New York City-based actress Lucy Liu has decided to part with her long-time, celeb-pedigreed residence on the West Coast, listing her “modern craftsman” style home in the celeb-saturated Fryman Canyon area of Studio City, Calif., at $4.199 million. Tucked securely behind gates at the end of a private driveway shared with a couple of other multi-million dollar homes, the unassuming residence, which Liu picked up in 2001 for an unrecorded amount from Oscar and Golden Globe winning actress Patricia Arquette, was built in the late 1950s and measures in at 4,098-square-feet over two floors with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, all of them featuring vintage copper and nickel ceiling tiles and slathered in handmade ceramic floor and wall tiles.
A discreet front door set into a tree-shielded and vine-enshrouded porch opens to a humbly proportioned entrance hall that zigzags over to a suite of interconnected living and entertaining spaces arranged around a courtyard-style patio with sylvan view into the surrounding trees. Eclectically furnished with a trove of artworks hung salon style over the sofa and a huge glass coffee table mounted on industrial-style wheels, the living room has a corner fireplace with carved wood mantel, an elaborately articulated ceiling and a row of three, single-pane floor-to-ceiling picture windows. An adjoining office/library has a sky light topped vaulted ceiling and glass sliders to a slim balcony; the formal dining room, which easily seats ten, is lit by a pair of droopy, palm frond shaped chandeliers; the eat-in kitchen sports custom-crafted Craftsman-style cabinetry, a mish-mash of handmade ceramic tiles on the floor and walls, a butler’s pantry and a costly array of high-end appliances.
A separate wing just off the front entrance hall contains a media lounge with intricately carved corner fireplace along with the master suite, where the bedroom is lined in Italian leather panels and the spacious master bathroom has vintage fixtures, a claw-footed tub plus a glassed-in and ceramic-tiled steam shower and a make-up vanity with lighted mirror. A tile-lined staircase winds down from the entrance hall to the lower level where a meandering hallway somewhat peculiarly sheathed floor-to-ceiling in white ceramic tiles leads to an ample trio of en suite guest and family bedrooms plus an office and a sunroom-style fitness room with a multi-person built-in dry sauna.
Both the media lounge and master bedroom connect through wood-trimmed glass sliders to a leafy and casual, boho-chic garden with stone-paved terraces, an elevated circular spa that spills into a swimming pool next to a slim, gently curved structure that listing details describe as “a zen like cabana.” A wide set of steps leads from the pool to a secluded, sun-dappled patch of grass nestled into a wooded hillside. The property is listed with Douglas Hunter at Compass.
Some of the other entertainment industry heavy hitters who own homes in the rustic and low-key but much coveted and high-priced Fryman Canyon area of Studio City include George and Amal Clooney, Leah Remini, Teri Hatcher, Bruno Mars and Julie Bowen. Interestingly Fryman Canyon has also attracted a number of veteran game show hosts who include Richard Karn, Alex Trebek, and Jeff Probst who acquired the former estate of legendary Hollywood cowboy Gene Autry in 2011 for $5 million.
The Queens-born and –bred “Charlie’s Angels” film franchise star, who received a 1999 Emmy nomination in the Supporting Actress category for her role on “Ally McBeal,” currently co-stars on the popular TV series “Elementary” and will appear on the silver screen in the James Franco directed dystopian sci-fi western “Future World” that is due out this week, has long maintained a home base in her native New York City where property records indicate she owns two full-floor units in a five-unit, townhouse-style boutique building a convenient few blocks from both Union Square and Madison Square Park. Records suggest Liu acquired the 1,816-square-foot upper unit in early 2005 for somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million and then shelled out another $2.05 million the following year for the similarly sized unit directly downstairs.
Listing photos: Compass
