David Geffen Picks Up Architecturally Pedigreed House in Beverly Hills (EXCLUSIVE)
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Though he needs another home in Los Angeles about as much as a hippopotamus needs a jet-ski, David Geffen has none-the-less shelled out $4.651 million for a pristine architectural right next door to another house he owns high above Coldwater Canyon in the coveted Beverly Crest area in Beverly Hills. The multi-billionaire businessman and entertainment industry mandarin, who presides over an all-but bottomless fortune of about $7.5 billion, clearly wanted the turn-key contemporary with some fever because property records indicate he paid more than $150,000 over the not quite $4.5 million asking price.
Originally designed in 1947 by high-society Hungarian-born interior designer and architect Paul László and later updated by Case Study architect Thornton M. Abell , the house was substantially expanded in 2007 with the addition of a poured concrete wing designed by acclaimed L.A.-based architect Barton Phelps . Positioned hard up on the street with no front yard and presenting a bunker-like façade with no street-facing windows, the residence has been stripped of any fussy, extraneous architectural detailing on its clean-lined interior that provides four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in 3,267-square feet.
A skylight topped vestibule leads to a roomy entrance gallery with polished, dark-gray stained wood floors that extend into adjoining but separate living and dining rooms. Full-height glass sliders opposite a minimalist, stone-faced fireplace in the living room lead to a large entertainment deck with knee-buckling views that sweep over the entirety of the L.A. basin while the dining room has a glitzy quartet of bowl-shaped light fixtures and full-height glass sliders to a grassy yard. Renovated with premium quality appliances and high-glam mirrored tile backsplashes, the kitchen is arranged around an asymmetrical island with integrated snack counter and a den has huge corner windows that frame a cinematic city lights view. One of the guest bedrooms has a wall of built-in storage that makes it suitable as a home office, another is en suite with backyard access and the master suite has a marble-accented bathroom and opens directly out to the swimming pool.
Geffen, who sold his long time compound on Malibu’s spectacularly expensive Carbon Beach in 2017 for $87 million to Dodgers owner Mark Walter, not only owns the house next door to the one he just bought, an unassuming place which he’s owned since 1980, his primary spread in Los Angeles is the legendary Jack Warner Estate, a fully landscaped demesne of more than 10 acres in the plumiest of pockets of Beverly Hills he acquired in 1990 for reported $47.5 million . Geffen also maintains a substantial foothold on the East Coast where in addition to a 12,000 square foot suburban mansion-sized triplex on Fifth Avenue that he picked up in 2012 for $54 million from international socialite songwriter Denise Rich and he maintains a two-plus acre ocean front estate along one of the swankiest streets in East Hampton, N.Y., he scooped up in 2016 for a mouth-drying $70 million .
Listing photos: Douglas Elliman
