Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Maurice Marciano Goes Modern In Beverly Hills

BUYER: Maurice Marciano
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $10,000,000
SIZE: 9,000 square feet (approx.), 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Oh lo-ward children Your Mama has people streaming in and out of our house for days, tying up the guest room and taking up more of our time than we got to give. We love us some house guests, especially when those house guests are Bunny, Flower and the Chicken, but they are just so damn distracting. So forgive us out "just the facts maam" point of view today.

Anyhoo, today we're going to pop over to Beverly Hills, CA to discuss a fully renovated and very contemporary house that property records reveal was recently purchased by denim tycoon Maurice Marciano for a spine tingling $10,000,000.

Along with his two brothers, Mister Marciano is the co-founder and current chairman of Guess?, the company that made tight jeans sexy in the early 1980s, introduced and inflicted stone washed denim into the market and, for better or worse, made that tortured and deceased Anna Nicole Smith ladeee a household name.

Located just a stone's throw from Greystone Park and a block down from the mansion Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman bought from Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne for $11,500,000 back in the summer of 2007, the rehabilitated residence was did up and done over by a group that include Michael Hahn and John Bersci. These group of high end house flippers–for those who do not recognize their names–are responsible for a fair number of high end house flips in the Platinum Triangle including the Holmby Hills house that billionaire Ron Tutor bought in October of 2009 for $13,200,000.

Property records show that Mister Hahn purchased the property in August of 2006 for $6,000,000. At the time it was purchased, the house was a real mid-century modern fixer with outdated everything, shag carpeting and an indoor swimming pool. The overhaul did away with the indoor pool and replaced most of the more authentic mid-century elements with a new-fangled, sexed-up and very L.A. kind of contemporary with vast expanses of glass that slide back into the walls, lots of right angles and clean lines, and scads of sleek surfaces that include white marble floors throughout much of the house, rich paneling in the dining room and a horizontally striated material in the master bathroom that is of an unknown material but looks far to perfect to be natural.

Prior to the renovation and expansion, the single story house measured 4,651 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 5 poopers. Now, according to listing information, the super slick crib weighs in at approximately 9,000 square feet and includes 5 bedrooms, 7 poopers, several water features, 6 fireplaces and off-street parking for up to 20 automobiles. The winter white interior spaces flow organically into each other making for a perfect party house but not one that feels particularly cozy except, not even the screening room that space feels oddly proportioned and a week bit big and square to feel like the sort of room we'd want to curl up on the velveteen sofa and spend the evening watching those ca-ray-zee bitches from The Real Housewives of New york City who are going to eviscerate each other this season right on national freaking tee-vee. Fortunately there is another, more intimately scaled room wrapped in paneling and warmed by a fireplace for long evening with a pitcher of gin & tonics and the boob-toob.

The u-shaped residence wraps around an interior courtyard where a flat green lawn surrounds a rectangular swimming pool and party-sized spa. Many of the rooms open to the courtyard/backyard through massive walls of glass that slide open and disappear into the walls blurring the distinction between what is indoors and what is outdoors. The kitchen not only opens to the exteriors through big panes of glass it's flanked by a couple of private patios, one for cocktailing and the other with a built in barbecue center with a mirrored back splash that was, in our humble and meaningless opinion, a mistake.

Given that property records show that Mister Marciano continues to own a 19,299 square foot beast on 2.69 acres in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills that he purchased in April of 1987 for $2,825,000, it's unclear if he plans to downsize and occupy the new house or if here is some other reason that he'd want to spend ten million smackers for a house in a town where he already owns a serious estate. Records show the Benedict Canyon domicile contains 8 bedrooms and an unlucky 13 poopers, a number that ensures that Mister Marciano would never be able to poach our hardworking–and autocratic–house gurl Svetlana who will not go anywhere near a house with 13 of anything, particularly 13 terlits.

Previous reports show that in August of 2006 Mister Marciano scooped up another house in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly hills paying $3,750,000 for a 4,000 square foot house with 4 bedrooms and 4 poopers. He flipped the property just a year later at a $50,000 loss and quickly snatched up a 2,325 square foot Bev Hills condo for $1,600,000.

20 comments:

StPaulSnowman said...

Sveta lives!........and would love this stern modern with so few knickknacks to dust or be at risk during her foul moods.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous. That, to my non-Californian mind, is what a house in Beverly Hills should look like. With a good decorator, and a serious art collection, the house could be truly amazing.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, I think it's heinous.. There is not one thing I can say I like about the house except it's location...

