Monday, April 7, 2008

Matthew Perry Makes It Modern

BUYER: Matthew Perry
LOCATION: Carman Crest Drive, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $4,475,000
SIZE: 2,893 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Presenting a spectacular modern home with soaring mountain, city & ocean views...Full floor master suite, white terrazzo floors, disappearing walls of glass, state-of-the-art audio, visual and security systems, chef's kitchen, pool/spa. Architecturally stunning and luxuriously appointed, this home is life in L.A. as imagined.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Way back in mid-February Your Mama heard from someone we'll call Charlie Chatter who whispered in our big ear that former Friends actor Matthew Perry purchased new digs in the OutPost Estates near Runyon Canyon in the Hills above Hollywood. Your Mama asked around and peeked and poked in property records, but at the time we were unable to confirm Charlie Chatter's idle gossip.

That is until the other day, when we received a fervid and turgid communication from our ever so well informed pal Lucy Spillerguts who squealed to Your Mama that Mister Perry had indeed bought himself a new house on Carman Crest Drive that had been listed at $4,500,000 and the records we were able to access reveal a purchase price of $4,475,000. Now children, four and a half million clams is a lot of money to most people, including Your Mama, but it's really just pennies for a man like Mister Perry who no doubt rakes in gigantic piles of paper money from Friends residuals.

Property and tax records show the freshly rehabbed habitat measures in at a modest sounding 2,893 square feet. However it's possible that number is a wee bit outdated and short of the actual size. Listing information shows the house includes 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms with the master suite privately occupying the entire second floor where Mister Perry and his ladee lovers will be able to enjoy spine tingling views over the glittering carpet of Los Angeles lights without ever having to leave the big bed.

The house was clearly staged to within an inch of is contemporary life, so there's not need for Your Mama to spend much time discussing or dissing the beige and brown monochromatic color scheme. Unless Mister Perry purchased the place furnished, and we sincerely hope he did not, all that micro-suede and and animal skin will be hauled out by a team of burly mover men long before Mister Perry gets his nice gay decorator up in there to work the rooms into the smooth, sexy and stylish Hollywood Hills hideaway fit for a ladees man like Mister Perry.

Although it has zee-roe to do with real estate, Your Mama feels strangely compelled to include a partial and impressive list of Mister Perry's big name and leading ladee romantic conquests. Because from the looks of things, Mister Perry is going to go down (oops, did we say that?) a legendary Lothario much like the still vi-rile Mister Jack Nicholson whose little black book is no doubt a giant Rolodex of Hollywood hotties. Among the long list of ladees Mister Perry is said to have wined and dined we find Amanda Peete, Lara Flynn Boyle (who we regret to inform isn't looking so twig thin and lovely lately), Julia Roberts, Renee Zellweger, Heather Graham and Lauren Graham, long-ish time gurly friend Rachel Duunn, Sheryl Crow and that poor Meg Ryan. And there's even more children.

Anyhoo, back to Mister Perry's new crib in the hills...We do like the white terrazo floors although they would be an absolute nightmare for Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter's housegurl Svetlana to keep free of our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly's itty bitty paw prints. We'd never hear the end of her (justified) complaining about the humiliation of her having to follow the pooches around on her hands and knees, so from a practical point of view, this house is O.U.T. for us. However, being dog people, we're digging the close to Runyon Canyon location, we're speechless over the mesmerizing views and the petite plunge pool and spa are working our g spot even if we think the yard could use a little creative landscaping to soften up some of the cold and hard edges.

We do detect a a vague motel-ish thing happening on the rear facade that was given a once over by architect Scott Carty, but given that all the floor to ceilings windows slide open to effectively create dee-luxe covered porches, we can live with it. However, we do think the property would benefit the eye and soul to have some actual color injected into the room s in order to differentiate the interior spaces, which are painted a gleaming gallery white, from the exterior spaces which are also quite white. There's nothing here that can't be fixed with a little dough (which Mister Perry has plenty of) and a nice gay decorator with a solid ability to deal with color.

