A Hong Kong apartment designed by awardwinning architect Frank Gehry has sold for $55.4 million US, a record price for a flat in Asia, developer Swire Properties said on Thursday.
With trademark Gehry curving surfaces and billed as sculptural super-luxury, the apartment fetched $8,000 a square foot - the second-highest price per square foot in the world.
The sandstone-and-glass 12-unit Opus block, set high above downtown Hong Kong, has panoramic views of Victoria Harbour, a skyline that rivals Manhattan's for spectacle, and wrap-around teak-lined balconies designed to look like a ship's deck.
A property agent familiar with the deal said the purchaser is an elderly Hong Kong woman whose family is the sole dealer for a brand of lighting fixtures, with a factory in China. They intend to let the apartment as an investment, the source said.
Opus is the first residential project in Asia for Gehry, known for the crumpled, curving Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
