Beck’s Former Los Feliz Home Refreshed and Priced at $3.6 Million

It seems that Beck’s old houses are on the wagging tongues of architecture editors and property gossips this week.

Architecture Digest digitally showcased a fetching midcentury dwelling in Los Angeles now owned by a couple of TV writers but once owned by the innovative musician, while another of the eight-time Grammy winner’s formerly owned vintage homes in L.A. has come to market via Kennon Earl and Colby Brown of Compass with a price tag pushing up on $3.6 million.

Beck, whose most recent album, “Hyperspace,” his 14th, was created in collaboration with Pharrell, paid just over $1.8 million for the modestly proportioned Los Feliz property in the fall of 2018. On a quiet street in a gated enclave popular with Hollywood types, the location was particularly convenient; not even six months earlier, he and his wife Marissa Ribisi had shelled out $3.1 million for the house next door. And indeed, the “Odelay” singer had owned a third home in the sought-after micro-neighborhood since 2014, when he paid just over a million bucks for a 2,000-square-foot cottage he used as a studio.

It wasn’t long, however, before Beck and Ribisi called it quits. In 2019, shortly after he filed for divorce, Beck sold this house (the second one he purchased) for almost $2.1 million. The 2,151-square-foot, two-story Monterey Colonial meets Mediterranean residence, which sits behind electric gates atop a two-car garage and basement, has since been fussed over and updated in a fashion that remains true to its architectural roots but also bends itself toward a more modern lifestyle.

Set high on its more than one-third-acre sloped parcel, with leafy views into and over the neighborhood’s many trees, Earl describes the property as “a special home in a special and highly coveted neighborhood that has recently been highlighted in the press. Newly renovated, the owners worked with Studio JDB to maintain the original charm and character of the house while updating it to fit the current needs of buyers.”

The narrow oak floorboards, casement windows, red-brick fireplace in the living room, and tightly curled magnesite staircase have all been preserved, while a wall was removed so that the formal dining room and kitchen now function as a single casual space. A vintage-style bath within a main-floor bedroom has been refreshed with the palest blue tiles anyone has ever seen, and the upstairs primary suite’s bathroom features classic black and white tile work gussied up with trendy brass fixtures.

A variety of outdoor spaces include a serene and grassy front garden that slopes down toward the street and a slender balcony that runs along the second floor with a panoramic vista that includes the towering palms that march down nearby Canyon and Foothill Drive. A winding stone stairway meanders up the planted hillside from a courtyard terrace at the back of the house to a fenced and lighted sports court.

Beck sold this house several years ago, but it was only last year that the house next door, granted to Ribisi in their divorce, was sold for $5.3 million. And though it briefly popped up for sale last year for almost $3 million, the first house Beck bought in the neighborhood is now the last house he owns in the neighborhood.

Beck, granted a total of ten properties in his divorce, still owns a midcentury cottage on Malibu’s Point Dume, which was scooped up about seven years ago for $2.7 million, as well as several investment properties in Arkansas and Tennessee.