Strange Bedfellows: Obamas’ Designer Same as Ousted Exec Thain’s

By: Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager | January 23, 2009

(Photo above of Thain’s Rye residence at 350 Purchase St, Rye NY 10580)

Just when we have stabilized over the news of Bernie Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme, along comes former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain and his $87,000 rug, a “commode on legs” for $35,000, and numerous other outrageous spending blitzes he commissioned for his Merrill Lynch office in the financial district of Manhattan in 2008. According to the Daily Beast, Thain spent $1.22 million to refurbish his office, during the same time that he was slashing expenses at Merrill by cutting jobs and business dealings.

The biggest chunk of Thain’s spending escapade was hiring designer-to-the-stars Michael Smith for $800,000. Smith has done design work for Steven Spielberg, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cindy Crawford and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and, get this — Smith is the same interior designer the Obamas have hired to design the White House … for “only” $100,000! According to the LA Times, each president is allocated $100,000 each term to redecorate. Oh, how the world turns.

According to Daily Beast, Smith will also design Thain’s private residences at 740 Park Ave, New York NY and his 10-acre spread in Rye, NY.

Let’s call this whole thing “designer-gate.” (Hat tip to Candy at Dallas Dirt for the idea for this blog post).

(Photo above of Thain’s residence at 740 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021)

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Categories: Celebrity Real Estate

Comments

5 Comments so far

Rich Barton on January 24, 2009 12:42 pm

I don’t know Thain personally, but I really had thought he was one of the good guys. When I first saw all of the hatchet job press on him starting 2 days ago, I figured this was just planted by the Egos at Bank of America as a way to make Thain look bad and justify the firing of him from head of Merrill. Now i read this great reporting from Diane and The Daily Beast and I’m beginning to realize Thain is just another greedy, self-entered, low self-confidence, stiff in a suit. I hope he enjoys his architectural abomination of house in Rye. It will be an interesting measure of our new era to see if this guy re-emerges as CEO somewhere. I certainly hope not.
The Real Issue on January 24, 2009 5:47 pm

The Real Issue is the former CEO of Merrill Lynch tried to usurp the system by spending on what he wanted without regard to his employees, investors or customers/clients. There will be more heads to roll and the Corporate give-a-way is over!!
RNelson on January 25, 2009 3:14 pm

So if Obama believes in real change and transparency in government he would fire his White House designer of the stars (Michael Smith). Isn’t he freezing wages of his staff, how about freezing the decorator’s fees too? Or is he going to be more like his buddy Deval Patrick , Governor of MA, who bought a brand new Cadillac when he moved into the Governor’s mansion? Let’s really cut waste in government Obama, by setting an example and not just talk.
none on January 25, 2009 5:23 pm

why is there no way to contact zillow to report a bug. you are showing oakland, ca as being in contra costa county which is it not. i noromally use trulia and decided to try zillow. between this and the fact that you are showing lots of cities besides oakland and i can’t constrain the search, the site is unusable.
Diane Tuman on January 25, 2009 9:08 pm

To “none” — You can file a bug or leave a question in the Zillow Advice section. Here’s the link: http://www.zillow.com/advice-browse/Questions-Discussions-Guides/Other/US/none,-1,48,102001,1,7/