Seems like it might almost be easier for filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow to win a third Oscar than to sell her sophisticated, multi-level loft-like home near the woodsy top of Coldwater Canyon in the mountains between Beverly Hills and Studio City that’s been on and off the market for coming up on three years.
Originally set out for sale in late 2018 with a pie-in-the-sky price of $12.9 million, the alluringly secluded architectural compound has since had a succession of high-profile listing agents and declining prices that have brought the current ask down to a sliver under $8.4 million. It’s currently available through Platinum Triangle heavy hitters Tyrone McKillen and Ron de Salvo at Compass.
The first woman to win an Academy Award in the Best Director category, the pioneering filmmaker acquired the not-quite-two-acre property with her now ex-husband James Cameron in 1989 for $1.8 million. The property was transferred to “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty” director in 1992, the year after she and Cameron went their separate ways, and the existing residence was custom-built for Bigelow in 1996.
Privately squirreled down an unassuming private lane shared with just a handful of equally secluded homes, the property has three structures that step down a picturesquely wooded slope. The boxy and modern smooth concrete exterior is softened with natural materials and soaring walls of glass. In addition to the main house, there’s a detached three-car garage topped by a roomy guest apartment, plus a detached guesthouse next to the swimming pool.
Large enough to host an indoor roller-skating party, the cavernous yet comfortable L-shaped living space sports both hardwood and polished concrete floors, along with 16-foot exposed wood ceilings and two minimalist fireplaces, one in the living area and one in the dining space next to the open-plan kitchen. Elsewhere there’s a library/office with built-in bookshelves and, overlooked by the living room beneath a wall of glass that provides a leafy and cinematic vista over the San Fernando Valley, a double-height media room.
Located just off and other full flight of stairs down from the media room, the two-story main bedroom sports a lofted sitting/fitness/meditation area, a fireplace, and gigantic walls of glass in both the bedroom and bathroom that beautifully frame serene, painterly views into the surrounding trees.
A fine artist before she became a filmmaker, Bigelow’s last foray as a feature film director was in 2017 with the critically lauded 2017 box office dud “Detroit,” and her most recent credit as an executive producer was with last year’s Ben Affleck starring Netflix film “Triple Frontier.”