and razing it to build the recent house ($8.5 million vs $13.75, respectively), these rough plans still offer some insight into both the cultured tastes and personality of Apple’s leader. Homes are, in the end, some of the intensely personal things someone can own-especially in case you have extra money than God to design one.

We showed them to Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist who consults with homeowners and businesses to incorporate psychological considerations into the building process.

” Based on these…I would say Steve Jobs and his family are quite comfortable in their own skins and not out to prove anything to anyone,” she said. ” They’ve assessed what they wish in a home, and should have it built.”

In terms of its overall design, the recent home is dominated by rectilinear lines, indicative, Augustin says of a robust sense of control. She also notes there’s a nearly preternatural assessment of what is needed and what isn’t.

” The careful assessment of needs is obvious inside the bedroom wing with the shared bathroom – the only with two toilet/WC rooms,” says Augustin. ” This design may be very efficient and less expensive than bathrooms for each bedroom.”

Efficient with economical with space? An unflinching devotion to practicality? The distinct lack of garish bells and whistles? Sound familiar? In an age where architect and design firms are just commencing to apply to Apple’s design principles to the building of homes, Steve Jobs has gone and designed the iPhone of houses.

Travis agrees. Among other insights gleaned from these preliminary plans, he notes that the home was clearly built for a man (there’s a special lack of a lady’s touch here) who likes privacy, a natural setting, and working. Especially working.

” This is functional, not likely designed for entertaining, but a home/work environment,” Travis says. ” This guy likes his work.” The low profile of the home besides the best way the grounds are laid out also speaks of someone who doesn’t want or need attention.

” It truly is not Patton charging through Europe. That’s an try to be gentle in an existing environment. This guy would wish them to knock down that house CAREFULLY. My guess is this can be a person whose life if very internal. He would not want what is happening outside to interfere with what is happening inside.”

Estimates concerning the razing and building of the recent home put the complete construction time around 22 months. And while it’s unclear how much of these plans will eventually be implemented, Jobs is predicted to release another detailed plan to the city well before things get started.

One thing is nearly certain, though: Steve won’t be buying another old mansion anytime soon.

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This post is tagged: conceptual plans, daniel jackling, environmental impact, preservationists, private retreat, spanish colonial revival