#HTE

Home Security Designs for Billionaires

What happens when billionaires want their homes to be safe from all forms of threats? They call Al Corbi, founder of SAFE (Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments). Corbi’s a man who designs “secret and secure installations for the U.S. Department of Justice, other U.S. agencies, and governments worldwide” and has been at it since 1971.

Here’s an example of a Corbi-designed house that just came on the market. The Rice House, as it’s called, is a veritable fortress that will survive the zombie apocalypse. There’s also this very unique design feature that ensures no one will ever be able to steal cars out of your garage:

The L.A. Times describes what you’re seeing in the photos:

Corbi recently was commissioned to design a Bat Cave, as he calls it, to protect a car collection. The design included a waterfall in front of the garage, which parts, Red Sea-like, when the owner arrives home. The door opens, a steel plate slides out of the garage, and the driver pulls onto it. The plate then slides back into the garage and onto a turntable that pivots to the car’s parking spot on a platform, 2 feet off the ground.

That garage is 5,000 square feet, by the way.

The house is fortified with bulletproof protection, which you’ll see in the video below. It also includes door closures designed to “withstand an 8-foot Dade County missile D category 5.” (According to Engineering Express, a firm that specializes in designing house components, that means “a 9-pound 2×4 lumber missile striking the product end-on at 50 feet per second.”) Should someone manage to get inside, however, you can blast them with built-in tear gas dispensers from the safety of the vault-like Safe Room. Another signature Corbi design, though it’s not clear if it’s in this house, are remote-controlled shotgun shells that fire out of the walls and ceilings. And thermal cameras on the property let you see intruders even at night.

You’d be safe here in the apocalypse, and you wouldn’t be thirsty: Three 1,000-foot wells have been dug, giving the house its own water supply. Solar panels on the roof provide juice.

The house also comes with an art gallery…

…a bowling alley…

…a gun range…

…and a wine cellar.

Here’s an older video of Corbi where he shows you some of his signature security features in his showroom house:

By the bye, if you’re in the market, the Rice House is going for $14.7 million, although it was built for $30 million and has never been lived in.

Extraordinary presidential compound-one of the world’s safest homes for life and personal property. Modern fortress with commanding views designed and fortified to “live to die another day” standards by global security expert Al Corbi. Self-sustaining water and power supply, thirty capacity car vault, art museum, three kitchens included. Catering and summer. Infinity pool, bowling alley, gun range, game room, solarium, spa, theater, wine cellar and room, vault, command center, two commercial elevators, geothermal systems. Some photos are only representative, as the property purposefully awaits final personalization.

If you’re wondering why it’s never been lived in, Bloomberg reports that “The owner planned the Rice House as a family legacy, only to learn that his son wasn’t interested in living there” so they’re selling it.

Being rich must be awesome.