Mid Week Mash Up: Spike Lee

In mid-November rumors began to rumble throughout the increasingly (and unnecessarily) competitive celebrity property gossip ecosystem that two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee wanted $32 million for his 32-foot wide, Spanish (Colonial) Renaissance/Revival-style townhouse mansion in Manhattan.

This week, as was first reported by the ever-industrious kids at Curbed, the property officially popped up on the open market with the expected $32,000,000 price tag. The house, located on one of the tonier, tree-lined streets in New York City's high-toned Upper East Side and sometimes referred to as Hatch House, was originally built in the early 20th century for a Vanderbilt heiress and was later owned by burlesque superstar Gypsy Rose Lee. Mister Lee paid American blue-chip artist Jasper Johns about $16.5 million for the house in 1998.

The mouth-watering, not to mention deliciously quirky yet smartly functional floor plan included with digital marketing materials shows the bifurcated, 8,000+ square foot mansion wraps around a 650-ish square foot central courtyard with fenestrated breezeways on the ground and second floors that link the front and rear sections.

The ground floor of the front section has a large foyer (with fireplace and powder room), a service entrance/mud room, and a formal living room that opens to the courtyard. The rear section comprises a less formal combination living/dining room that also opens to the courtyard and has a fireplace and (insanely good) exaggerated herringbone pattern wood floors. There's a convenient if not ideally situated second powder room that opens directly into the closed off and all-but-windowless but probably very expensively equipped U-shaped kitchen.

There are four guest/family bedrooms with private bathrooms spread throughout the meandering mansion plus a staff room and bathroom in the basement. The south-facing master suite, privately situated on the second floor of the five-floor rear section of the house, includes a pair of Juliet balconies in the decent-sized but hardly huge bedroom that overlooks the courtyard, a pass-through dressing room with built-in wardrobes, and a spacious bathroom with two sinks, separate tub and shower and, tucked way in the back, a an ultra-private (windowed) cubicle for the crapper.

All together Your Mama spotted three fireplaces and six full and two half bathrooms on the floor plan as well as an elevator that services four of the rear section's five floors; numerous walk-in closets and extensive storage rooms; a basement level gym with below-grade windows; a double-height library that overlooks the courtyard on the second floor of the front section.

listing photos and floor plan: Sotheby's International Realty