Bidding for Swank K-9 Condo Starts at $15,000

Architect William Pedersen is the man behind an ultra-mod doghouse with a roof garden. Recession? What recession?

By ELIZABETH BOUGEROL

Updated 9:56 AM EST, Wed, Jul 29, 2009

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Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images

It's so refreshing, after scanning through a veritable buffet of doomsday headlines, to come across stone-cold proof that a few people in this town built on money still have some. Money, that is. And not just "Hey, we'll get through this recession" money. Crazy money. Obscene money. Money that comes at you in unebbing waves, the kind of cash that unblinkingly stares you down and says, "Yes, Princess McPerfectsons absolutely deserves a $15,000 LEED-certified doghouse."*

That's just the starting auction price for the ultra-mod pooch pad designed by architect William Pedersen, mind you. Who knows what the final number will be? The Observer reports that the abode, currently on display at the West Village's One Jackson Square sales center, boasts "undulating 'wave-like' topography" and "planted 'green' roof", and when it's auctioned off on November 18 at the Top Dog Gala benefit, the money raised will go to a cause we couldn't believe in more: the Animal Medical Center of New York.

Still, you have to wonder. That's a lot of real estate for an animal. Poor thing's going to sit in there, totally bored, wishing it were digging through some garbage, and consoling itself with sporadic licks to the genitals. You know how you send your friends those links about how Dubai's getting another 2000-foot skyscraper with propeller-like restaurant and helipad, because it's all so ca-raaaazy? Maybe somewhere in the desert, someone's sending their friends a link to a story about how in America, dogs get houses with roof gardens. As a nation that's trying to convince the rest of the world how broke we are, this doesn't look good.

*We made up the part about LEED certification but really, who'd be surprised?