Blue Jay Way. Oriole Drive. Skylark Lane. Nightingale Drive. The Bird Streets is an iconic cluster of roads in Los Angeles.
The nomenclature is perhaps deliberate: streets named for creatures of altitude, in a neighborhood that sits above the Sunset Strip the way birds do. Indeed, some of the city's best views can be found here, sweeping from downtown to the east, the Pacific to the west, the Hollywood Sign legible against the hills to the north. The neighborhood also tends to attract a certain kind of company who value what elevation provides — i.e. perspective, distance, and quiet. Leonardo DiCaprio, Keanu Reeves, Drake, and Jodie Foster have all called it home. (In fact, George Harrison, renting a house on Blue Jay Way in 1967, wrote the song by the same name while waiting for friends who kept getting lost in the fog.)
More than two hundred properties make up the enclave. Most of them are mid-century in origin; many of them rebuilt or refashioned for modern lifestyles. This estate on Sierra Mar Place, originally crafted in 1960 and reimagined by designer Nicole Sassaman, belongs to the latter category.
Sassaman, a prolific real-estate flipper, designer, and television host, has staked her reputation on properties that carry a story. Her redesign of a Hollywood Hills estate once owned by Greta Garbo, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Tab Hunter drew wide press attention, as did her redesign of the celebrated Barbie Penthouse (a 3,200-square-foot Century City residence, formerly owned by Mattel founders, toymakers Ruth and Elliot Handler). These experiences taught her that buyers were drawn as much by the provenance as the design. She brought that same reverence to this 6,618 square-foot home, now on the market for just under $13 million.
Staying true to its Bird Street environs, the architecture responds to its hillside setting. A gated motor court establishes the register before the front door is reached, and offers event-ready parking for more than ten vehicles. A porte cochere establishes the entry. The main level is organized around two principles: the view and the movement between spaces. Glass dissolves the boundary between indoors and outdoors.
Sassaman's hand is present from the first room: soaring 20-foot ceiling height volume, a palette of sophisticated neutrals, and the deliberate placement of hard planes against softer ones. A two-story wall of bookshelves and a wet bar nestled into a wall nod to the great room's flex as a space for lounging or entertaining.
A loft space, lit by skylights and expansive clerestory windows, enjoys a bird's eye view of the city and overlooks the great room.
Two Poliform kitchens fitted with Gaggenau appliances anchor the culinary zones, one calibrated for serious cooking, the other for the kind of entertaining that assumes guests won't stay in the dining room.
The primary suite has its own floor, opens onto the patio and pool area. The bath is built for unhurried mornings. The massive custom closet rises two stories and has enough room for a private salon area.
Five bedrooms and six-and-a-half baths give the floor plan range: for guests, for family, for the full range of a life that requires it. A private screening room and a loft extend the home's register beyond the expected.
Outside, the grounds extend from the main level to a pool positioned to hold the city view. In the evening, Los Angeles lights up below, and the home becomes a a perch, a stage, a place that makes the city feel like something happening on your behalf.
View the complete listing by Jade Mills and Greg LaPlant of Coldwell Banker Realty in Beverly Hills.