Property records show that Mister Perry continues to own a 2-bedroom unit on the 22nd floor at the celebrity filled Sierra Towers condo complex on Doheny Road, which he picked up in April of 2005, as well as the 3,677 square foot ocean view house on Malee-boo's swanky Sweetwater Mesa Road that records reveal he (also) purchased in April of 2005 for $6,550,000.

Your Mama wishes Mister Perry a happy new home in the Hollywood Hills where he can whisk his big name dates in and out without all the doorman and valets at the Sierra Towers making mental notes of his every romantic move.

P.S. That glitzy dining room chandelier should probably be given the heave-ho along with all the brown and beige day-core.

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.2415carmancrest.com/ :)

Anonymous said...

I saw this house when it first caravaned for brokers. Great backyard... really nice kitchen... I liked the downstairs in general... but something tells me that they cut corners with the terrazzo flooring, which was evidenced by a thin veneer that was visible when you reached the upstairs landing. Top dollar for that street... but it is Outpost, just not the prettiest part of Outpost.

Anonymous said...

Ohh.. now this is modern design I really, really like.. crisp architecture with clean lines that has a warmth to it and feels inviting too - not cold, sterile and seen it all before like the impression so many rehabs leave you with. I love this house. Matthew's taste in real estate just took a quantum leap forward when compared to the oversized, suburban pile he lived in previously.

Anonymous said...

which oversized, suburban pile? Are you sure you dont mean Matt LeBlanc's huge house in Hidden Hills he was selling a couple of years ago?

Anonymous said...

Mama

You missed his property on Clinton Place in Beverly Hills ... I believe he owns a property there which he lived in before Sierra Towers - I don't think he sold it - anyone? Think it's 630 Clinton Place, could be wrong but I'm positive he lived there & still owns it.

Anonymous said...

I watched this house being renovated since it sits about 3 feet away from my fay-vor-ITE house in the Hills.

Nice, but not as nice as its next door neighbor IMO.

2407 Carman Crest

Anonymous said...

love it, love it, love it!

Alessandra said...

I like it, at least in the pictures. The kitchen design might give me fits, but if some of those drawers are refrigerated, I could cope (I assume that the wall to the left holds the Sub-Zero).

It looks spacious and gracious, and it has stunning views. I would prefer a more useful lap pool, but Matthew Perry doesn't seem like a swimming laps kind of guy.

All in all, it appears to be quite livable and the price isn't crazy, either. If only Studio 60 still existed...

Anonymous said...

This was my favourite in la. Now that we are talking about Lothario why not some nice information about pitt-jolie great Malibu place with superb terrace overlooking the ocean.Merci beaucoup

pch said...

Nothing especially objectionable here. But this architecture isn't the timeless modern that'll still look fresh in 10 or 15 years. Mostly because it uses all the elements of a currently fashionable aesthetic, but stops short of putting them together in a particularly compelling way. It's swanky to 2008 eyes. But -- in my opinion -- it won't age as well as a house with this design vocabulary could.

so_chic_darling said...

Take all the furniture and lighting out please and bring me a wet swiffer to deal with the floors.
This is my kind of lovely!

Anonymous said...

so_chic-darling ... Exactly. And wasn't it last time this partic. stager beiged-out a modern that I asked you what you'd do with it. Déjà vu.

PCH ... I feel so pedestrian when reading your sub-surface observations. Makes me feel like "this comment was written by a professional. Do not try this at home." Good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:04, yup.. the Hidden Hills suburban pile is the one I was referring to, and if I'm not mistaken, it seems to me it sold less than a year ago.

Anonymous said...

PCH, maybe I'm not forward thinking enough, but I don't see much of anything about this home's esthetic that triggers concerns about how it will hold up design wise.

Anonymous said...

I usually like contemporary architecture (I live in a '66 mid-century modern myself), but there's something off about this house that makes me not like it, that I can't put my finger on...something about the front & rear facade maybe, I don't know...I'm anxiously awaiting to see if Charlton Heston's gorgeous mid-century estate at the tippy-top of Coldwater Canyon Drive (and it's a true estate, with guest house, tennis court, etc, which will surely make Mama happy, LOL) goes on the market soon, and if so, for how much...I also wonder how updated the inside is...anyone want to venture a guess at the list price if it does hit the market? ;-)

Anonymous said...

