Though his name is mostly associated with the swanky midcentury housing development of Trousdale Estates, in Beverly Hills, U.K.-born architect Rex Lotery accomplished a great deal more over his career, which spanned five decades. Lotery’s work ran the gamut from extravagant Beverly Hills mansions to the Santa Monica Bus Administration Facility to projects rehabilitating Skid Row hotels for low-income housing.
Notable among the architect’s later projects is the home he designed for himself and his family in Montecito, which was the recipient of an A.I.A. award. Completed in 1996, the Lotery residence hearkens back to the elegant Streamline and International Modern-style architecture of the 1930s, with copious ribbons of steel-banded windows wrapping around its clean lines and curves.
Measuring 4,833 square feet, the home is laid out as a series of interlocking volumes and spaces. On its entry level is an expansive great room with steel-frame windows stretching from its floor to its lofty ceilings, providing IMAX-like mountain views. The great room flows to an open-plan kitchen decked out with Subzero, Wolf, and Viking appliances and a large island with seating on one side. Adjoining the kitchen is a step-down lounge/conversation pit, anchored by a concrete fireplace.
Upstairs are three bedrooms, including the primary suite, which extends to a semi-circular sitting nook with curved windows and a concrete fireplace. A bookshelf-lined breezeway connects the primary bedroom with two other en suite bedrooms.
Located about a mile north of the Montecito Country Club, the 1.15-acre property remained in the Lotery family until 2011, when it was purchased by Marc Dworsky, an attorney, and his wife, Mara Graham Dworsky, an artist and the daughter of Sears Tower architect Bruce Graham. The Dworskys subsequently added an art studio, a pool with spa, an outdoor kitchen, and a built-in lounge with radiant-heated seating.
The couple also hired noted landscape architect Stacey Isaac to overhaul the grounds; per Isaac’s project description, the updated landscape is “a composition of California Native meets South Africa with emphasis placed on grand collections of some of the most unusual Aloes and other plant curiosities of the African Cape.”
Last sold 11 years ago for $2.55 million, it’ll now take $5.595 million to win this Lotery. Josiah Hamilton of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties and Jenna Cooper of Compass share the listing.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Josiah Hamilton and Jenna Cooper -
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