Tear-Down Craze Going Full Blast
The tear-down craze is still going crazy, even with such moves as the Beverly Hills and Rolling Hills city councils to limit the size of new homes.
Builder/developer Alexander Coler’s 37,000-square-foot, 11-bedroom, 19-bath chateau, already looming over Coldwater Canyon Park as it is being completed, is one that is said to have inspired the Beverly Hills move.
The price on that home is almost as staggering as its size. It was recently raised from $25 million to $30 million, making it one of the most expensive houses in the nation. (It’s listed with Dale Meyerhoff and Val Safarik at Merrill Lynch/Rodeo Realty).
Now joining such new biggies in causing a stir are some smaller oldies with colorful pasts.
Like the one once owned by silent screen star Pola Negri and later, by producer Hal Roach Sr. Kenneth Schessler, author of “This Is Hollywood” (a $3.95 guide to the stars’ homes and hangouts), was appalled when he discovered that the house, built in the ‘20s, had been torn down.
The Colonial-style home, designed by the late architect Paul Williams, was sold last October for $4 million, but Mike Silverman, whose office was involved in the sale, wasn’t sad about the razing. He said, “A loud cough would have made it collapse.”
A few days after finding out about the Negri house, Schessler--still working on his guide’s latest edition--made another discovery: that a ‘20s-era house once owned by stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and later, by actress Suzanne Somers was being torn apart.
Again, a Beverly Hills realtor remarked, “It’s not sad. The only thing good about that place was the glass ceiling and walls of the living room. You could push a button and water would come down over the ceiling and down the walls, so they called it the Rain Room.”
Schessler, the history buff, was still lamenting these losses, though, when he came across yet another famous house that bit the dust: the Mulholland Drive mansion of the late actor Errol Flynn.
Remember? It was the one with the one-way mirror in the guest-room ceiling. After Flynn, the house was owned at one time by rock star Ricky Nelson and, at another, by singer-songwriter Stuart Hamblen.
When it was sold in May, ‘87, for about $1 million, the buyer indicated that he did not plan to tear it down. He must have had a change of heart. Not to worry, the Beverly Hills realtor who talked about the Gypsy Rose Lee house and asked for anonymity, said. “Most of these old houses are junk. They just have their legends.”
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Freddie Fields--producer of “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Poltergeist II” and other film hits--has purchased a two-story Mediterranean style ‘20s-era house, which was once part of an estate of actor Douglas Fairbanks and actress Mary Pickford.
No, not Pickfair. This house is on the “Santa Monica Gold Coast,” where many movie greats have lived.
The four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home has a pool, paddle tennis court fronting Santa Monica beach, award-winning gardens designed by Emmet Wemple (landscape architect of the Getty Museum), a spa with a fountain, and a newly designed master bath with spa and sauna.
It went for close to the asking price of $1,895,000.
The house was listed with Stephanie Kay of Rodeo Realty, and Fields was represented by Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman & Associates.
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On the move . . . former TV talk-show host Mike Douglas and his wife have already listed the two-story estate adjacent to the bungalows of the Beverly Hills Hotel that they purchased earlier this year.
Why? Reached by phone in Monte Carlo, where she was vacationing, Barbara Duskin, who has the $3.9-million listing with Jon Douglas Co.’s Beverly Hills office, said she found another Beverly Hills property for the couple two months after they bought the one they are now trying to sell, and they are already moving into the second property. The one for sale has five bedrooms, eight baths, a sunken tennis court and a pool.
