Perched above the Pacific Ocean in the Los Angeles County community of Rancho Palos Verdes, this Paul Revere Williams-designed home is fit for a midcentury-modern superfan.
And just such an enthusiast seems to have materialized quickly, as the home is already pending sale after just a few weeks on the market. This listing is priced at $2.2 million.
The four-bedroom, three-bath, 2,059-square-foot home was built in 1960 and is set on a 19,000-square-foot lot.
It is part of the Williams-designed, 190-home SeaView subdivision, which was featured in Atomic Ranch magazine in 2011.
Offering semiopen floor plans, high ceilings, and disappearing walls via shoji screens, the development was geared toward World War II veterans.
With 186 feet of sea-facing property lines, the home offers panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island, vistas that can also be enjoyed from the owner’s suite and adjacent patio—one of two on the home.
“It was designed for the homeowner to enjoy a year-round, vacation-type of lifestyle,” says Gloria Commiso, of Compass. “Williams was ahead of his time and created one of the first ‘staycation’ communities in this area.”
Williams, who died in 1980, might be best known as an architect to stars such as Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra.
Recently restored
The home has been preserved to maintain its original retro character, the listing notes. A “cosmetic remodel” of the interior and exterior was finished just prior to the home’s listing.
Design features include a decorative block wall, open beams, a stone-surround fireplace, and a custom-built replica of the original divider screen, which offers privacy in the dining area.
In the kitchen, a vintage O’Keefe and Merritt stove includes a cooktop, double oven, rotisserie, and “grillevator.”
A two-car garage rounds out the property.
‘Dream house’
The house—an example of the “Monte Carlo” model, the subdivision’s largest floor plan—was sold off market to the current owner in 2005, by a family that had owned it since 1971.
The seller has since relocated for work and “told me he felt that he had hit the house lottery when he purchased it for $800,000,” Commiso says. “When they bought the property, it had some deferred maintenance, and the backyard was a bit of an eyesore. They restored it inside and out to bring it back to its glory days … to reflect its original vibes and midcentury modern character. This is an entertainer’s dream house.”
