Though there are thousands of beautiful architectural homes throughout Los Angeles, it’s not everyday that the opportunity to live within a true work of art arises. A Studio City home designed by “architect to the Hollywood elite” Paul László is now on the market at just under $5 million.
László was born into a Jewish-Hungarian furniture manufacturing family in 1900 and served in World War I, working with heavy artillery. Upon his return from the war, his parents encouraged him to pursue his interest in design, so he moved to Stuttgart, Germany — regarded as one of the epicenters of the modernist movement — and later took on an apprenticeship in Cologne. However, by 1934, the Nazi regime had taken control of Germy and László was forced to flee to the United States; two of his siblings and both of his parents would perish during the Holocaust.
Upon his arrival to the U.S., László immediately bought a car and drove from New York to Southern California where he established an office in Beverly Hills and quickly became a favorite designer of celebrities and the non-famous wealthy alike. Soon, László was designing houses for names like Gloria Vanderbilt, Barbara Stanwyck and Cary Grant, and he’d garnered a reputation for his acute attention to detail — László was said to oversee even the minutest design matters of a house, right down to the ashtrays.
The Studio City house in question, located at 3255 Fryman Road, lies in a particularly leafy part of Studio City’s coveted Fryman Canyon. However, it should be noted that the structure is not a true László original. The Mayo family, who owned the property during the 1940s, commissioned the designer to reimagine their nondescript residence and transform it into an artistic paradise. Its unassuming front façade hides the modernist design extravaganza that awaits inside.
The listing is held by Brian K. Courville and JB Fung of Compass.