Russian Hill home was San Francisco’s priciest listing of 2018

Featuring a Japanese water-filtration system that allegedly improves your skin and hair, a cantilevered infinity pool, and a shower and sauna with glass walls overlooking the city, this contemporary construction on Russian Hill hit the market for $45 million, making it the most expensive listing of 2018 in San Francisco.

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Located one block away from street’s famous curves, 950 Lombard takes up two hillside lots and comes with such accents as a gated entrance with a Batcave-like tunnel; a garden with olive trees; an outdoor kitchen; a humidity-controlled, two-story art gallery; a glass elevator to all four floors; marble-encased master bathrooms, and an air-filter system that changes the entire home’s air 12 times a day.

But the roughly 9,500-square-foot estate wasn’t without controversy.

The home’s developer, Troon Pacific, paid the largest illegal-demolition fine in San Francisco history (a whopping $400,000) after it purchased 950 Lombard—formerly the site of a circa-1907 shingled Willis Polk home, a designated historic resource—and removed the exterior walls and windows, going beyond what the building permit allowed.

The verboten razing (along with the Neutra leveling in Twin Peaks) helped prompt San Francisco lawmakers to create the Housing Preservation and Expansion Reform Act, legislation that would increase fines for illegal demolition.

The house remains on the market for $45 million.

• San Francisco has a new most-expensive home for sale [Curbed SF]