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    You Can Own This Architecture Icon’s Personal L.A. Home for $5 Million

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    It’s rare to own a home from one of the greats of modernist architecture, especially one that remains true to the architect’s original design. It’s even more extraordinary to own one designed by the architect as his own home.

    Archived by the L.A. Conservancy as “Koenig House 2,” a 3,000-square-foot residence in L.A.’s Brentwood neighborhood that midcentury master Pierre Koenig built in 1985 as his personal residence is now available for $4.995 million. Aaron Kirman and Dalton Gomez of AKG | Christie’s International Real Estate hold the listing.

    Koenig died in 2004 at the age of 78, and his wife Gloria owned the carefully maintained home until 2017, when it was sold for almost $3.5 million. The kitchen and bathrooms have since been updated in a manner that respects and complements Koenig’s original designs.

    The multipurpose, open-plan living area includes a fireside lounge and a cozy library nook.

    Matthew Momberger

    A series of interconnected cubic volumes that step back from the street, the home represents the late-career apotheosis of the innovative architect’s design ethos and his vision for residential architecture in the 21st century. Koenig was an early adopter and champion of industrial, prefabricated, and economical materials, and his designs often made use of natural ventilation.

    The three-bedroom and two-and-a-half-bath home’s I-beam steel-frame armature supports vast expanses of glass and a 30-foot ceiling in the central atrium that is crisscrossed by a geometric assemblage of bridges and staircases. Beyond the secured gates and serene courtyard entry, the main-floor living spaces include a fireside lounge, a cozy, shelf-lined library nook, and a sleekly updated, open-plan kitchen and dining area that spills out to the swimming pool.

    Interior glass walls allow light from the 30-foot-tall atrium to filter into the upper-level bedrooms.

    Matthew Momberger

    The 30-foot interior atrium creates a vertical space where, on hot days, warm air rises and escapes through the atrium to cool the home. Clerestory windows shower the atrium with natural light, and interior walls of glass allow the sunlight to filter into the upper-level bedrooms. And because the Koenigs were music lovers, ceiling heights were carefully planned for an optimal environment for listening to and playing music.

    At the back, between the house and a detached garage, a courtyard patio has a small swimming pool with an automated cover. The back of the garage cleverly peels open to create a huge, covered patio for alfresco entertaining.

    Koenig is best known for Case Study House #22 (the Stahl House) in the Hollywood Hills, often cited as one of the most photographed houses in the world. The previous year, he designed the less dramatically sited yet no less innovative Case Study House #21 (Bailey House), also in the Hollywood Hills, for which he and Gloria posed for promotional photographs.

    Click here for more photos of Pierre Koenig’s former home at 12221 Dorothy Street.

    Matthew Momberger More

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      in Luxury

      This Tuscany-Inspired Texas Villa Has Ties to Hollywood

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      A Tuscan-inspired villa on the prosperous suburban outskirts of Austin, once owned by late, Texas-based screenwriter Warren Skaaren, has popped up for sale with an asking price just shy of $6.5 million. 

      Skaaren was the executive director of the Texas Film Commission before he began writing scripts. In 1986, he was hired to rewrite “Top Gun” (he’s credited as an associate producer) and is best known for his work on the late 1980s Tim Burton films “Beetlejuice” and “Batman.”

      Inspired by his travels to Tuscany, Skaaren custom built the home in 1984, according to listings held by Katherine Beckworth at Compass, and used it as his “personal writer’s retreat.” Skaaren died of bone cancer in 1990; he was just 44 years old. The property has subsequently had half a dozen owners, including the seller, who purchased the property in late 2021 for an unknown amount. (Texas is a non-disclosure state and, as such, does not make home sale prices public record.)

      A bubbly light fixture provides the dining room with a dash of modernity.