FYI casa Heston is 2859 Coldwater Canyon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA...property records indicate a 5,082 sf home built in 1959 on just over 3 acres...Zillow pegs it @ a mere $3-million, which seems very low to me, though we all know how inaccurate Zillow can be in LA...anyway, back to Matt Perry's place...good to see that as a single guy, he keeps his residence(s) tasteful (Even if I'm not a huge fan of the Carmen Crest house, at least it isn't Crass...) and well proportioned for a single guy, not looking like so many ridiculous Hollywood fools prattering around cavernous, half-furnished mansions all by their lonesome selves...;-)

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:52...property records indicate that 630 Clinton Place in 90210 was sold back in 10/2005 by an "Alvy Singer Trust" to a "Dean Avedon"....as far as I know, "Alvy Singer Trust" is the trust Perry purchases (at least some) of his homes under, so it looks like he did indeed sell the place before buying his current crop of residences...sale price wasn't disclosed on the records I checked though, sorry...;-)

Anonymous said...

Hmm, something about this house makes me want to just stand on the terrace with a drink, looking out over the city, or even into the house, without ever wanting to actually enter the house!? It seems pokey, weird and relentlessly lit. Even dimmed, all those bulbs seem underbelly-of-a- flying-saucer-ish to me.

I do love the exterior lines, though.

All those windows, who has the time? I'm so anal the view would be constantly marred by a harried, stalked and incredibly pissed off housekeeper with a bottle of Windex fused to one hand a roll of paper towel fused to the other, cursing the day she entered my home.

**Alessandra** - cheers on your family news! Two is nice. I've just shaved my head upon return from a family "vacation," as my 36 year old salt and pepper looked decidedly 46 after herding my kids up and down the slopes for a week :)

Morning sickness, bummer. My wife, pregnant with our 4th and 5th, turned to me in the elevator after leaving a party one night and said, "If one more person waxes to me about the miracle of pregnancy, I will throw up... on them." She loves being a mom, hated being pregnant with them.

I wish you and your husband all the best.

Anonymous said...

what do you think lgb?
ur 2 quiet.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Bigdaddy ...

I knew he owned it but wasn't sure if he sold it quietly when he moved to Sierra Towers. I hadn't heard that he had sold it & didn't see Ruth Ryon pick up on it etc.. so just assumed he still owned it ...

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:31...welcome...I'll caveat that by saying that "Dean Avedon" does appear to be an accountant in LA, so it might be wholly possible that Perry does indeed still own the place, but transferred it into the name of his money manager for some reason...the public records indicated a sale price of $0, so who knows...at the very least, ownership on 630 Clinto was transferred back in 10/2005...;-)

Anonymous said...

^

Yeah, that does sound like he still owns it.

Mama, get onto your LA realtor tipsters & find out if he still owns the Beverly Hills abode & just transferred ownership ... I want to know why he doesn't live in it & relocated down the hill to Doheny Rd!

Anonymous said...

^

O.K, according to Mr Bigtime he did indeed sell the Beverly Hills house for $6.1M in late 2005. Guess that clears that up then!

Anonymous said...

Just took some birds-eye and street-level views of the 630 Clinton PL house...very cool, dark, modern, set further back from the street...personally, I think I'd rather live there than the new place on Carman Crest (damn that Carman Crest house is close to the street!)...also, Trousdale seems to me to be more prestigious than Carmen Crest...all the houses on Carman Crest are shoulder to shoulder and right up on the street, and Carman Crest ain't the Birds...seems like a downgrade to me, both architecturally and prestige/privacy-wise...;-)

Anonymous said...

^

Thats why I couldn't understand the reason he would sell his Trousdale property to live in an apartment at Sierra Towers - The only reason I can think of would be security - Didn't he have a stalker a while back? Perhaps I'm getting him mixed up with someone else but if he did then being at Sierra Towers is like living in Fort Knox!

