Monday, March 17, 2014

British Boy Bander Harry Styles Buys Bev Hills Bachelor Pad

BUYER: Harry Styles
LOCATION: Beverly Hills, CA
PRICE: $4,000,000
SIZE: 3,000-ish square feet, 5 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms (total)

YOUR MAMAS NOTES. Although Your Mama first heard word of this several weeks ago from out long-time celebrity real estate informant Peter Propertyseller we're not, unfortunately, the first property gossip to reveal that British bubble gum pop boy bander Harry Styles bought a bachelor pad mini-compound on a gated, celeb-approved street in the Post Office area of Beverly Hills*

According to our sources, Mister Styles—just twenty years old, wild-maned, prodigiously tatted up and one of vindictive pop country superstar Taylor Swift's ex-boyfriends—purchased the property via trust in late February for, according to property records, exactly $4,000,000. (Your Mama's handy-dandy currency conversion contraption says that equals £2,401,810 and €2,874,600 at today's rates.)

Listing details show the glassy, post and beam-built main house was originally built in 1967 and later reworked by Bogata, Columbia-born and L.A.-based contemporary architect Alejandro Ortiz who, amongst other modernizing conceits, wrapped the exterior in a unifying skin of thin, horizontal wood slats. Listing details don't indicate the square footage of the residence but the Los Angeles County Tax Man puts it at 2,820, a figure that may or may not be accurate and probably does not include the detached guest house tucked under the street-level three-car garage.

A gated entry at the street opens to an unexpectedly and exceptionally long, tree- and vine-enshrouded elevated covered bridge that spans and overlooks a lushly landscaped sunken central courtyard. While this is certainly an unusual feature sure to be a topic of conversation at all of Mister Styles's future pool and dinner parties it also means Hortencia the Housekeeper will need to be paid extra a few extra shekels to schlep the groceries all the way from the driveway and garage. Anyways...

The (rather fuzzy) floor plan included with digital marketing materials suggests there are four or possibly five bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms spread throughout the three story main residence. They include a pair of canyon-view guest/family bedrooms that share a hall bathroom and a garden level master suite with two walk-in closets and a compartmentalized bathroom. Entire walls of glass on opposite ends of the master bedroom provide direct access to a slender veranda that overlooks the rugged canyon behind that house and a semi-private outdoor lounge that opens to the verdant central courtyard.

Wood floors extend throughout the uppermost main level where an open-concept main living space a a frosted glass-faced fireplace and both canyon and courtyard views in the living area and a wet bar and a long wall of canyon view floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining area.

The well-equipped kitchen a sleek white and off-white cabinetry topped with bright orange counter tops. Now, children, nobody loves the color orange more than Your Mama. Indeed we have a newly installed shower coated entirely in tangerine-hued glass tiles. However, hunties, iffin we're being honest—and we always are—these electric orange counter tops in this kitchen give us the willies. Even more mortifying, however, is the amoebic, built-in snack bar peninsula that, frankly, does a lousy and odd job of dividing the kitchen area from the main living/dining area. Surely there is a better solution than this, right? But we digress...

More successful by this property gossips utterly meaningless opinion are the adjacent, tree house-like breakfast room and, at the opposite end of the house, a roomy den where a single, simple wood plank that serves as home office space spans the full width of the room in front of a solid wall of floor-to-ceiling glass.

The lowest level of the house has, as best as we can tell, an en-suite bedroom with private deck, a large laundry room, and a flexi-use room that opens to its own wrap-around deck that all but hangs over the canyon. The detached guest house—located, as we mentioned before, across the sunken courtyard from the main house under the street-level three car garage—has a combination living/dining/kitchen lined with simple plywood bookshelves, a separate bedroom, and a good-sized bathroom with separate tub and stall shower.

A series of shaded verandas and and multi-level decks linked by a dramatically and wonderfully wide stairway descends grandly from the upper level of the main house to the courtyard where in addition to a patch of grass large enough for a rousing, booze-fueled game of badminton—shuttlecock, anyone?—there's a simple, rectangular swimming pool backed by a towering, privacy-ensuring wall of trees and shrubs.

Some of Mister Styles's nearest neighbors in his new Bev Hills Post Office nabe include age-defying actress Demi Moore, Beverly Hills Housewives' Lisa Vanderpump and hubby Ken Todd, tennis-loving comedian Jon Lovitz, and veteran actor Jon Voight. Last October, celebrity real estate watchers will recall, Mark Wahlberg sold his long-time compound for almost $13 million and moved to a custom-built mega manse on more than six acres in the guard-gated Beverly Park development.

