Finest Estate Home, Crespi Hicks Estate - YouTube

My favorite home is in Mayflower Estates. A small neighborhood of lakes and creeks

and 75 architect-designed homes of the most important business titans and civic leaders including President and Mrs. Bush.

Every time I visit this home, I enter through the gates and I am filled with anticipation

as I wind down the private drive, see the home peek over the horizon,

and then watch it disappear beyond the hill as one drives by the pond

and then this majestic home...

...reveals itself.

The Crespi Hicks Estate is on 25 acres, which is the largest estate property anywhere in the country,

only five minutes from a major downtown arts district and commercial center.

It was designed by Maurice Fatio. He was a Swiss-born architect who was voted the most popular architect in New York in the 1920's

and he was the most prominent architect in Palm Beach in the 1930's.

And here, in 1939, he designed his triumphant project, The Crespi Estate.

The genius of Swiss-born architect, Maruice Fatio is he first found the perfect land, 25 acres,

and then he placed the home at the bottom of the hill in front of a creek.

You see, he articulated in hand-carved stone and he framed the home with an alley of magnolias.

Here you have a home that is powerful, subtle, elegant, and certainly the best Estate Home in America.

Maurice Fatio is best known for his perfect proportions. He is also known for his exquisite sense of detail.

He brought in Italian stone cutters, he used Indiana limestone. In fact, the renovation architect, Peter Marino,

went back to the exact same spot at the same quarry in Indiana to find limestone that perfectly matched.

I'm always amazed how difficult it is to tell where the original structure ends and the expansion begins.

This home was renovated, expanded, and the original design completed under the architectural direction and design of architect Peter Marino.

By creating three separate structures, a guest house, a pool house, a main house linked by formal gardens

and uniform architecture, you have an immense estate home. But instead of castle-like and dark, it's almost modern

with every room having three walls of windows allowing sunlight and glorious views.

You're looking out the terrace and you're linked by the gardens to the guest house and through a gate to the pool house.

Each structure has a specific use, and yet, it's tied together aesthetically with the same design and architecture.

A great estate property, like the Crespi Hicks Estate, is large enough to accomodate athletic fields,

tennis courts, a country club-sized swimming pool and still has room for a serene retreat to a flowering garden.

Another thing I love about this property is you have the refined, rolling meadows in front of the home

and then, when you get to the back of the home, you have this rugged terrain and spring-fed creeks

with a series of bridges that lead you across into dense wooded forests with paths where you can explore the ravines and the gullies and the full depth of the property.

It is always fun to be able to be in the middle of the city and immerse yourself in nature as you walk along hidden paths, secluded paths, paths that feel undiscovered

and you come across a clearing and are able to see the back of the house, seasonal flowers, wild life, hear the songs of birds

and enjoy the contrast with the frenetic life of a city.

Both architects drew from artisans from many countries, materials, and design from many centuries.

The result is awe-inspiring architecture that defines the finest estate home in America.