StPaulSnowman said...

Forget the house, forget the star, can I determine that Mama and her groinocologist have a pair of dachshunds........how perfect. No more wonder creatures for our perfect Mama.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know who the seller was? I know I've seen this listing before and I can't remember how or why I came across it.

Alessandra said...

Of course, the recessed lighting must go.

pch, I think I know where you're going with your comments about it not standing the test of time. There is nothing about it (except the views) that will inspire one in fifty years from now. Yet, it does look like a comfortable home and that carries some weight from a design perspective.

Btw, where is LGB?

--Off Topic to Bentley--

Thanks for the good wishes. There are two kinds of pregnant women: those who love every minute and can't wait to do it again, and those who find it to be something of a minor inconvenience and are ready to evict the kid one minute past its due date. I fall into the latter category, and I suspect your wife does as well. Yes, one does *glow* and look like a radiant Madonna, but it's infinitely more fun once the baby arrives than when it's kicking one in the bladder every five seconds at 2am.

And I hope that you did enjoy the ski vacation. What a wonderful family retreat! Once I get my ACL repaired, I want to be back on the slopes, teaching the kids how to schuss with ease (or handing them over to some delightful young ski instructor while I hang out at the lodge with a hot toddy).

Anonymous said...

Just came across a website for Perry's old place at 630 Clinton Place in Trousdale -> http://630clinton.com/ -> Personally, I like this place much more than the one he just bought on Carman Crest...though, the copyright on the site is 2007, so I don't know if this is exactly what it looked like when Perry owned it, or if this means the new owner is getting ready to list it, but just figured I'd let the children know...you be the judge, but I consider the house on Carman Crest to be a downgrade from this place on Clinton...;-)

Anonymous said...

^

Good find B.Dj ...

I love it, apart from the carpets! I just don't understand why anyone would leave this place for an apartment - unless he just wanted to downsize. Strange.

Anonymous said...

I have nothing bad to say about this house; I love it.
The wood is rather too dark for my taste, and I'd probably have the stair balustrade changed before I moved in, but really, I'm nit-picking. It is lovely.

Flora

Anonymous said...

To me the house on Clinton Place looks dated, and has an office building vibe to it, which is interesting in light of the preference for it expressed by some along with concerns about how the Carman Crest home's design will hold up over time. Each to their own I guess.

Anonymous said...

While I know your LA area a bit, I don't really know the differenence between the locations of this house and the Clinton house, so I can't compare in that regard. But while I really like this house, I really love the Clinton house. I agree with Anon 5:41 in that it's a bit dated, but somehow that's part of the appeal to me - it house a little '70s modern vibe, without looking retro.

Anonymous said...

Well, like I said, I live in a '66 mid-century modern, so I'm partial to the architectural style...also, just an FYI, I never take furniture or carpeting too seriously when deciding if I like a place, since that's so easily changed once you move in...this place, though, I just love for some reason...the glass atriums, the soaring interior spaces, the dark, foreboding facade it presents to the street...if you could have sex with a house, I'd be cheating on my current residence with that place, LOL...;-)

Anonymous said...

The only other LA house to go on the market in the past 5 years or so that I love as much as this place was the '72 Hal Leavitt (I'm pretty sure it was a Leavitt) at 1076 Brooklawn drive in Holmby Hills that sold for around $10.9 million or so back in 2005 or early 2006, if anyone remembers it (sorry, haven't had any luck finding pics or an active link for that one anymore....;-)

Anonymous said...

Correction...1076 Brooklawn in Holmby is a 1972 A. Quincy Jones, not a Hal Leavitt...and I was able to find a link with some pics -> http://www.efg7.com/architect/other_architects/quincyjones/index.htm -> so check it out if you get a chance...I would say that this place and (now) 630 Clinton are my too favorite mid-century modern places that I've seen in LA as long as I've been watching the market (about 5 years or so now...)

Anonymous said...

When was 630 Clinton built?

