For sale in Beverly Hills, a Ray Kappe-inspired Modernist home.
Six modules and a floating staircase combine to create a Modernist gem with a celebrity pedigree in Beverly Hills
“Arrested Development” actor Will Arnett is trying to take advantage of the seller’s market in Southern California. A year after offering up his Beverly Hills Post Office home at $11 million, he recently put it back on the market for $8 million.
Records show he paid $2.86 million for the property in 2015, and the architectural gem was finished two years later. Clad in glass and steel, the L-shaped residence is based on the work of Modernist architect Ray Kappe, who helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture, also known as SCI-Arc.
The prefabricated house, which received an excellence award from the L.A. Business Council in 2018, consists of six modules that come together to create a sleek, boxy frame with five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. The L shape creates a towering atrium at the front of the home, and out back, terraces overlook a backyard with an infinityedge pool, cold plunge and sauna.
A foyer with a floating staircase leads to living spaces with hardwood f loors and walls of glass. Outside, a leafy backyard adds an outdoor fireplace and takes in sweeping canyon views. Overhanging eaves, a Kappe staple, protect the patio from the sun.
Arnett, 50, received an Emmy Award nomination for his role as Gob Bluth in the sitcom “Arrested Development” and landed four more nominations for his guest role on “30 Rock.” His voice-acting credits include “BoJack Horseman,” “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Despicable Me” and “The Lego Movie.”
Richard Ehrlich of Westside Estate Agency holds the listing.
Action star’s bulletproof retreat
Action star Steven Seagal is once again shooting for a sale in the Arizona desert, listing his 12-acre compound outside Scottsdale for $3.4 million.
The martial-artist-turned-actor bought the property for $3.5 million in 2010 and has offered it up multiple times in the last few years, most recently for $3.775 million in 2019.
The custom-built contemporary is exactly what you’d expect for Seagal, a movie veteran whose dozens of film credits include “Above the Law,” “Hard to Kill,” “Under Siege,” “On Deadly Ground,” “Driven to Kill” and “Today You Die.” It’s tucked into a guard-gated community, and floorto-ceiling windows made of bulletproof glass take in the sweeping desert landscape of mountains and cacti.
The house — a 9,000square-foot concoction of stone, copper and glass — is perched on a hillside lot and features lifelike statues that survey the exterior. Inside, stone columns and skylights enhance the living spaces.
In addition to five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, there’s a living room with a fireplace, two-story atrium and movie theater. Decks surround the outside of the home, and one features an infinity-edge pool overlooking the desert below.
A native of Michigan, Seagal ran a martial arts dojo in Japan before moving to California and starring in films for the last three decades, most recently 2019’s “Beyond the Law.” The 69year-old has also released two studio albums.
Julianna Eriksen and Robert Rogers of Engel & Volkers hold the listing.
Redstone trophy comes to market
Another noteworthy estate is fresh on the market in Beverly Park, where the longtime mansion of late media mogul Sumner Redstone surfaced for sale at $27.9 million.
Redstone, the billionaire head of ViacomCBS who died last year, owned the palatial home for nearly two decades. He bought it in 2002 from “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone for $14.5 million, about half of its current asking price.
Coincidentally, Stallone is still making moves in the star-studded enclave. He recently listed his 21,000square-foot showplace on 3.5 acres in the same cul-desac as Redstone’s place for $110 million.
Redstone’s house is a bit smaller at 15,300 square feet and claims about two acres on the other side of the culde-sac.
Gated and landscaped, the house has just about everything: an indoor pool, gym, movie theater and library as well as a few outdoor highlights, including a sunken tennis court and an infinity pool that runs the length of the scenic backyard.
Dramatic walls of glass brighten formal rooms with white walls and black tile. One of the most impressive spaces is the foyer, a twostory atrium topped by a skylight with a sweeping staircase that snakes up the rounded, window-lined wall.
