Monday, December 8, 2008

Randolph Duke's Glam Pad In the Hollywood Hills

SELLER: Randolph Duke
LOCATION: Fareholm Drive, Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $8,250,000
SIZE: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: None

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Thanks to a lovely lad we'll call Fashionista Freddie, Your Mama has learned that dress designer Randolph Duke has put his Hollywood Hills house on the market with an asking price of $8,250,000.

All the fashion magazine readers will already know that Mister Duke, a middle aged man who still struts around with his shirt unbuttoned to his damn navel, is the man responsible for saving the legendary house of Halston and all the children who flip through the gossip glossies at Oscar time know that Mister Duke creates glitzy, glam, glittery and sometimes sheer gowns for red carpet walkers like Hilary Swank and Angelina Jolie. All the house bound home shoppers will also recall the Mister Duke peddles several product lines on the Home Shopping Network including line of ladees garments called The Look which is, more than likely, where the well preserved and meticulously groomed clothing queen earns all his real money.

Anyhoo, according to property records and multiple reports, Mister Duke scooped up his three lot property on a promontory high above Fareholm Drive back in June of 2004 for $2,250,000. He quickly hired the L.A.-based Xten Architecture to create a cantilevered crib that is both anchored to the hillside and floating above the city. Ten-foot tall retracting glass walls blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors and there are jaw dropping jet liner views over Los Angeles from every corner of the house.

Listing information for the open plan and unabashedly modern manse, dubbed Open House by the architects, indicates there are 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms on three levels where both interior and exterior walls are virtually non-existent. In fact, the master bedroom, which occupies the entire top floor, has only beaded curtains as visual (and auditory) barriers between the sleeping chambers and the stair well to the lower floors. This is all well and good if you're home alone, but maybe not so great when you want to watch some porn get bizzy with your man-friend while your mother is sleeping in the guest room one floor below.

Anyhoo, Mister Duke and his decorating ladee filled the house with furniture that does not adhere to a particular style or time period. We've got Louis the XVI chairs pulled up to a rough cut wood dining room table, petrified treet stump stools and coffee tables set off against plush and custom designed sofas, faux fur up the wazoo and stainless steel accents juxtaposed against the stacked stone fireplace which cleverly hides the building mechanicals.

The exterior spaces on the hill side of the house include a small patio behind the dining room with a terraced succulent garden and a romantic terrace tree shaded terrace perfect for catered dinner parties and spreading out a week's worth of gossip glossies. Cantilevered terraces extend the interiors spaces on the view side of the house where a long narrow reflecting pool forms a visual barrier between the living spaces and the carpet of lights below. The swimming pool and spa, which appears to hover over the city, have been lined with shiny silver leaf tiles, a visual decadence than not everyone can get away with but seems perfectly appropriate in the home of a male clothing designer known for his dee-luxe and hideously expensive evening dresses.

While Your Mama can certainly appreciate the appeal of this house, it's a bit tough to imagine living in a place like this. Just like some dresses wear the woman, this house could easy over-power and over shadow its inhabitants. That does not seem to be the case for Mister Duke who uses the house as a de facto office, showroom and party space as well as a his private home.

Eight and a quarter million clams is a lot of money in a quickly sinking high end real estate market. However, we do hear from one of our better connected sources in the Hollywood Hills that high priced contemporary houses in the hills are still attracting a lot of attention from buyers with big bank accounts. We shall see children, we shall see.

P.S. Mister Duke's "glamorganic" digs have been photographed and published in about a thousand million publications and online magazines such as Architectural Digest, 1st Dibs, and British Elle Decor as well as the architects' website where the children can see heaps and loads more (and better) photos and floor plans of the place.

P.P.S. If you care about such things, Kanye West lives a few doors down and across the street from Mister Duke in and art-filled kontempary krib.

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

love the outdoor chandelier

StPaulSnowman said...

The lines of this place are beautiful. I can't understand what the decking and pool edge material is. It looks smooth, beautiful........and quite possibly dangerous. This house belongs in the glossy sleek and cold pages of Architectural Digest. I really can't imagine anyone living here comfortably.

pch said...

