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The Spelling Manor
TexasAndroid (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: TexasAndroid.
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The Manor, also known as Spelling Manor, is a mansion on Mapleton Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, across the street from Holmby Park. Constructed in 1988 for television producer Aaron Spelling, it is the second largest house in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was subsequently owned by British heiress Petra Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One racing magnate Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone purchased the home in 2011 for $85 million after it had been on the market for two years with an asking price of $150 million, making it the most expensive residential real estate listing in the US at the time. In June 2019 it was sold for $119.7 million; the sale set a new record as the highest in California history.
The Manor is a 56,500-square-foot (5,250 m2) French chateau-style mansion with 123 rooms (including 27 bathrooms and 14 bedrooms) on five acres of land. Aaron Spelling, widely known as the television producer of series including Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed, built it as his private residence.
Designed by architects James Langenheim & Associates and built in 1988 at a cost of $12 million, the two-storey house has an exterior of imported limestone, is 51.5 ft high, has a basement, and has an intermediate level for closets between the second storey and the attic. Candy Spelling and her interior designer traveled to Europe to buy fixtures and art for the home. When first built, it included a screening room, a gym, a room for Candy's doll collection, a basement bowling alley, a gift-wrapping and flower-cutting rooms, a barbershop, a humidity-controlled storage room, four two-car garages, a tennis court, and a pool. A long winding driveway leads to a circular granite motor court, fountain and space for 100 cars; there are also 16 carports.
The Spellings purchased the former Bing Crosby Estate in 1983, razing the mansion that previously occupied the site, which was built in 1932 by Gordon Kaufmann and later owned by Bing Crosby.
Construction began in 1986, with over 150 workers a day, using over 500 tons of steel, and was completed in 1991. The name The Manor was chosen by daughter Tori. Candy and interior designer Robert Dally spent 8 years buying furnishing from England, Italy, and France, including all of house's fireplaces, chanderliers, and sconces. The grand staircase in the entrance hall was inspired by Twelve Oaks in Gone with the Wind. The staircase is a single piece of metal, made in Texas.
The Manor is as big as a football field, and bigger than The White House, and has 2 driveways. During planning stages, Aaron removed an entire planned additional wing as a cost-saving measure. Not understanding blueprints, Candy advised in 2011 she would not have built the house as big had she realised the scale in person. Originally there was a zoo planned for daughter Tori. However, by the time the house neared completion Tori was aged 17, negating the need for it.
Spelling died in the mansion on June 23, 2006, from complications of a stroke, at age 83. The house was discussed in his obituary:
Mr. Spelling himself, though a self-effacing and extremely shy man in private, put his own vast wealth on display in the late 1980s when he and his wife, Candy, supervised the construction of their home in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. The structure, which like his shows drew mostly scathing reviews, eventually contained 123 rooms over about 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2). It was said to include a bowling alley, an ice rink and an entire wing devoted to his wife's wardrobe.
After finally making the decision to sell in 2009, in the summer of 2011, five years after her husband's death, Candy Spelling put the estate up for sale, calling it the "greatest entertainment house ever" with a "kitchen where you can cook for two or 800". In her 18 years living at The Manor, Spelling recalled, "All the stars came through, Prince Rainier, Prince Charles, Jackie Kennedy—every star from every one of Aaron's shows."
The house was sold for $85 million to Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone. Immediately after taking possession of it in June 2011, she overhauled the house's design, hiring designer Gavin Brodin to undertake the $20 million project, which included removing the chandeliers, wall lights and fireplace mantels. After a three-week design period, it took approximately 500 workers nine weeks to install the new furnishings Ecclestone had chosen. In 2016, she decided to sell the property, and it was on and off the market for three years.
In October 2016, the Manor was relisted with Rick Hilton and David Kramer of Hilton & Hyland with an asking price of $200 million. In February 2017, it was reported that singer Beyoncé and her husband Hip-hop mogul Jay Z had secretly visited it.
In June 2019, it sold for $119.7 million, a new California record. Originally priced at $200 million, it was eventually dropped to $160 million, then sold in early July 2019 for a record $120 million to Canadian multi-billionaire Daryl Katz, owner of the Edmonton Oilers ice hockey team.
In February 2022, it listed for $165 million.
The grand foyer has a monochrome colour scheme with a sweeping double staircase, black and white marble flooring, a crystal floating castle chandelier and Renaissance-style paintings.The formal living room is a vast white-on-white space with three separate seating areas, an open marble fireplace and a grand piano.The second living room is less formal and is decorated in a cool grey palette. The original bookcases have been swapped for two aquariums and a bar. It has twin French doors.The formal dining room has a monochrome colour scheme. A 20-seater dining table sits below a low-hanging crystal chandelier crowned by a black ceiling rose. French doors lead to the expansive gardens.The master suite has 7,000 sq ft of living space and includes a kitchen, a living room, his and hers closets and bathrooms and a bedroom decorated in black, white and grey.A massive bathroom with a soaking tub, cove ceiling and three wall-length vanity mirrors makes up just one of the home’s 27 bathrooms.The beauty salon, which once housed Candy Spelling's doll collection, has a monochromatic colour scheme.The cinema has 20 custom theatre seats spread over two tiers with carpeted flooring, a coffered ceiling and a movie screen that rises from the floor.The basement is designed to resemble a nightclub with a bar, a pool room and a two-lane bowling alley.Other notable features include two walk-in closets, a gigantic kitchen, a granite motor court for 100 cars, a solarium, a wine cellar, a game room, a gym and tanning rooms.
At the time of its construction, the project spawned a controversy over its massive size and ostentatious architecture. In April 1988, the Los Angeles Times asked:What's bigger than a football field, smaller than Hearst Castle, has a bowling alley and an entire floor of closets, and is making some people very annoyed? Aaron and Candy Spelling's 56,500-square-foot (5,250 m2) mansion in Holmby Hills. The French chateau, under construction now for two years, has turned the corner of Mapleton and Club View drives into a gawker's paradise. Sprawled across 6 acres (2.4 ha) on what once was the Bing Crosby estate, the house dwarfs the sizable mansions on the block and looms large over tranquil Holmby Park near Wilshire Boulevard.
After its completion, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Sam Hall Kaplan panned the home as one of the region's worst built in the 1980s.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre House
TexasAndroid (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: TexasAndroid.
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Floating man - Swim pontoon
TexasAndroid (VirtualGlobetrotting)
By: TexasAndroid.
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Got this one from Slashdot. Appears to be a large humanoid figure floating in the harbor. Very strange.

