A Grand Design

Larger than life, both in size and appeal. With wide lawns, 16 bedrooms and 22 baths this home in Potomac, a tony suburb in Washington DC can’t help but stand out.

- Maneesh Pandey

Can your address be a mirror of your social status? It is, when you are sharing the neighborhood with the richest and most powerful A-listers on the East Coast of United States’ most envied address—Potomac in Washington DC suburbs in Maryland State. Counted among the richest Indian-Americans in the United States, Frank F Islam (born Fakhrul Islam) is a successful Information Technology entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic leader with his roots in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh who now lives in this tony neighbourhood. He headed to the University of Colorado in 1970 and soon after he graduated, with just $500 in his pocket he launched his IT firm QSS in Maryland state, which later employed several thousand employees. He was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in 1997. He cashed out QSS for $300 million in 2007 and currently heads an investment group.

However, his ‘Big American Dream’ became a reality when his Norton Manor, a 10-acre mansion with 16 bedrooms and 22 baths, rivaled the 55,000 sq ft White House. He shares the neighborhood with actors such as Ì€ Wonder Woman’ Linda Carter, Maria Shriver, IT wizard, Ken Bajaj and Wolf Blitzer from CNN, among others.