Press
DBusiness Magazine
March 2024
Power of Estate
Brandywine’s Arya Afrakhteh was extensively quoted throughout DBusiness Magazine’s feature article on the growth of Michigan’s ultra-luxury home market.
To read the article, please click here.
Detroit News
March 2024
Michigan’s 10 Priciest Homes: A Look at Luxury Sales in 2023
Brandywine’s 2050 West Valley Road listing in Bloomfield Hills was highlighted in this article.
To read the article, please click here.
Mansion Global
November 2023
Detroit’s Luxury Housing Market Is Revving Its Engines. Here’s Where to Buy.
Brandywine’s 2050 West Valley Road listing in Bloomfield Hills was highlighted in this article.
To read the article, please click here.
Crain’s Detroit Business
October 2023
Bloomfield Hills Spec House Seeks $7M from Elite Pool of Buyers
An under construction speculative house in Bloomfield Hills seeks a price rarely seen for that type of project.
The house - being built without a buyer identified - has an asking price of $7M and seeks to attract the “1%” of buyers, according to listing agent Dan Gutfreund with the Birmingham office of Signature Sotheby’s International Real Estate.
“The level at which [this home] is built attracts a very discerning buyer,” Gutfreund said. “Someone that understands what they’re buying, and knows that they’re going to get a home that’s going to stand the test of time.”
To read entire article, please click here.
The Detroit News
January 2022
Michigan's 10 priciest homes: A look at luxury sales in 2021
Built [by Brandywine Construction] as a spec home, this 8,100-square-foot Tudor estate [at 800 Cranbrook Road] sits on a nearly 2-acre lot along the Rouge River in Bloomfield Hills.
[The agent] representing the buyers said they visited the property to get an idea for the types of finishes they’d like in a newly built home. “When we walked into it, it was with that intent,” he said. “They clearly fell in love with it afterward.” The home features a chef’s kitchen that overlooks the living room, a first-floor library and a dining room with built-in wet bar and butler’s pantry. The home also has five bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, an elevator, gaming area and gym.
To read entire article, please click here.
Crain’s Detroit Business
December 2021
In a big year for luxury real estate, these were the most expensive homes sold in Michigan
At 800 Cranbrook Dr. in Bloomfield Hills, a five-bedroom, 8,100-square-foot house went for $4.9 million in April. Kohler called it a "really, really premier location" for the new-construction home that was designed [and built by Brandywine]. It has a water feature, two bridges and an island on 1.8 acres outdoors. Inside, the house features a library, a chef's kitchen, a dining room with a wet bar and a butler's pantry and an elevator that leads to a master suite that includes a large terrace. The Oakland County home near the River Rouge also has a gaming area and gym.
To read entire article, please click here.
Michigan Design Center’s @ Home Magazine
July 2020
Taste Maker
For a restaurant owner’s home, designer Katie Rodriguez assembled essential ingredients to reflect her client’s love of food and nature.
To read entire article, please click here.
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
Summer 2020
The Gathering Place
They wanted a house where everyone could feel at home. A place where their expanding family would always want to gather for birthdays, baby showers, holidays, and any kind of celebration.
“When I first met the couple, who were retired and traveled a lot, they had just broken ground on their new home,” says Birmingham designer Katie Rodriguez. The husband and wife, who also owned a home in northwest Michigan and a condo in Florida, were transitioning from a very traditional house in Troy. They wanted this one, a 7,000-square-foot house near Quarton Lake, to be completely different from all the others, with a modern, open plan, beautiful finishes, and each room flowing seamlessly into the next.
To read entire article, please click here.
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
Spring 2020
French Accent
Mais oui, why not imbibe your home with a feeling about which you’re passionate? That’s what this family did when they planned their new French-inspired home. “The family travels quite a bit to France, and love everything French — the cuisine, the architecture, the culture,” says interior designer/architect Barbi Stalburg Kasoff, owner of Birmigham-based Stalburg Design. Kasoff joined Northville’s Joseph Mosey Architecture Inc. and Birmingham’s Brandywine Construction to turn out this design pièce de résistance.
To read entire article, please click here.
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
Spring 2020
Brandywine Construction - Home Design Awards - 2020
Residential Landscape Design (Less than 1 Acre)
Laundry Room/Mud Room
Traditional Dining Room
Contemporary Interior Design (More Than One Room)
Wall Treatment (Special Paint Technique, Wall Covering, Etc.)
Detroit News
September 2019
Location, location, location: Designer, builder team up for Quarton Lake home renovation
Few people would buy a house without seeing the inside. But then Arya Afrakhteh isn’t exactly your average homeowner. The longtime Birmingham resident, trained engineer and owner of Brandywine Construction and Management had lived in other nearby houses – including another one on Quarton Lake and one he built downtown -- when he heard in November of 2017 that his current lakefront house was for sale.
To read entire article, please click here.
Past Coverage
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
March 2017
Brandywine Construction - Home Design Awards - 2017
Bath More Than 150 Square Feet
Contemporary Interior Design (More Than One Room)
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
March 2016
Brandywine Construction - Home Design Awards - 2016
Specialty Room
Traditional Architecture (Over 4,000 Sq. Ft.)
Custom Cabinet Installation
Kitchen (Between 201-500 Sq. Ft.)
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
July 2015
Builders' Update
Company history: After a career as an engineer and project manager for large-scale government projects, Arya Afrakhteh (right) began Brandywine Construction in 2005, when he moved to Michigan. “Starting with the purchase of property, every detail of location, design, and material is considered,” Afrakhteh says. “And we always ask, ‘Does the house fit the neighborhood?’ ”
To read entire article, please click here.
Detroit Free Press
May 2015
New York - Style Brownstone tucked into Birmingham
A short walk to town, tucked onto a 40-foot lot, this super-engineered house may remind you of a New York brownstone — slim, tall and deep.
The land it stands on is smaller than some new houses — 5,300 square feet, sidewalk to back fence. The living space totals 3,400 square feet above-ground, plus 1,400 on the daylight lower level.
Inside, this precisely planned space is filled with Old World embellishments — decorative stone and tile, heavy woodwork, deep coffered ceilings, arched doorways, aged-looking chandeliers and sconces. The look is opulent and traditional.
"My obsession is very high quality and more intimacy," said [Arya], who built this house for his family in 2009.
[He] said he builds only single, one-of-a-kind houses and only in two locations: within walking distance to either downtown Birmingham or the Cranbrook Institute. In these spots, to build one house, you have to tear down another.
To read entire article, please click here.
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
March 2015
Brandywine Construction - Home Design Awards - 2015
Inspired by the homeowners and brought to life by the builder, this custom wine cellar features glass and iron doors, custom brickwork, and handmade wooden shelving. The room is separate from — yet integrated into — the basement floor plan via the glass, which acts as a transparent barrier. The brickwork coordinates with the lighting to create a rustic ambience reminiscent of old European architecture, while the waterfall countertop directly in front of the cellar increases the practicality of the area.
Detroit Design Magazine (Formerly Detroit Home Magazine)
March 2010
Brandywine Construction - Home Design Awards - 2010
Krieger Associates / Brandywine Construction - This new home had to fit a small site while providing five bedrooms, four and a half baths, and an au-pair suite. Three stories, a finished lower level, and a small apartment above the garage met those requests.