Los Angeles

Last year, preservation-minded fans of midcentury modern architecture were devastated when another one of L.A.’s historic gems was surreptitiously demolished with little warning. Located on one of Brentwood’s most prestigious streets, the so-called Zimmerman House by modernist architect Craig Ellwood was razed in a matter of days. In its place, a new and much larger mansion is currently rising.

According to the USModernist nonprofit, the Zimmerman house was commissioned in 1949 by Martin and Eva Zimmerman, and completed in 1950. Once featured in Progressive Architecture magazine, the 0.83-acre estate featured gardens and mature trees carefully placed by esteemed landscape designer Garrett Eckbo. Inside, the blocky modernist structure offered five bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,770 square feet of single-story living space.

Completed in 1950, the Zimmerman House was one of pioneering modernist architect Craig Ellwood’s earliest projects.

Julius Schulman/The J. Paul Getty Trust/Getty Research Institute

The house changed hands in 1968 and again in 1975, when it sold for the paltry sum of $205,000 to Sam and Hilda Rolfe, he the co-creator of the classic 1960s spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the CBS series Have Gun — Will Travel. Sam Rolfe died in 1993, but his widow Hilda continued to own and reside at the property until her own death nearly 30 years later.

Although the Zimmerman house was never listed on the open market, the property was quietly sold last January, just months after Hilda’s death, for $12.5 million. The off-market buyers were Hollywood actor Chris Pratt and author Katherine Schwarzenegger, who wasted little time in demolishing the midcentury structure to make way for their own new Brentwood dream home—which is currently still in the early stages of construction.

After buying the property for $12.5 million, Pratt and Schwarzenegger quickly razed the house.

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Permit records indicate the upcoming new house, which stands two stories tall and includes a full basement, was designed by prolific L.A. architect Ken Ungar, perhaps one of the Westside’s most prolific and successful designers of large modern farmhouse-style mansions.

The property will also contain a backyard swimming pool, plus a pool house or poolside cabana of some sort. No word about whether it will feature a full-size tennis court, however, as the original Zimmerman property did.

The Zimmerman House (right) sits almost directly across the street from two Brentwood homes owned by Maria Shriver.

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It’s probably little wonder that Pratt and Schwarzenegger selected the Zimmerman house as the lot they wanted, because the tree-shaded property happens to sit almost directly across the street from a two-house compound owned by Schwarzenegger’s mother Maria Shriver. Other nearby neighbors include Arianna Huffington and Sofia Richie.

While they wait for their new Brentwood digs to be completed, Pratt and Schwarzenegger continue to own their “old” house, a heavily renovated mansion in the hills of Pacific Palisades. The contemporary Mediterranean-style manor, given an extensive refresh during the couple’s tenure, remains on the open market, asking $30 million. More

Three years ago, Jenny Jones—who long lived in L.A.’s exclusive Mulholland Estates community—bought a $3.7 million house in the far-flung L.A. suburb of Westlake Village, within the posh Sherwood Country Club guard-gated enclave. The house, which sits on a particularly pretty 0.67-acre lot with views of golf greens and the surrounding hills, offers four bedrooms and 4.5 baths in nearly 5,000 square feet of luxe living space. So it’s not entirely surprising that records reveal Jones has now sold her old L.A. house, in an $8 million deal inked last month.

Though she may no longer sport a high-profile name recognizable to most young people, Jenny Jones was a talk show titan of her day, right up there with veterans that included Geraldo Rivera, Phil Donahue, Leeza Gibbons, Arsenio Hall and Rosie O’Donnell. Originally introduced in 1991, The Jenny Jones Show lasted until 2003, and during its run the series helped usher in a new wave of internet-fueled, more intimate pop culture.

Jones, now 77 and born in Palestine but raised in Canada, enjoyed 12 lucrative years of TV syndication through her Warner Bros. distributor. In its first two seasons, her show had a traditional, Oprah-style talk show bent, but later seasons moved toward Maury Povitch and Jerry Springer territory with themes that included paternity tests and makeovers for strippers. Unfortunately, The Jenny Jones Show is probably best-remembered today for its part in a 1995 murder; in March, a Michigan man named Scott Amedure and his neighbor Jonathan Schmitz were featured on a taped episode in which Amedure confessed his love to an unsuspecting Schmitz. Three days later, Schmitz shot and killed Amedure. (Though Amedure’s family later sued Jones’ show for $25 million and initially won, the case was ultimately overturned.)

Located in an exclusive gated community, the 90210 estate was owned by Jones for nearly 20 years.

As for Jones’s old Mulholland Estates house, the large clapboard-sided, Cape Cod-inspired traditional mansion sits high in the mountains between Beverly Hills and Sherman Oaks. Though the $8 million deal was inked off-market, thus rendering photos and details scant, tax records indicate the 7,600-square-foot residence features five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. While the home’s new owners are not famous the ex-Jones property sits right next door to the longtime home of reality TV superstar Kendall Jenner. Other celebrity homeowners in the same neighborhood include Christina Aguilera, Rob Dyrdek, Vanna White and Paris Hilton.

Built in 1991, Jones acquired the property in 2005 for $6.4 million. Other features and amenities include a lagoon-style pool and spa surrounded by a flagstone patio and white picket fence, a private tennis court and a three-car garage, all of it set on a nearly one-acre lot shaded by mature trees. More

In June 1983, less than a month after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi debuted in movie theaters, Harrison Ford paid exactly $1 million for this genteel Los Angeles estate. Originally designed by noted architect Gerard Colcord, the Brentwood house served as Ford’s home base for nearly 30 years, until he sold it in 2012 for $8.2 million to Kevin Reilly, the former Chief Content Officer of HBO Max.

Reilly held onto the house for just four years, flipping it in 2016 for $12 million to Evan Spiegel, the billionaire Snapchat CEO who is married to model Miranda Kerr. After about eight years in residence, Spiegel and Kerr recently packed up and moved out of the place—not really such a surprise, considering their new $120 million mega-estate in the nearby Holmby Hills neighborhood is finally nearing completion.

Now on the market, the house and its 0.8 acres of land are available for just under $20 million. Listing information shows the main mansion, set on a knoll high above the street and just below The Getty Museum, was originally built in 1951 and encompasses 7,164 square feet with four bedrooms, all of them with ensuite bathrooms. There’s an additional poolside guesthouse, plus a detached guesthouse with two additional guest suites. There are a total of seven bathrooms on the property, according to listing information.

The hillside property features several separate structures, plus a swimming pool and lush gardens.

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The main house features a two-story foyer with custom wood paneling, a very large formal living room, a wood-paneled formal dining room, and a more intimate library and family room, nearly all of which feature extensive built-in cabinetry and beautiful moldings. There’s also an eat-in, updated kitchen with skylights, marble countertops and top-of-the-line appliances that include a glass-fronted SubZero refrigerator. Additional rooms and amenities are not limited to an office, wine cellar, and four original fireplaces.

The gated estate has a long and gated driveway that climbs to a circular motorcourt and two-car attached garage, terraced gardens, brick terraces, tree-ringed flat lawns dappled with shade, and several upper-level balconies with treetop city views.

Ford still splits his time between Brentwood, where he long ago moved on to a larger home in the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood pocket, and Wyoming’s Jackson Hole community, where he’s long owned a stunningly picturesque ranch just south of downtown. More