I mostly like the lines, but there's something about the facade that reminds me of the bad Hollywood Hills modern design that proliferated in the nineties. Might be the stucco. If it were a different material/texture/color/something, I think I'd like it better.

pch said...

Also, no way in hell I'd pay eight big ones for a house on Fareholm.

so_chic_darling said...

Even though the outside is a bit too pointy for me I love it. The interior is a little way too high poof for me though but I'll take the petrified wood side tables.

Anonymous said...

This house looks a bajillion times better in the photos on the architects' site. When will people learn to get rid of their clutter?

I agree that the pool looks v v dangerous. I can just imagine someone diving in and cracking open their skull on those sharp protruding edges of the hot tub.

Anonymous said...

Wow! just beautiful. I can't imagine living here either, but what a place to throw a party (AFTER you pay the liability insurance premiums on that deck).

Mama - you're right about the acoustics. Too many people focus on the visual aspects of construction & don't even think about the audio until it's too late.

Anonymous said...

I feel bad for all of these amateur miracle workers that feel if they sell now they will get their price or close to it

:)

Anonymous said...

UPDATE ON AMATEUR MIRACLE WORKERS
1.HLLYWOOD BLVD purchased for 3.7mill totally redone 2005
sold $5.750,000 oct 2008 amateur aprox profit almost $2,000,000
2.viewsite purchased by amatuer from vegas 2004 4.2million sold oct 2008 7million. aprox amateur profit almost $2.3million after some upgrades
3.doheny drive. purchased by designer aprox 2million 2007 sold by amateur for $10,000,000 nov 2008 aprox investment 5-6million aprox amateur profit.$4,000,000 more amateur success stories to follow for the uneducated doom and gloomers

Anonymous said...

That is definitely a house for one very high maintenance person. I could see Naomi Campbell living there. Without many interior walls it would be so easy for Ms Campbell to throw whatever she damn well pleases at whoever is brave enough to work for her.

Anonymous said...

The pool is ugly. The rest looks good for photo shoots, even if these are not the best photos.

Anonymous said...

I don't think I could get comfortable here either, but I'm enjoying the eye candy aspect for sure. As for the price, I've concluded L.A. is real estate insane. Thanks Mama! :)

Alessandra said...

The exterior looks like an office park in Ontario. One that houses accountants and vitamin sales distributors.

I like the landscaping.

Anonymous said...

Pollylanda - Don't dash the last semblance of hope he has. As long as he can mutter those infamous words about the sky falling, he doesn't have to look in the mirror and accept that it was never the sky at all..it was the popcorn ceiling crumbling away in his grandma's basement in Chino - the only place he will ever be able to afford.

Anonymous said...

hey dolly: that pool is to shallow to dive into anyway.

Anonymous said...

Pollyanda

we are in december

anything sold in dec november ?

not in NY but in LA area

and not buybacks or transfer of title to a friend or relative

Anonymous said...

Love the landscaping. The silver pool lit up at night is absolutely surreal - see pics on the architect's website.

Anonymous said...

pollylanda:

We do not pay attention to averagejoe.

He's a "banker." ;)

He is a banker now because Mommy let him type her user name and password into the online banking site.

Or so the legend goes.

Anonymous said...

Never mind that averagejoe claims in an earlier post that the land his bank is on is "going" to be worth $2.5mm.

I'd sure love to have his crystal ball.

Or the crystal meth he is on.

I can't choose.

Anonymous said...

Pretty amazing. This is what this New Yorker imagines the LA lifestyle to be like.

Anonymous said...

I did not buy a bank, the other average joe did
:)

Anonymous said...

Wait... I did buy a bank...I forgot which lie...story...I was telling...Yeah.. That's it I bought a bank in a small town..I bought the WHOLE TOWN! It even has a car factory!!!!!

What do you think of that???????

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine paying that price for a house on one of the most ordinary, if not flat-out ugly, streets above Sunset. I don't care how glamorous the house is!

StPaulSnowman said...

Mama; Please give us an update, no matter how veiled, of how you and the good Doctor are doing after the move. Will you miss the Christmas decorations in the Biggest of Apples?

lil' gay boy said...

