i was lucky to grow up in the most fabulous family in the world...

our place in tuscany

my place in SF

it took me 2.5 years to build my place in SF...Cass did the architecture. (also: Dwell cover)

Stephanie

Andrea

earlier family

my greatgrandfather started a company in 1871 when he was 19 and out of money.   five years later, he employed 1300, including several hundred prisoners.    he completed one of the first railway road constructions in southern germany and then leveraged this into the construction business.   

over the next four decades, he created one of germany's leading construction companies with a legacy that includes many of germany's most defining landmarks, including the munich hofbrauhaus, the prinzregenten theater, the national opera in munich, the schiller theater in berlin, and many more.

but not satisfied with this (and the lack of light one figures), he went on to found germany's first regional electricity utility (in 1894) with the help of financing from merck & finck, and created the energy utility that remains the regionally dominant power supplier for southern germany today (as bavaria's "pg&e"). photo when old (with associates).