Beverly Hills Sets Japan Tract Style : Subdivision Near Tokyo Will Be Modeled on Upscale U.S. Homes
Beverly Hills-style housing is joining hamburgers and fried chicken as U.S. exports to Japan through a planned subdivision 30 miles west of Tokyo.
The $300-million development of 64 homes, priced from $4 million to $6.5 million, will not be under construction until February, but a California architect and interior designer are already hard at work on the project, known as “One Hundred Hills.”
Why “One Hundred Hills” when it doesn’t have 100 hills? “Because the site is hilly, the developer (Tokyu Land Corp.) wanted ‘Hills’--as in Beverly Hills-- in the name, and ‘100’ seemed an auspicious number,” said Don Valentine, project designer with the architectural firm Richardson, Nagy, Martin, of Newport Beach.
Ideally, the Japanese also would like every room to face south for sun exposure, architect Walter J. Richardson added, but since that’s impractical, every major room will, no matter on which side of the street a house is built. Other than that and a few features, such as vestibules where shoes can be left, the project will look as if it had been moved intact from Southern California.
That means landscaped yards, underground utilities, broad tree-lined streets, sidewalks, swimming pools and tennis courts.
And the home sizes? The smallest will be on a lot about 18,000 square feet in size, while the average lot for production housing just outside Tokyo is about 2,000 square feet, Valentine said. Similarly, he estimated the average new-home size in the area at 1,200 square feet, while the 11 floor plans at One Hundred Hills will be 4,000 to 6,000 square feet.
As for the exteriors, there will be a variety of American styles, and inside, there will be such California touches as skylights, saunas, dramatic spaces and large rooms. Jan Willeford and Grace Milan, both of Beverly Trupp’s Color Design Art in Pacific Palisades, are project interior designers. Taka Ishii of UPR Land Planning, Costa Mesa, is project coordinator.
