Roman Abramovich Secures Approval to Build Mega-Mansion in New York

New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has granted Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich permission to merge three of his owned houses in the Upper East Side into a single mega‑mansion, reported 6sqft.com. The commission made the decision on June 14 after reviewing an updated design prepared by New York architectural firm Stephen Wang + Associates and Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron.

In the new design, architects abandoned the plan to change the façade of one of the houses. The neighboring houses were built between 1887‑1889 in the Queen Anne style, but in 1923 the façade of one house was rebuilt in a Neo‑Federal style.

Initially, the architects hired by Abramovich intended to restore the house to its original appearance, but the proposal was blocked in April: members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission deemed it insufficiently authentic.

The Monday‑approved plan calls for restoring the existing front façades while preserving their current appearance. The houses will keep their entrance doors and will continue to look like three separate buildings from the street. The main entrance will be placed in the centrally located house, featuring a glass‑and‑metal door.

The commission also approved demolition of rear‑yard structural elements to make way for a garden. Additionally, a new rear façade of glass and metal will unite all three houses.

As 6sqft.com notes, Abramovich’s properties are located in a historic district, so the Landmarks Preservation Commission has the final word in the project‑approval process.

Roman Abramovich, whose net worth Forbes estimated at $7.6 billion in March (151st place in the global billionaire ranking), bought the adjacent five‑story houses in 2014‑2015, paying a total of $78 million. The billionaire’s plans for these houses became public in March 2016 when architects presented a proposal to local authorities to combine the buildings into a single 18,255 sq ft (≈1.7 k m²) mansion with a pool. The project was budgeted at $6 million. In March, the New York City Department of Buildings blocked the project, and in April the Landmarks Preservation Commission issued a similar decision, arguing that such reconstruction would “destroy a significant portion of history” and calling it “a new level of flagrant consumption.”