Elsewhere are five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, an indoor-outdoor dining room, living room with a bar and kitchen with a step-up breakfast nook. Upstairs, the primary suite extends to a spacious deck that leads to the spa and gardens. It’s one of multiple terraces that overlook the grassy backyard and the city and canyons below.
A prolific figure in the media industry, Redstone developed ViacomCBS into a conglomerate that included CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Showtime and Paramount Pictures movie studio. Forbes pegged his net worth at $2.6 billion a year ago.
Laurie Hudson of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties holds the listing.
Hotelier lists his own home
Goodwin Gaw’s most prized Southern California property is the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, but over in the affluent enclave of San Marino, the billionaire investor is offering up another impressive spot with an oldtimey appellation: the Mrs. James Skinner House.
The historic home, built by star architect Wallace Neff 92 years ago, recently hit the market for $21.5 million.
At 10,811 square feet, it’s the most spacious property currently up for grabs in San Marino, and it boasts a string of owners that sets it apart from its neighbors. Neff built the mansion in 1929 for Harriet Skinner, widow of James Skinner, who helped found the chain of Sears, Roebuck and Co. department stores.
In the 1940s, it was bought by James Benton Van Nuys, grandson of Isaac Newton Van Nuys, who developed the San Fernando Valley neighborhood that bears his name. Gaw shelled out nearly $6 million for the home in 2004, records show.
At the front of the 1.8-acre estate, gates open to a motor court with a hand-carved stone fountain, and inside, extensive upgrades have kept the Italian Revivalstyle home in touch with its period charm.
Hand-painted ceilings and Baccarat crystal chandeliers hang above marble floors, and other accents include wood-paneled walls and wrought-iron balconies and banisters.
Six bedrooms and eight bathrooms complete the main house, and the guesthouse contains two bedrooms as well as a kitchen. Outside, the manicured grounds feature gardens, a lighted tennis court and 50foot lap pool.
Gaw is chairman of Gaw Capital Partners, which manages billions of dollars’ worth of real estate globally. He bought the Roosevelt Hotel — named for President Theodore Roosevelt and the site of the first Academy Awards ceremony — out of bankruptcy in 1995. Forbes put his family’s net worth at $1.6 billion.
Brent Chang and Linda Chang of Compass hold the listing.
Fashion designer seeks a fitting offer
Fashion designer Sue Wong crafts dresses that recall the glitz and glamour of Old Hollywood, and her latest creation in Los Feliz matches the same romantic style. The 1920s villa, which she restored and transformed over the last year, listed for $6.2 million.
Found near the entrance to Griffith Park, the Spanish-style hacienda isn’t the first Los Feliz home Wong has given a makeover. In 2004, she bought a 10,000square-foot mansion known as the Cedars, and during a three-year-restoration brought the estate back to its Golden Age of Hollywood glory.
Wong said she wants her homes to be “temples of healing and renewal, in which the inhabitants can restore themselves in a beautiful environment for the healing of body, mind and spirit.” She designed the Los Feliz listing as a turnkey property — down to the kitchenware and bedding — with custom Andalusian furniture.
Heaps of colorful tile bring period charm to the 6,000-square-foot floor plan, nowhere more prominently than the 1,200-square-foot living room under dramatic wood beams. At the center of the space, there’s a massive stained-glass window she calls “Tree of Life.”
Inspired by the style of Viennese Secession artist Gustav Klimt, it represents the spiritual center of the house, Wong said.
“I infuse my design work with a very powerful universal, yet esoteric, spirituality,” she said. “I strongly believe that pure art accesses truths that are a strong catalyst to healing.”
The six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms channel Moroccan style, and more modern upgrades include dual-pane windows and a Nest security system. Outside, the halfacre grounds add a swimming pool, cabana and gazebo. Fire pits, cactus gardens and an outdoor kitchen complete the scene.
Markus Canter and Cristie St. James of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties hold the listing along with Rachael Brook.
Wong is best known as a fashion designer, and her signature dresses have been donned by Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Tyra Banks and Anne Hathaway.