Singleton Residence, Estate of the Day
A few weeks ago I mentioned the coverage the Real Estalker and Radar paid to this home, a Richard Neutra-designed estate in Bel Air currently owned by hair icon Vidal Sassoon. Sassoon bought the house in 2004 and gave the home a renovation that a house with this type of architectural provenance deserves.
This type of home with its spare and blocky lines may not be to all tastes. You've got to love the Modernist style to embrace Neutra. This home is one of just two Neutra homes in Bel Air (my neighborhood, Silver Lake is home to many more). This home was built in 1959 and has over five acres in Bel Air. Additions include a new master bedroom wing, an expanded kitchen and a gallery that blends the approach to the earlier Neutra addition into the overall floorplan. The home has four bedrooms, a screening room and there are two extra building pads on the site. Radar put the house at $19. million but the Sotheby's listing has it at $25 million. Amazing considering that Sassoon is said to have purchased for $6 million. After the jump, perfect minimalism and a bed with a tail.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zola Jul 10th 2007 3:06PM
The Neutra makeover of a brand is pleasing.
http://www.elitechoice.org/2007/07/10/singleton-residence-estate-of-the-day/
Anonymous Jul 10th 2007 10:32PM
I find the zebra thing very tacky and quite sad.
JW-C Jul 11th 2007 6:07AM
"very tacky and quite sad". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, OK.
Absolutely fabulous. Deidre, I was wondering and hoping you would come through with this most wonderful and inspired property. This is most definitely worthy of an Estate of the Day. More of this PLEASE.
hdtex Jul 11th 2007 8:41AM
where do they put the toilet paper?
Irene Rainge Jul 16th 2007 11:41PM
Would they dare exhibit a personal photo or favorite figurerine!
Terry Hughes Jul 28th 2007 4:19PM
Absolutely amazing! The sale of this property borders on outright fraud on so many levels! The entire estate has been changed and "luxed up" in many ways that are outright hostile to Neutra's entire approach to domestic architecture - including devices and finishes he knew about and rejected and others that he would have had nothing to do with if he had known about them. It's just NOT Neutra now, and it's all but fraud to market it as Neutra. This project has much of the California and world-wide architectural community in an uproar. The damage to Neutra's vision has been noted by at least one major magazine expose, and anyone who is foolish enough to buy this house had better keep in mind that he's paying for someting (Neutra) that's been systematically stripped out.
Then there's the gigantic new addition (essentially doubling the square footage), where the Neutra content is literally zero! The addition is so dreadful and banal that the seller doesn't even provide the designer's name.
Is Sassoon even the real - as distinguished from the nominal - owner of this property? The Wall Street Journal says that he never lived there, but he did "throw a few parties there." Nice. The whole thing looks as though some developer got Sassoon to contribute his name as a nominee on the deed, with the developer (and, presumably, his or her equally questionable broker) providing the money and real work. Has anyone check to see if they even had the required permits for the new work? The kind of person who would perpetrate this kind of project wouldn't think twice about complying to city code if he or she thought they could get away with it.
Too bad a beautiful house to die for what has all the trappings of a tawdry scam. Twenty million dollars? Wow. Are there that many people around with that much money and that little sense? You'd be better off buying a vacant lot and building your own.