Alien Civilization? (Effect gone now)
"More Info" link is to discussion on another Google Maps board about this wierdness. And no, I don't beleive it's aliens. :)

Forbidden City
The Forbidden City (Chinese: 紫禁城; pinyin: Zǐjìnchéng) is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It's surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the 54-ac Zhongshan Park, the sacrificial Imperial Ancestral Temple, the 171-ac Beihai Park, and the 57-ac Jingshan Park. It's officially administered by the Palace Museum.
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, with a 2004 boundary modification.

Pyramids of Giza
The Giza pyramid complex/necropolis in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. They were built during the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, between 2600 & 2500 BCE.
The site is at the edges of the Western Desert, abut nine km W of the Nile River in the city of Giza. It's the northernmost portion of the Pyramid Fields of the Memphis and its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 1979.
The Great Pyramid and the Pyramid of Khafre are the largest pyramids built in ancient Egypt, and they've historically been seen as emblems of Ancient Egypt. They were popularized in Hellenistic times, when the Great Pyramid was listed as 1 of the 7 Wonders of the World, the only one still in existence today.

Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx. Facing directly west to east, it's on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.
The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks. It is 73 m long from paw to tail, 20 m high from the base to the top of the head and 19 m wide at its rear haunches. Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 200s and 900s CE.
The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognizable statues in the world.

Psycho House

Airplane taking off from Pheonix International

Saddam's yacht al-Mansur (The Victor)
pictures

Volente Waterpark Beach

Captayannis (Sunken ship)
The Captayannis sugar boat has lain on her port side on a sandbank since January 1974 after coming to grief during a gale. The cargo of sugar was lost but due to insurance complications the boat has never been moved.

Heart shaped pond

Southwest Airlines 'Shamu'

Chopper close to the water
May very well be the same helicopter as at http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/33943/, but is not in exactly the same place, and is quite neat, IMHO, since this one appears to be hovering very close to the water, given the visible effects that the choper's downdraft appears to be having on the water.

Lake Austin Riverboats
Not sure which of their two boats this is, the Commodore or the Commodore's Pup. I'm leaning towards the first, but really cannot tell.

Rock of Gibraltar

Austin Duck, amphibious tour vehicle

Lone Star Riverboat

SS America Star
Shipwreck in the Canary Islands

Staten Island ship graveyard

Arrowhead Stadium

George Washington's Mount Vernon Plantation

Laredo border crossing (US-Mexico)

Batumi

Giant Devil Ray

Pitcairn Island
Last British colony in the Pacific

Horizontal Falls
This is the famous Horizontal Falls in the Kimberley region of western Australia. Although called waterfalls, this natural phenomenon actually consists of immense tidal currents hurtling through narrow coastal gorges. When the tide turns, the water ‘falls’ back in the other direction.

