James Dolena ... Redefined – Los Angeles, California

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Bel Air Beauty

LOS ANGELES, California

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STATS

status
Sold
price
$7,495,000
type of listing
Single Family
style of listing
Traditional

year built
1936
living area
6,627 sq/ft
land/garden
44,000 sq/ft
beds/baths
6 bed/7.0 bath

DESCRIPTION

Exquisite East Coast Traditional Estate originally designed by famed architect James Dolena and now meticulously expanded & restored with the finest quality & craftsmanship. Located on a quiet cul-de-sac, this gated & private estate is situated on just over 1 acre of idyllic grounds. The 1st floor includes a formal entry with curved staircase, lovely living room, formal dining room, office/screening room, sun room, 2 guest bedrooms or maids, 2 powder rooms, and magnificent chef's kitchen with adjoining breakfast area & spacious family room. Ascend the main staircase to the 2nd level which has been re-configured with a newly constructed 2nd floor hallway that now connects the front and rear stairway. This 2nd level features a sitting room or den with balcony, 3 bedroom suites, & lovely master suite with fireplace, balcony, dual closets, & luxurious bath. The backyard offers a tranquil & secluded setting with brick patio, large flat grass area, & brick deck with Infinity pool and spa. PRICE REDUCED $500,000

OTHER FEATURES

Screening room, staff quarters, infinity pool and spa.

WHAT MAKES THIS A BUNGALUX

Reinvention of a classic traditional

• A History Lesson:
• James Dolena was born in Russia and emigrated to the US in 1905. Trained as a painter as well as an architect, he joined H. Valentine Fanshaw in Los Angeles to install a mural in a public building in LA. He stayed, making a name for himself as one of the most famous LA architects working in Spanish Colonial, French Regency, Monterey and Hacienda styles of the 1930’s. He, along with his peers, Paul Williams, Wallace Neff, Reginald Johnson, Ronald Coate, and George Kaufmann, are hugely credited for creating the glamorous, distinctively Californian, architecture that expresses look of LA in the golden Hollywood era.
• Dolena worked on a grand scale, conceiving total environments in collaboration with some of the best landscape designers and interior designers of the time. For his celebrity and wealthy business clients, he worked mainly in his trademark Hollywood Regency style, which he was instrumental in popularizing in the 1930’s. The trademark style of flat exterior walls enveloped by panels of trellises, windows hung like pictures, and dramatic entrances eventually led to a craze of miniature mansions, which almost looked inside-out, with urns and finials placed on rooftops like bibelots.