In a city as famous for its steep hills as its steep property prices, only one home can literally be the highest of them all: 150 Glenbrook Ave., which sits a record-breaking 834 feet above sea level.
Located in Clarendon Heights, near the foot of Sutro Tower, the four-story new-construction home had been on and off the market for more than a year before a $2 million price cut to $18 million worked its magic. The city’s highest-altitude home, a designation determined using an altimeter (opens in new tab), is in contract.
The property took several years to design and build for Tom Buttgenbach, the founder of solar energy company Avantus, and his then-partner, interior designer Sean Leffers. Buttgenbach sold the home for $17.5 million in 2021, according to public records, but the sale was rescinded two years later after a private mediation that led to a $21 million payout to the buyer, 150 Glenbrook LLC. The home was returned to Buttgenbach as part of the proceedings, and he put it back on the market in the spring of 2024.
Frank Nolan of Vanguard Properties is representing the nearly 7,500-square-foot detached modern manse. He declined to comment on the pending sale and did not reply to questions about why the 2021 sale was undone. Buttgenbach and attorneys who represented the LLC in the proceedings did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
High homes, high prices
Clarendon Heights is known for its custom view homes around Mount Sutro and Twin Peaks. While its extreme slope makes for a major workout for pedestrians and bikers, the neighborhood is close to the restaurants and shops in the Haight and the Castro while providing unobstructed vistas and large lots.
For that reason, it has long been a favorite for wealthy buyers looking for space, privacy, panoramas, and more modern design than the century-old homes in neighboring Ashbury Heights. Sales over $5 million don’t happen every day, but there are several each year.
High-end architect John Maniscalco designed the Glenbrook home, which replaced the property Buttgenbach bought in 2012 for just over $2.6 million.
It was completed in 2018 and has six bedrooms, six full and two half baths, and numerous view terraces, including a covered deck on the “entertainment floor” with a hot tub and fire pit. A guest suite, laundry room, family room with wet bar, 300-bottle wine cellar, and spa bathroom with cedar sauna and steam room also span the floor.
The main floor has a gourmet kitchen with Miele appliances, as well as open-concept living and dining rooms and several more decks, one with a built-in barbecue.
The upper level has four en suite bedrooms, three with decks, and access through a staircase off the second laundry room to the 360-degree bridge-to-bridge views from the roof deck, where — as should be expected, given the owner — there are 14 kilowatts worth of solar panels.
While most floors are centered around the views, the garden level is all about privacy, with another bedroom, a full bathroom, a home gym with a wet bar and sliding glass doors to the fenced-in garden.
Leffers orchestrated the interiors, which include a honed lava fireplace, black steel staircases, and a three-story crystal light fixture. The couple, who have since split up, and their two young children moved to L.A., where Leffers designed another home for his ex, according to a 2022 feature (opens in new tab) in Galerie magazine. True to form, it’s located in the Hollywood Hills.