      Brian Cole Photography

      Known as Il Monastero, the 5,900-square-foot residence certainly feels secluded and monastic. Perched above a shallow, wooded ravine in a sunny clearing, the expertly crafted home offers rustic, patinated Old World sophistication along with all the creature comforts of a modern lifestyle. Inside and out are hand-laid patterned brick work, a combination of stone and wood floors, wrought-iron details, and chunky wooden beams across the ceilings. Contemporary light fixtures add panache.

      Just beyond the front door is a hand-carved Cordova stone staircase that gently curves up to the second floor. The step-down living room is dominated by a massive brick fireplace, and a modest study with a built-in desk features French doors that open to a walled patio. Huge picture windows in the living and dining rooms overlook the oak-covered hills that surround the property. The up-to-date kitchen, all white with stainless-steel appliances and lightly veined white marble (or marble-like) counters, is open over a snack bar to a casual lounge for TV watching.

      Interior details highlight the Il Monastero’s custom Cordova stone banisters and bespoke wrought-iron accents.

      Brian Cole Photography

      Among the five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms are a large guest suite with a private sitting area and a spacious primary suite with a bathroom rendered in black and shades of grey. 

      All around the house are walled courtyards and shaded patios, one of which includes a built-in grill. A raised loggia at the back of the house overlooks the swimming pool and the rolling hills. A spa spills into one end of the rectangular pool and, at the other, a pergola-topped stone wall shields a sunken sports court nestled into the treed slope below the house.

      As long as no one repeats the word Beetlejuice three times in a row (wink), Il Monastero is indeed a peaceful spot to reflect (and to entertain!) that’s just a short drive from the hustle-bustle of downtown.

      Click here for more photos of 3 Wren Valley Cove.

      Brian Cole Photography More

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      in Resort & Second Home

      SelgasCano’s kaleidoscopic Serpentine Pavilion is coming to LA

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      Selgascano’s candy-coloured Serpentine Pavilion is set to make its Los Angeles debut at the La Brea Tar Pits this summer, where it will host film screenings, talks and music.
      Workspace innovator Second Home has purchased and reopened the pavilion, ahead of launching its first US outpost in Hollywood later this summer. It will be hosting a programme of events in the whimsical tunnel, which will explore everything from diversity in entrepreneurship to discussions around how LA can become more sustainable.
      The 2015 Serpentine Pavilion installed at London’s Kensington Gardens. Photography: Iwan Baan
      Spanish studio SelgasCano designed the iridescent structure back in 2015 for the Serpentine Galleries’ yearly pavilion commission. The Spaces contributor Jonathan Bell described it as ‘a riotously colourful composition, sprawling across the lawn with four distinct tentacle-like entrance tunnels and windows’.
      Second Home will open the pavilion to the public on 28 June.
      Read next: Why pavilions are the new collector’s items More

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      in Resort & Second Home

      Second Home is buying the 2015 Serpentine Pavilion

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      Co-working pioneer Second Home is set to snap up this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Spanish practice Selgascano.
      Rohan Silva – Second Home’s co-founder and a former government technology advisor – told Business Insider UK that he is paying a six-figure sum for the candy-coloured pavilion, which opened in Hyde Park this week.
      The co-working group – whose Shoreditch space is also designed by Selgascano – revealed what it has in store for its acquisition. ‘We’re taking it to LA next year, and hosting a brilliant new programme of visual arts and live performances,’ it said via its Instagram.

      Silva will work with LA-based arts advocate Bettina Korek to put on cultural events inside the venue.
      ‘We really hope this will make cities more liveable and creative,’ Silva told Business Insider UK. ‘The idea over the years is to take it to other cities as well.’
      The 2015 Serpentine Pavilion, open to the public until mid-October, will be shipped to LA in 2016.
      Selgascano’s design is not the only pavilion to get a second home. Last year’s edition, designed by Smiljan Radic, is now a fixture at Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset gallery, while the 2012 pavilion by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei has taken up residence in Surrey’s Alderbrook Park. Some have travelled to sunnier climes, including Toyo Ito’s 2002 creation, which now sits in the grounds of a beachside hotel in Nice, France. More