It's a stunning architectural set piece; beautiful to look at, but how livable?

It lacks the warmth of domesticity.

Anonymous said...

Monthly Average Joe or possible weekly update information for his Doom and Gloom.
Yes, closing aleady in Dec 2008 6million plus marmont, celebrity
next. bluejay 12million pending escrow, next... thrasher 10million pending escrow............ I will happily keep you updated Av Joe, sorry, must be a different "sky is falling" where you live, cause around here, looks pretty sunny$$

Anonymous said...

2:13 - It's really simple.

Good sh*t sells to people with money and good credit.

Uglee sh*t only sells to people who can't afford anything better or have no taste/class.

Losers thinking they are going to buy on Blue Jay for what they are paying for that one room apartment in Midcity can't get fly-by-night loans anymore so they will be ending up living in their car or on a park bench.

Guess where Average Joe actually ranks on that food chain?

Anonymous said...

Dear 2:13,

I'm not one to agree with the Average Joe guy, but I hate to tell you that the house on Thrasher is being sold for $4.5M less than its original asking price...that's more than 30% less than the original asking price and still $2M less than the last asking price.

The sky may not be falling, but even you have to admit that's a big discount.

Anonymous said...

appreciate your comment, but i pretty much know everything about the strip, i would not be foolish enought to post about a 10million house and then it sell for 4.5.. please do your homework... i do, the house was orig priced at 12million, any one else?thrasher is a winding street, what you have done is confuse the east part of thrasher (near rising glenn)to the west side of thrasher which is right off oriole

Anonymous said...

All due respect...I did not say it SOLD for $4.5M, I said it was sold for $4.5 LESS than it's original asking price which was almost $13M.

It was last listed at $10.5 and sold UNDER $8.5M.

Are we talking about the same house...9191?

Anonymous said...

GOTCHA.......... i just checked , showing 8.4million, keep in mind sometimes the asking prices are sort of "well how bout we ask ??? but the agent involved for 20 years loves to use his "formula of so much per sq ft... i do thiink this might be a low price for this house it was large, but in the past i think houses in the hills that do not have "flat pad" sell for less,

Anonymous said...

also just noting, these are incredible numbers , like doheny 10million plus, or nighengale sale price showing 12.500 but i heard that is more b.s but agents not caring about fines, i was told it sold closer to 9million plus, these are still amazing numbers for the hollywood hills, groundbreaking.. viewsite 7million?? hllywood blvd 5.75 with the pool almost on the street and hanging on the edge of the hill with many stairs and small cute little rooms? its amazing, and GREAT

Unknown said...

if randolph duke is selling his house, where are he and mortimer going to live?

Anonymous said...

Talk radio host Tom Leykis lives across the street from this house.

Anonymous said...

thanks ur information


it very useful

Anonymous said...

thanks

Anonymous said...

Your MAMA: Actually his place is very comfortable and very livable. Both Randolph and Hairy (his adorable Yorkshire Terrier) spend their time between LA, Miami, and NY...so it's perfect for their time here. One must really see the place before summarizing it.

Anonymous said...

Tarting up a house does not necessairly make it livable. Good design speaks for itself.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this was eye-opening.
I am a New Yorker and I happened across this blog because I was interested in the Duke house, as I am soon to be bicoastal and was doing my homework on neighborhoods, houses, etc.

I appreciate the notes about the street, although it confuses me a little, it certainly looks nice enough to justify a tour...

But, man, the vitriole that you folks spit back and forth. Seems like real estate pricing really upsets everyone in LA. As space runs out even more, like it has in Manhattan, you'll soon find that ups and downs in real estate pricing are a fact of life and there is no point in denying when they are down, which they definitely are right now, because the one real truth is that in a place like NYC or LA, they ALWAYS go back up and ALWAYS higher the next time around...

Thanks for the tip about Fareholm though, and just as an aside, is there some authoritative location for better streets and worse streets? Can't think of how that would work, certainly wouldn't in NYC, too much detail, but thought I'd ask...

Thanks.

paul said...

All i need to know is does it have a helicopter pad to fit my 7 seater Augustus 109E Helicopter? If not, then its a no go

thanks