It ain’t much -- just 32,000 square feet -- but it’s home

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Pictured: ‘In Beverly Hills, a 32,000-square-foot beaux arts mansion that will be sheathed in Portuguese limestone and adorned with gold-plated doorknobs fashioned in France is rising on Sunset Boulevard.’

The L.A. Times’ Jessica Garrison reports that people with more money than taste who want room enough to hide from their spouses inside their houses are still building obscenely large homes in greater L.A.

Actually those are my words, not hers; she reports: ‘Anyone who assumed that the construction of mega-mansions would grind to a halt as the economy worsens must not be familiar with the customs of the very rich.’

Aside: The economy is not worsening if you make your money getting oil out of the ground in Russia or Saudi Arabia and then selling it to Americans. My guess is some of these edifice wrecks are being built with oil money. You know, black gold. Texas tea. The Holmby Hills Hillbillies.

More from Garrison’s article: ‘Builder John Finton, who is overseeing construction of the 32,000-square-foot house on Sunset Boulevard for businessman C. Frederick Wehba Sr. and his wife, Susan, said he knows of at least 20 20,000-plus square-foot homes under construction or about to break ground in what he called the ‘platinum triangle’ of wealthy areas in Los Angeles County: Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Holmby Hills.

Uncle Billy, can you please do your thing and give us a little background on C. Frederick Wehba Sr.? Thanks, U.B. Update: Many of you have suggested this website -- C. Frederick Wehba -- for more on the 32,000-square-foot man.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo credit: L.A. Times