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Geary Roark lists Studio City home at $1,099,000

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Retired fashion designer Geary Roark has listed his Studio City home at $1,099,000.

The Robert Byrd-designed storybook ranch, built in 1953, has hand-hewn beam ceilings, built-in cabinets and a two-sided brick wall with a fireplace in the living room and a built-in barbecue with a rotisserie in the dining room. There are three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in 1,894 square feet.

Roark grew up in Tennessee, and his father was a building contractor. “I was really attracted to the craftsmanship in the house,” he said, describing it as having “lots of wood and lots of character.”

During his 27 years in the home, he has left his mark. “When I redid this house, step by step, I tried to think of the integrity of the house,” said Roark, who used the home to entertain clients and major buyers. “The first thing I did was replace the carpet with flagstone.”

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Byrd is known for creating homes that make the most of their natural surroundings. “It’s built on a hill, and designed for the lot, so when you come up the driveway, there are a series of steps, and on the second level you see the openness of the house,” Roark said. “The inside and outside are all sort of one.”

To continue the flow visually, Roark used broken concrete on the back patio and added retaining walls of stone from the site.

Now that he is no longer designing dresses, Roark, 61, plans to relocate to Palm Springs, where his daughter lives.

“I just want a new project -- something creative to do,” he said.

He is looking for a home built between the late ‘40s and the mid-’60s. “There are some wonderful architectural homes there that, fortunately, have not been touched.”

Roark’s dresses and suits have been worn on such TV shows as “Dallas,” “Knots Landing,” “Cheers” and “ Hollywood Insider,” at red-carpet events and by luminaries including Hillary Rodham Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. During his heyday, he had his own departments in such stores as Bullocks Wilshire and Neiman Marcus.

Bret Parsons of Prudential California Realty’s Pacific Design Center office has the listing.

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lauren.beale@latimes.com

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