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Cover Story
Disappearing glass walls open to a grassy backyard with a pool and full outdoor kitchen.
—COVER STORY—
THE NEW, NEW THING
An organic contemporary home feels simultaneously brand new and as settled in the Hollywood Hills as any of the neighborhood’s century-old originals.
by Andrea Bennett
HE GOAL was to create something completely new in L.A.’s Hollywood Hills—a neighborhood in which 1920s Italianate villas coexist with sleek contemporary boxes perched on steep hillsides, and a French Normandy Revival chateau might sit only a lot away from a midcentury modern masterpiece. But what could be newer than a modern home that doesn’t look to recycle one of architecture’s past accomplishments? T “What people want today veers away from the white, flashy modern box and toward a warm, organic, contemporary house with open spaces that don’t feel cold—just intimate and secure,” says Jacob Greene, one of the Elliman agents who represents 1461 Rising Glen Road, a cedar-clad home that feels like it has risen organically from the landscape on the iconic street above Sunset Boulevard. That effect, of course, is by design.
An open floor plan adds to the sense of spaciousness in this dramatic, 5,702-foot home.
The property has four bedrooms, all with en suite baths, including a master wing overlooking the city skyline.
A rooftop deck offers impressive 360-degree views.
“This is the spec house that’s the anti-spec,” Greene says of the home that was built in 2021 by Rassim Bassam’s PERS Development, with interiors created by the firm’s own NYB Design. The 5,702-square-foot home, which capitalizes on L.A.’s sublime weather with its smart indoor-outdoor layout, is brand new—never lived in, never rented. The architectural feat at work was creating a place that feels simultaneously new and settled.
Where most homes in this neighborhood occupy a 7,000- or 8,000-square-foot lot, Greene says, this
An abundance of glass ensures that the rooms are flooded with natural light. Listing ID: 21766426 1461 Rising Glen Road Los Angeles, CA $8,500,000 Joshua Altman joshua.altman@ elliman.com O: 310.819.3250 M: 323.610.0231 Jacob Greene jacob.greene@ elliman.com O: 310.595.3888 M: 310.415.2653 Matthew Altman matthew.altman@ elliman.com O: 310.819.3250 M: 323.791.9398
home has the advantage of a 17,000-square-foot lot that includes the hillside above it. Bassam craned in dozens of 50-year-old olive trees, as well as other mature landscape elements, to create what Greene calls a “green perimeter” that rises up the hill above the house to lend it ultimate privacy. The walkable neighborhood is just seconds above the busy Sunset Strip, but far enough away that the Strip is barely detectible from inside this sanctuary.
“You enter through a 15-foot-tall, custom-made glass pivot door that was so large it had to be built on site,” Greene says. Once you wave your hand over a sensor that opens the door, you’ll find the natural-lightflooded, 25-foot central atrium. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls disappear into a grassy backyard and pool area. The rooftop deck—one of the last to be permitted by the city—stretches over the whole expanse, with 360-degree views of the city.
The reality of this house—a meticulously planned, turnkey spec home with Fort Knox–worthy security— meets the magic of its design. The effect is of a living, breathing space built on a large but human scale, whose lucky inhabitants won’t experience all the sophisticated technology that envelops them, just the freedom it affords them as they drift blissfully from indoors to out and back again.
