Dezeen Magazine

Stradella house by SAOTA

10 Los Angeles mansions fit for the rich and famous

The City of Angels has long been associated with grand residences and over-the-top villas built for the glitterati. Here's a selection of lavish LA pads from the Dezeen archives.


Stradella house by SAOTA

Stradella by SAOTA

South African firm SAOTA's first project in Los Angeles involved converting a 1970s Spanish-style residence into a more minimal dwelling.

The studio enlarged and opened up the home, replacing solid walls with full-height glazing where possible, in addition to giving it a more contemporary look.

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Residence overlooking Mulholland Drive by Heusch Inc.

Edwin Residence by Heusch

The Edwin Residence was built in 1961, but the original design did not fully take advantage of the views and landscape high up in the Santa Monica Mountains, according to Heusch.

The firm therefore renovated and extended the modernist home to increasing the buildable area of the steep site, and create a continuous experience between the indoor and outdoor spaces.

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Barrington Residence by Eric Rosen Architects

Barrington Residence by Eric Rosen Architects

Eric Rosen Architects carved away parts of a sloped site in Brentwood to make way for this multi-level home, topped with a grass-covered roof.

The three-storey residence, which is roughly Z-shaped in plan, consists of a series of polygons embedded in the hillside. It was envisioned as "cascading planes" that contrast with a large mass – a pool house – on the north side of the property.

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Casa Pino by Tino Schaedler

Casa Pino by Optimist Design

Large windows provide framed views of Los Angeles from this hilltop house in Echo Park, which German art director Tino Schaedler designed for his family after an unsuccessful search on the property market.

With the help of his multidisciplinary practice Optimist Design, he arranged spaces inside to create different moods and atmospheres, like he would for mapping out the different scenes in a film.

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Trousdale by Studio William Hefner

Trousdale House by Studio William Hefner

Studio William Hefner has taken cues from Californian modernism to complete this house for an art collector that overlooks Beverly Hills.

The client couldn't find a mid-century modern home with a large enough wall space to hang the larger works in his collection, so the architects created an entrance hall at the heart of the Trousdale house tall white walls for displaying the pieces.

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Toulon Drive by Studio William Hefner

Tulon Drive House by Studio William Hefner

Studio William Hefner is also behind this home in West LA, commissioned by a couple who wanted "an emphasis on natural light and the surrounding landscape".

The house therefore features abundant clerestory windows and an overhanging upper floor that shades terraces below.

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MU77 House by Arshia Architects

MU77 by Arshia Architects

Arshia Architects has created a sculptural white Hollywood Hills residence to comply with the stringent zoning requirements of its exclusive neighbourhood.

To protect neighbouring properties' views of Los Angeles, the studio sunk the home 18 feet (5.5 metres) into the terrain, ensuring that the project does not interfere with existing sightlines at street level.

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Double Stick Residence by Studio Pali Fekete

Double Stick Residence by Studio Pali Fekete

This house might look luxurious, but architects Studio Pali Fekete attached its aluminium cladding in a no-frills way: using high-strength, double-sided tape.

Zoning regulations prevented building any more than 14 feet (4.25 metres) above the site's grade, so the residence was designed as a single-storey volume perched atop an existing flat pad.

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Julius Shulman Home and Studio by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects

Julius Shulman Home and Studio renovation by LOHA

Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA) restored and updated the Julius Shulman Home and Studio in the Hollywood Hills, where the influential photographer – best-known for capturing mid-century-modern California – lived for six decades.

Composed of a series of steel and glass boxes, the 4,000-square-foot (372-square-metre) house was originally designed by late architect Raphael Soriano and completed in 1950. It is now designated as a historic-cultural monument.

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Hollywood house by Patrick Tighe

Hollywood Hills House by Tighe Architecture

Designed for a musician, this sculptural residence on a tree-studded hillside is wrapped in plaster and large stretches of glass.

Wedge-shaped in plan, the 5,200-square-foot (483-square-metre) dwelling features a slender swimming pool, with underwater windows that look into a subterranean music studio.

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