Anonymous said...

bigdaddyj,

Thank you for the link. I'm with you.

The Quincy Jones home is deliciously exquisite. Everything about it is pure perfection (in my eyes).

Anonymous said...

Wow - I couldn't agree more. My personal tastes and situation require more traditional styles, but that is a stunner. Send more of that if you have it, bigdaddyj, I'm intrigued.

I'm constantly floored by the architecture in LA. What a history.

Anonymous said...

Bentley,

The link from bgdaddyj has more embedded links at the bottom of the slideshow, showcasing other magnificent properties. The site belongs to a photographer who creates these presentations (I believe). W.O.W.

Anonymous said...

Right on, Sandpiper, I missed those.

Cheers,
b

Anonymous said...

That photog, Everett Fenton Gidley, is personally responsible for my obsession with LA real estate, even though I live in Philadelphia & Savannah, Georgia - I love his virtual tours, they're so much more thorough than anything we get on the east coast! IMO his virtual tour websites are the gold standard, and I sometimes Google for hours trying to find if a house has a website by him if it's not linked on the MLS or realtors website (which often they aren't...I've even hacked a few of his password protected sites just to glimpse some of the best LA properties...figured I'd give him a plug!!! And no, I'm not him!!! LOL

Anonymous said...

I guess Matthew rode the elevator in Sierra Towers with Joan Collins just one too many times. Joan Collins 1, Matthew Perry 0.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I finally get to say that I've been in one of the houses everyone is talking about and it was the A Quincy Jones on Brooklawn! The woman who owned the home is fabulous and a major donor to MOCA (notice the Ed Ruscha next to the staircase)and it was a MOCA event. It was amazing to be there and at the time I didn't realize the lineage of the house and architect, now I do...very cool! She sold it, no idea to who...BTW, Mama, you're the best!

Anonymous said...

Great link, BDJ, thanks. I am now obsessed with that site.

I'll ask again, since no one answered!! - does anyone know when 630 Clinton was built? I really love that house.

Anonymous said...

BigdaddyJ,
Once again, thank y.o.u. !!! It's in my favorites tab...pure eye candy.

Hi 5:42,
A noogie for your insistance of build date for 630. LOL / kidding!

I'm looking for it. No idea if I'll be successful. Not as if anyone's holding back on you. There's no directory for this stuff. :)

Anonymous said...

5:42 here, Sandpiper...LOL...I can take it.

I googled, I searched (ok, just a little - I am trying to do some work and this website already diverts too much of my attention)...and nada. I only asked again because I didn't want the thread to die out and be forgotten! I was surprised when Bugdaddy said 630 Clinton was mid-century - looked much later to me, so I'm very curious.

Anonymous said...

Okay my little friend! I would not forget you.

Gen-u-ine public records say build date is: "1973/1980."

We can likely estrapolate the 1980 mention to be a redmodel. Just guessing.

Happy dance all around.

Anonymous said...

Good work, Sandpiper. Many thanks.

OK, so perhaps not quite mid-century, but not quite as new as I had originally thought. Great house, has a bit of a James Bond feel, with a new kitchen.

Anonymous said...

My pleasure!

And '73 still displayed some 60s influence, so I can see the thin line of speculation on build date.

Groovy!

Anonymous said...

Yes, you're right about the effect the '60s would have on 1973, but having been born in the '60s, I couldn't quite think of that as mid-century.

But I guess it was. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

I've always considered "mid-century modern" to be a blanket term for a specific style of contemporary home design that was prevelant from the late 1930's through the mid-late 1970's, and essentially to be more evocative of a style of architecture rather than the date...but hey, I could be wrong...also, a lot of the great "mid-century modern" masters (Lautner, Levitt, Jones, etc) were also active well into the late 1970's and beyond, yet even their later designs were still very much in the same stylistic vein as their earlier, true "mid-century" (from a chronological perspective) works...;-)

Anonymous said...

Hello everyone, does anyone know the address of the new Matthew Perry house, becuase I've past by it but I cant seem to see the address.

Thank you in advance,