A spot for sax man to mellow out
Grammy-winning saxophonist-songwriter Kenny G is beating the rising cost of gasoline prices by walking to his newly built getaway in Malibu.
He can go there on foot because the retreat is next door to the home that he bought in 1998 for $12.5 million as a surprise for his wife, Lyndie Benson.
The idea behind the getaway was to provide a place for the soprano sax player to take a break without having to drive. The 3,500-square-foot house, which has a separate address, was finished in time for his upcoming 50th birthday on Monday.
The retreat, which cost an estimated $3.5 million to build and furnish, offers a sweeping view of the ocean. It has two bedrooms, four bathrooms, a 9-foot-long piano, a dining table that seats 16, a billiards table, a terrace and a bar designed by Rande Gerber, who owns more than 20 swank watering holes and is married to model Cindy Crawford.
The 1-acre getaway also has a tennis court and a 1,500-square-foot recording studio, which replaces one that the musician used on his 1.5-acre main-residence property. The studio there was in a guesthouse overlooking the ocean. A second guesthouse on the main property has offices and a screening room.
The main residence is a six-bedroom Cape Cod-style house, built in 1991. It was also updated.
Albino Construction built the getaway, Clayt Hudson designed the new recording studio, and Lafia/Arvin, a Design Corp., completed the retreat and studio interiors while updating the main house.
Kenny G has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. He is known for such laid-back hits as “Songbird,” “Silhouette” and “Sentimental.” He won a Grammy for best instrumental composition for “Forever in Love” in 1994. His first album was produced in 1982 after he graduated from the University of Washington.
Chateau rising on sheik’s old estate
A 36,000-square-foot mansion with a guardhouse in its frontyard and a stone bridge over a lake is under construction on the site of Beverly Hills co-founder Max Whittier’s former estate.
In the 1970s, the estate belonged to Saudi Sheik Mohammed al Fassi.
The sheik caused a neighborhood uproar by painting the white plaster statues of nudes on the front veranda in natural skin and hair tones. He put plastic flowers in outdoor urns and painted the stately white house lime green.
The French Country-style chateau, being built on Sunset Boulevard two blocks east of the Beverly Hills Hotel, will have a limestone exterior and a gray slate roof but no outdoor statues, said designer-developer Frank Valentino of Beverly Hills-based Park Lane Design Group.
“I wanted to share what we’re doing with the community, because the site has been vacant for more than 20 years,” Valentino said. The sheik’s house, on 3.6 acres, was gutted by fire in 1980 and razed in 1985. The land was subdivided and sold.
The house underway is on 1.5 acres, and Valentino estimates it to be a $25-million project.
The two-story house, with a full basement, will have eight bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, nine fireplaces, a ballroom with a 30-foot ceiling; an indoor pool, a gym, a sauna, a movie theater and a 10-car garage, Valentino added. He expects completion in 15 months.
There’s no time left to talk; it’s sold
Tom Snyder, host during the ‘90s of “The Late Late Show” on CBS, has sold his Benedict Canyon home of almost 30 years and is headed to Tiburon, in Northern California, where he has a second home.
Snyder, 70, sold the Benedict Canyon house for $1.7 million. It has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in nearly 3,000 square feet. The home, built in 1951, also has a pool and canyon views.
A familiar face on L.A. television, Snyder, who covered the news on KNBC during the ‘70s before he became a nationally known talk-show host on “The Tomorrow Show,” left the air in 1999, when “The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder” was reformatted for new host Craig Kilborn.
Snyder plans to travel, work on his miniature trains and collect classic cars, according to Kurt J. Swanson, president of Homes Insight of Toluca Lake, which handled the house sale.
A roomy fit for jeans-making pair
Jeffrey Lubell and his wife, Kymberly, have purchased a Malibu house that’s pricey, just like their True Religion jeans, which sell for $300 or more a pair.
The Lubells just bought a walled and gated Mediterranean-style villa reminiscent of a California mission but far more elegant. The house, on 3 cres overlooking the ocean, sold for close to $11.3 million.
The 7,000-square-foot villa has five bedrooms, including a master suite that occupies the entire third floor. Although built in 2001, the home features old-world craftsmanship. It has a grand staircase, a detached guesthouse and lush landscaping.
Former fabric salesman Lubell and his wife got into the jeans business in 1998. Since the brand was launched in 2002, the jeans have attracted an upscale following. The first retail store was in Manhattan Beach.
Hills home has a Pickfair pedigree
Pickfair, known for its many celebrity parties and other social gatherings during Hollywood’s early years, wasn’t the only house owned in those days by actress Mary Pickford and actor Douglas Fairbanks.
They owned another home in the Hollywood Hills, according to title records, and that property is on the market at just under $2.6 million.
Like Pickfair, the 1910 house was built as a hunting lodge. Fairbanks bought the building in 1917 as a meeting place for studio business.
The four-bedroom, 3,700-square-foot house was refurbished by New York designer William Sofield, starting in 1995. The work took years as Sofield restored Batchelder tiles and Craftsman touches by Greene & Greene. Sofield also installed a copper roof and a front door crafted from temple doors shipped from Kyoto, Japan.
The house now has a library, a master-bedroom suite with a sitting room and a day porch, a country kitchen and a gym. It also has an outdoor fireplace, a pool and an office or guest quarters.
Kathryn Shafer and Larry Treystman, of Windermere Properties, Sunset Boulevard, have the listing.
To see previous columns, go to latimes.com/hotproperty.