MV Pacific Queen
This vessel’s final name was MV PACIFIC QUEEN, official number 257731. Eight ships of this kind were built as “Auxiliary Rescue and Salvage” vessels (ARS) during 1942 and 1943. Three of these wooden vessels were originally authorized for construction under Lend-Lease contracts with Great Britain as “British Auxiliary Rescue and Salvage” ships (BARS) to help stem the rate of merchant ship losses due to U-Boat attacks in the North Atlantic.
Two ships were lost in 1945 due to accidents. Of the remaining six ships, three are positively identified in multiple published sources as having been sold into mercantile service after 1946. A fourth ship was transferred to the government of Denmark in 1947. Of the remaining two ships, only one was constructed with twin screws (two propellers). That ship was USS WEIGHT, ARS-35, ex-PLYMOUTH SALVOR, BARS-7. This exercise specifically rules out USS ANCHOR, ARS-13, as the original identity of MV PACIFIC QUEEN.
The vessel was sold to Puget Sound Boat Building of Tacoma and they rebuilt her in 1947-49 as a refrigerated cargo ship. By 1950 Merchant Vessels shows ownership as Pacific Queen Fisheries of Tacoma, and one of the salvors, Dave Updike, informed the Marine Digest via Doug Egan that MV PACIFIC QUEEN remained in the Bristol Bay fishery as a fish packer and processor under this ownership. Thanks to Karl Elder for passing me his extract about this from the Marine Digest dated 2/14/1976.
On 9/17/1957 MV PACIFIC QUEEN sank at Tacoma’s Old Town Dock in about 30 feet of water as the result of a gasoline explosion and fire originating under the afterdeck. According to the Marine Digest, one crew member was killed in the conflagration. During 1958 the wreck was raised by Dave Updike and Jim Vallentyne, floated and towed to Lake Union in Seattle for removal of heavy internal items and the steel superstructure down to the main deck.
The Coast Guard’s and Seattle Fire Department’s requests the salvors towed MV PACIFIC QUEEN’s light hulk from Lake Union and beached it north of Picnic Point at the burning grounds of Franzen Beach.

Texas shaped Wave Pool
Six Flags Fiesta Texas already has it's own entry, but I thought that this pool was cool enough to deserve one as well.

Sahara Desert
I know I'm showing multiple countries here, but I have to list just one. :)

Soviet Space Shuttle
On static display in Gorky Park, Moscow.
This one is OK-TVA a static test version that was never flown.

Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site
Primary testing site for Soviet nuclear weapons.

Amboy crater

Map Distortion example (Fixed by Google)
Because of the way Google lays out a globe on a flat surface, horizontal distances get stretched in places. This get more pronounced the closer you get to the poles.
In the given example, in Anchorage Alaska, the intersections in the visible city zone are actually all normal right angles.

Autzen Stadium - at University of Oregon
Ducks Stadium

Phallic prank in football field
Created a few years back with herbicide as a prank. Now visible in G-maps for the next couple of years. Check out the More Info link for the fuller story.

Airplane - Cessna (looking huge)

Old City of Dubrovnik
World Heritage Site

Richard Branson's Private Island

Walt Disney World Closed STOL Airport

Blue Nile and White Nile join
Blue Nile (from east) joins White Nile (from south) to form the Nile River

Camp Bondsteel

Great Blue Hole, The
Scuba diving attraction

Zócalo, Mexico City

Ambassador Bridge (US-Canada)

S. S. Atlantus
The S. S. Atlantus is probably the most famous concrete ship. She was built by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Brunswick, Georgia and launched on December 5, 1918 and was the second concrete ship constructed in the World War I Emergency Fleet.
The war had ended a month earlier, but the Atlantus was used to transport American troops back home from Europe and also to transport coal in New England. In 1920, the ship was retired to a salvage yard in Virginia.
In 1926, the Atlantus was purchased by Colonel Jesse Rosenfeld to be used as ferry dock in Cape May, New Jersey for a proposed ferry between Cape May and Cape Henlopen, DE. The plan was to dig a channel into to the shore where the Atlantus would be placed. Two other concrete ships would be purchased to form a Y-shape where the ferry would dock.
In March 1926, the groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the construction of the ferry dock. The Atlantus was repaired and towed to Cape May. On June 8th, a storm hit and the ship broke free of her moorings and ran aground 150 feet off the coast of Sunset Beach. Several attempts were made to free the ship, but none were successful.
Since then the Atlantus has become a tourist attraction seen by millions. People used to swim out to the ship and dive off, until one young man drowned. At one time, a billboard was also placed on the ship. Starting in the late 50's, the ship began to split apart in the midsection.