Anonymous said...

It looks like a bank branch in Columbia, MD.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't this same gentleman from Guess? associated with the manse at 1000 N. Crescent Drive, the house that now has all the Ferraris under yellow covers, which is almost across the street from Kurt Rappaport, real estate agent to the stars?

Incidentally, does anyone know whatever happened to his house on N. Crescent which he was trying to flip for double what he paid for it?

Anonymous said...

no, that was his bro georges,
who besides running for guv'ner
lost a lawsuit in which he owes employees
millions and millions of guess dinero.
e

Anonymous said...

Far too cold for comfortable living, in spite of the weird and cilly pool table.

Joshua said...

Hey, Carla ridge, this is one of the most beautiful renovationsnof an mcm I have ever seen. Have any cool info about it? I'll be on fb.

Babe Parish said...

Men like that live, eat, breathe and talk garmento bidness 24/7, so it's nooo accident that every damn room looks like a conference room. I, for one, am partial to homes that remind me of my catholic high school campus, so I would be happy here as well. Now if he could just do SOMETHING about those horrendous purses he keeps peddling to every coke whore between Sunset and Wilshire Boulevards.

Anonymous said...

The house is sterile, but I'd take it.
The 12/15/09 LA Times article about his bro Georges is worth a read.
-j

Anonymous said...

Perfect except for the hideous pool table with the giant Queen Anne legs. So much attention to detail makes it even more objectionable.

Anonymous said...

Down from original listing price of $14.5M - what a steal!

What I want to know is in the fourth photo from the top on the right hand side, what is it that looks like it's floating above the daybed?

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:16 is it the handle on the glass door. Camera angle playing tricks.

Anonymous said...

One wonders about the emotions of a man whose life is about women's clothing and remodeling houses. Ann

Anonymous said...

Marcus Schneimann-
They have commissioned contemporary artist Craig Baskin www.craigbaskin.com to create one of his modern paintings for the public area. His work sells in the $30k range. One guesses the Guess biz is booming for Mr. M.

Candi Speling said...

this is too hotel-like for my tastes---think W---but I must say I still wear Guess jeans. I'm 45 years old and they still fit wonderfully. of course, it helps that I have a nice ass even at my age. My word verification is "svetlana."

lil' gay boy said...

"I, for one, am partial to homes that remind me of my catholic high school campus, so I would be happy here as well…"

Babe, I'll show you my Catholic school scars if you show me yours…

;-)

Wherever did you attend school? My Catholic school (like so many of its era) resembled nothing so much as a pseudo-Gothic penal colony, stuffed to the rafters with prison matrons; um, I mean nuns… About as far from this MCM rigor as the RH of NYC are from any semblance of class or breeding (including the "countess").

And rigorous it is; a 21 century interpretation of what was considered the ne plus ultra of contemporary design back then (trust me, I was there). MCM's are a tricky palette, but this one has the bones & potential (with the right gay decorator, natch) to be a true showplace (if that's what you desire to live in). Love it or hate it, there's usually no middle ground with an MCM.

But had I the dosh, I could live with it, despite the mid-block, postage-stamp-sized lot.

But what real estate psycho touted "…off-street parking for up to 20 automobiles?" From the construction aerial it looks like they'd all have to be au courant Priuses ––– and given their current accelerator "malfunctions" would challenge even the most seasoned valet to shoehorn 20 of them into that space without launching himself through the living room, over the pool & spa for 4-point landing on the neighbor's tennis court (with a 10-point bonus for staying within the foul lines).

Anonymous said...

i kinda like this house, has a good courtyardish layout. has only a two car garage for a 9000 sq foot house. dont think you would get more than 3 or 4 cars in the front yard. that part of doheny rd is ugly! no view. no space between houses. terrible builder landscaping, think ficus benjamin. the first night he has a party and opens all those silly doors, the house will be full of fly, moths, spiders and mice! oh my.

Anonymous said...

The house is for his recently separated wife. The family is getting a divorce, the house he bought for her. He refused to move out of his house and bought the house for her when she asked to divorce.

Anonymous said...

He is currently with a new girl. She is abt 32 He works not stop. Very hard worker. He has about 10 expensive luxury cars. That are about 6 mil al together just at his benidict canyon estate He has live in maids. Personal chef Full time guards He bought the 9,000 sq house for his ex wife. She curently has a new boyfriend hereself. Here house can park about 8 cars.