Making a Case for Pasadena
Bestselling author and former prosecutor VINCENT BUGLIOSI and his wife, Gail, have purchased a Queen Anne-style house in Pasadena, and they have put their colonial-style Glendale home of 20 years on the market.
His most famous case as L.A. County deputy district attorney was the prosecution of Charles Manson, about which Bugliosi wrote the bestseller “Helter Skelter.” He then wrote the true-crime books “Till Death Do Us Part” and “And the Sea Will Tell.” All were adapted for network TV, and he frequently appears on TV as a commentator regarding criminal trials.
Bugliosi, in his early 60s, also wrote “Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Got Away With Murder” and “No Island of Sanity,” about Paula Jones and President Clinton.
The Bugliosis, who have been married more than 30 years, bought a 2,700-square-foot house plus a guest cottage, built in 1905, for just under $800,000. Gail Bugliosi, an interior designer, is beginning to work on the decor.
Their 3,400-square-foot home in Glendale is listed at about $700,000. Built in 1939, the house has been completely restored, and has three bedrooms, a family room, den, solarium and country kitchen with trompe l’oeil paintings. The garden has a pool, orchard and gazebo.
Doris Boyer of Dilbeck Realtors Better Home & Gardens in Glendale has the listing.
Mixed-media artist MIRIAM WOSK’S Frank Gehry-designed penthouse and the rest of the five-unit peppermint-pink complex in Beverly Hills has been listed at $3.25 million.
Wosk, who owns the four-story building, collaborated with the architect in renovating the penthouse as her home. The three-year project was completed in 1984, when she had no children. Now that she has a child, she wants to live in a house.
The four-bedroom 5,700-square-foot penthouse, with an elevator and an artist’s studio, occupies the third and fourth floors of the building, which has four two-bedroom rental units on the first two floors. Before the redesign, it was a nondescript 1960s apartment building.
Wosk has likened her penthouse and its glass walls to a cruise ship. Her blue-domed kitchen, with stained-glass skylight, has been described as “an Aztec Deco temple.” Her dining room looks like a gabled greenhouse. The living room is clad in blue tile. Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi was a significant influence in the tile work Wosk designed for her stairway.
The penthouse, which also has 1,700 square feet of tiled terraces with city and park views, is listed with Stephen Shapiro of Stan Herman / Stephen Shapiro & Associates, Beverly Hills.
A Hollywood recording studio with a small apartment built for GUNS N’ ROSES when the band made an album there about four years ago has been sold for $1.2 million.
Known as Studio 56, the 10,000-square-foot building was built in 1930 and was known for years as Radio Recorders. It’s where Elvis Presley recorded such hits as “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.” Toni Braxton and Boyz II Men are among the studio’s current stars.
Paul Schwartz, who leased the studio for several years, bought it and is having Jeri Serpico, who owns a home-refurbishing company, refinish the floors of one of the sound stages and do some cosmetic work to the exterior and the apartment, now used by one of the engineers. Serpico is also a partner of Schwartz in his 56 Entertainment production company.
An international financier has closed escrow on a 14,000-square-foot house, still under construction, in Brentwood Country Estates.
He paid $2.8 million for the 8 1/2-acre site, $4.5 million for the construction contract and $1.2 million for European antiques that are being built into the house.
The house, which is nearing completion, has such antiques as a fireplace dating to 1603. It also has a 12,000-bottle wine cellar. The financier plans to plant a vineyard on his property.
Architect Robert Earl designed the house to resemble a 17th century castle in France. Sandra Costa did the interiors, which include a cigar-smoking room.
The financier’s former home, in the same development, has been listed at $4.95 million. The 8,000-square-foot house, built three years ago, is on 4.9 acres with canyon views.
Brentwood Country Estates, 13 estates on 98 acres, is a project of Barron Hilton, chairman of Hilton Hotels Corp. and son of the late Conrad Hilton, Hilton Hotels founder. The land has been in the Hilton family for 35 years.
Barron Hilton’s son Barry is building the financier’s house. Another son, Rick, shares the listing on the financier’s former home with Rodrigo Iglesias. Rick Hilton is with Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills; Iglesias, who also had the listing on the house that just closed escrow, is with Coldwell Banker Previews, Brentwood.
JIM FUELING, who has set a number of land speed records over the years, including 332.1 mph on a motorcycle in 1997, has put his home in the gated community of Rincon in Montecito on the market at $4 million.
Fueling heads Ventura-based Fueling Advanced Technologies, which recently announced a licensing agreement with Ford Motor Co. for a valve cylinder head design that he developed.
Fueling’s Cape Cod-style home, which he bought in 1994, is on more than three acres with 170 feet of ocean frontage and a sandy beach. The six-bedroom 4,800-square-foot house was built in 1935 and was recently remodeled. The house also has a sun room and a pool.
Carla Fagan of John Aaroe & Associates Estates, Beverly Hills, has the listing.