Hachiko Square

Thomas the Tank Engine

Celebrity Cruises' ship 'Millennium'

Abandoned cars along Hwy 610

Mount Merapi

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Stepped Pyramid of Djoser
The Great Step Pyramid Complex at Saqqara, known to the ancient Egyptians as kbhw-ntrw (libation of the deities), is one of those superstars of Egyptian monuments that is almost always on the itinerary of antiquity tours to Egypt, and for good reason. Few monuments hold a place in human history as significant as that of this Pyramid. It can be said without exaggeration that the Step Pyramid complex constitutes a milestone in the evolution of monumental stone architecture, both in Egypt and in the world as a whole. It is the beginning of an evolutionary period that would eventually see the polished, smooth faced true pyramids of the 4th Dynasty master builders.

Carnival Cruise Ship 'Carnival Glory'

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)

Richat Structure

Studebaker

Iraq Shipwreck 11

San Antonio Riverwalk under construction
Very recent shot of the ongoing expansion work, expanding the riverwalk several miles to the North of it's current endpoint.

GM Proving Grounds - MI

Nan Madol

Mauna Loa

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi

Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD)

Henry Doorly Zoo

Site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Crop Circle

Tokyo Tower

Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal

E&J Gallo Winery

Child of Krakatoa
The Remains of Krakatoa
This is a pretty good view of the little volcanic archipelago in the Sunda Strait between West Java and Sumatra, remaining from the 1883 explosive eruption of Krakatoa. The Indonesians refer to it as Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatoa.
(Link and Text credit to OldeClegg on Slashdot)

Tiananmen Square

Viking Lines ship "Mariella"

Alamodome
Former home of the San Antonio Spurs. Yearly home of the Alamo Bowl.

Escobar's Highland Farms Maze

Saqqara pyramids
From Hinkkanen:
Three major pyramids here belonged to 5th dynasty pharaohs Sahure, Nyuserre and Neferikare (listed from the north). Fourth (southernmost ruined one) belonged to Neferefre, also 5th dynasty.

Kentucky Speedway

Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)

Kelly Field (SKF)
aka KellyUSA, formerly Kelly AFB, KSKF
One of four Air Force bases in the San Antonio area, Kelly is a major maintenance center for the Air Force. Much of the operations of the base are being privatized, after realignment by BRAC in 1993, and the Air Force Base title will be dissolved in favor of a civilian name. Kelly is home of the San Antonio Air Logistics Center, one of five major Air Force maintenance and distribution centers in the country, and the primary maintenance depot for the C-5, C-17, and several other aircraft, as well as equipment systems, including the Air Force's nuclear weapons systems. Before realignmnet, Kelly employed over 14,000 people. Some of its functions were moved to the adjacent Lackland Air Force Base.

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)

Kowloon Walled City
See the More Info link for the place's colorful past. Now a park.

Atomic Cannon
The atomic cannon was a huge piece of ordnance built by the United States in the mid-1950s to hurl nuclear shells far enough that they wouldn't kill the people who fired them. While far more sensible WWIII technology than, say, the atomic hand grenade, the atomic cannon did have its detractors and tactical limitations.
The first atomic cannon went into service in 1952, and was deactivated in 1963. A single test shot was fired seven miles at the Nevada Test site on May 25, 1953. Twenty were manufactured; seven appear to have survived the Cold War and are on public display today.

Helotes Mulch Fire
Helotes is a small suburb of San Antonio.
Not on fire in the image, but the three story brush and mulch pile located here caught fire on December 25, 2006, and has been burning ever since, fouling the nearby air and confounding attempts to put it out.

Knife River Indian Villages

Imported car storage facility - WA

Hammaguir French orbital launch site

India Gate

All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
Home of the Wimbeldon Tennis championships.

Malibu Castle
Go-cart racing, Arcade, mini-golf, etc.

High Resolution Sea
Section of ocean off of Poland in high resolution. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Athens Olympic Sports Complex
Location of the 2004 Olympic games
Revamped under a design produced by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava

Bagdad Cemetery (from Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

Carnival Cruise Ship 'Fascination'

USS Missouri (BB-63)
Retired here as a floating museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_%28BB-63%29

Giant US Map
On the property of SeaWorld - San Antonio. In a part of the park that's been off limits to the public for several years.

Wreck of the Francisco Morazan
Semi famous shipwreck off South Manitou Island, in Lake Michigan
Entry title and information from coldtiger.

Kawasaki Man-Made Island
Starting point for a huge underground tunnel project. From here they dug in two directions to create the tunnel.

Ali Sami Yen Stadium