The startling Russian Hill property at 1283 Greenwich Street used to be a real dream home–which is to say, it did not exist.

Previously, this address corresponded to a TIC duplex, with the top floor unit commanding just under $2.2 million back in 2010.

But for years this lot listed alongside ambitious plans for a brand new, multi-million dollar designer renovation, one that would turn it into one of Russian Hill’s most expensive and most thoroughly modern residences if realized. The package of ambitions asked a little less than $9.5 million in 2015. Check out the old renderings below:

Those designs sat in limbo for years, but a real sale (to an anonymous LLC) finally manifested in 2019 for all of $9 million, and then in November of that year city records show they finally acted on the permits.

The resulting home really does look remarkably like the renderings that were floating around angling for a buyer for all those years, at least from the outside. The five bed, eight-bath reality is a few hundred square feet short of the 7,000 or so in the old plans by architect Lewis Butler–but who’s counting?

Note what while Butler was the longtime credited architect on the proposed house, the new ads namedrop David Swetz and his unfortunately named SwetzShop firm. Swetz worked at Butler prior to 2019, and both firms list the new house in their portfolio, with particular attention paid to “the Venetian plastered helix spiral staircase, complete with a metal railing and solid walnut treads.”

To be honest, after watching listings and planning proposals cite that imagined staircase on and off for some seven years, seeing it finally built is a bit like seeing a ghost.

The price all of all that dreaming: $21 million, for whosever pockets are deep enough.

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