Mister Styles, like many famous folk of his vaunted stature, is ften rumored to be snatching up multi-million dollar residences—including this four-floor waterfront manse in Key Biscayne, FL, that he did not buy—but the only home Your Mama is aware Mister Styles actually owns is a gated and high-walled three-story house on a fairly busy road in North London's semi-urban and partly pastoral Hampstead Heath area that he picked up about a year and a half ago for about £3,000,000.

NOTES: For a handful of photos of the residence at the time of it's renovation by Alejandro Ortiz, have a look see here.

*The so-called Post Office area of Beverly Hills, as persnickety city boundary snobs are always certain to point out, shares the world renown 90201 zip code with the city of Beverly Hills but technically lies outside the city limits and as such makes use of slower responding hence less desirable Los Angeles City police and fire services.

listing photos: Hilton & Hyland

11 comments:

lil' gay boy said...

The façade with that magnificent stairway put me immediately in mind of a favorite home built on the former Garvin estate in Old Westbury -- that architect's work reminds me of this one (Ortiz).

This house has more of a Scandinavian vibe than South American -- apart from the orange counters Mama discussed; they remind me of the Tenn Center kitchen in the community where our summer home was -- a vintage prefab Stanmar Leisure Homes confection.

Love the central courtyard but have two minor issues:

First, the façades don't really compliment each other -- Monterey Mission Style meets Postmodern. They needn't match, but despite the similar materials the dialog is somewhat stilted, like two neighbors facing off.

Second, the oh-so-necessary "...towering, privacy-ensuring wall of trees and shrubs..." appears to leave the pool in shadow for most of the day.

We needn't discuss the new owner.

Emre Gulen said...
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Sandpiper said...

For as attractive as this home is inside, expected exterior sophistication in kind. The following jumps out: (Bitchy/boring alert.)

Would have much rather seen glass balustrades than the (ugly) obstructing wood stuff -- even on the catwalk. Looks like hell.

Such an ill-chosen conflict of wood stains everywhere -- including the hairy guesthouse. Why not go monochromatic and be compatible with the lovely weathered slat wall. My eyes hurt.

And ouch on that wonky heat pump hanging up on the wall in that little rumpus room. For $4M, ya'd think this jazz would be in the wall. This isn't a one star hotel room -- or little lake cottage.Schtoo-pid!

But that's me. Maybe I'm just too picky. Yes, I am. Meow.

Mr DHH said...

Mama-

On Hilton and Hyland site,Marky Marks house on Oak Pass is still available or being resold again for 12,995,000.Either someones sale pending went bust or somebody
does not know how to do a flip because with real estate fees
you are 700k in the hole with a full price offer

Sandpiper said...

LGB, Great "favorite" link (saw after I posted). That's the sleek look I sought to describe.

You have amazing recall on buildings everywhere -- along with remembering lines from old sit coms ;)

Anonymous said...

LGB:

Speaking of Old Westbury, can you shed any light on why it is that Cornelia Guest can't seem to sell Templeton after all these years on the market? At the last list price I saw (in the 6m range), I'd think that it would now be attractive to a developer, as was the case across the road with the Pyne property. Not that I wish the disastrous results of that subdivision on anyone or anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Is this where he will be banging the lil Jenner girl?

lil' gay boy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Mr DHH, speaking of Hilton & Hyland..the Kimora Lee house that she is supposedly buying is still on there. Do any of the children have an update if her and her BF did (or are) buying it?? Anyone??

lil' gay boy said...

Anon 8:08,

Oooo, hunny, you're gonna get me in sooo much trouble for this hijack, but I can't resist...

Corneilia, daughter of the fabulous C. Z. Guest (Dali was only one of 4 artists to do her portrait) claimed last year that she took it off the market, although there still is an active listing (much reduced from the $20M it was originally listed for). Her change of heart, along with having to split the proceeds with her brother Alexander, may be a factor.

It is the second of the family's houses known as Templeton, and the allée that bisects the estate crosses Old Westbury Road to join the one leading to Westbury House (you may recognize it from North By Northwest, Love Story, & Cruel Intentions as well as countless ads), built by Andrew Carnegie's partner Henry Phipps (the family retains a number of Gilded Age estates on Long Island).

There are a number of notable houses nearby, like the Norman Jaffe Wohl House diagonally across I. U. Willets Road, while further north lie the A. Conger Goodyear House as well as Oliver Cope's recent 110-acres estate for Steven Schonfeld.

You can explore the neighborhood here.

Sorry, kids; it's an illness...

;-)

Anonymous said...

This is very lovely property. The house looks really beautiful. It surely attracts lot of real estate agents around.