Frank Gehry’s Schnabel House Offered for $13 Million

Melding modern and luxurious technological amenities with the celebrated architect's profound artistic vision, results in a masterpiece rarely matched in a residential property. This exceptional example of architecture as art is being offered at US$13 million by Aaron Kirman and Jeffrey Hyland of Hilton & Hyland Real Estate, the exclusive Affiliate of Christie's International Real Estate.

This iconic architectural home is a "village" of sculptural forms encompassing spaces that are multi-dimensional and complex. Schnabel House presents a synthesis of craft, material, textures and ideas in an extraordinary home where light and form are in constant flux as the day and seasons change.

The private and gated grounds have been designed by the award-winning Nancy Goslee Power & Associates and include an olive orchard, mature trees, a 3,000-square-foot reflecting pond off the master bedroom, an Olympic-length lap pool, dining terraces, and striking views of the play of sun and starlight on the J. Paul Getty Museum. “The design is one I had fantasized about for my own house,” Gehry has said.

Neil Palmer, CEO of Christie's International Real Estate, says, “As marketing experts of internationally remarkable properties worldwide we are delighted to be associated with Frank Gehry's iconic Schnabel House. This property–a true architectural work of art–fully embodies our core brand standards of prestige and quality.”

Four-time Tony Award–winning producer Jon B. Platt, purchased Schnabel House and as he says, spent five years “invisibly shepherding this house into the 21st Century.” The meticulous renovation introduced technological innovations and environmentally friendly innovations, while preserving the integrity of Gehry's original design. Most notable is that the property's lighting, climate controls, security cameras, and audiovisual equipment are streamlined into a single system, which is as easy to use as an iPad. In fact, the property is appointed with eight linked iPads, allowing it to be remotely managed anywhere in the world.

Platt currently has three productions on Broadway–Wicked, Driving Miss Daisy, and The Book of Mormon, which opens on Saturday. “I have had the great privilege to collaborate with the world's greatest artists, from Bob Fosse to Pete Townsend,” says Platt. “With Schnabel House, I had the opportunity to shift creative gears and collaborate with one of the world's greatest architects. I have always maintained that one isn't so much the owner of a Gehry house as its steward. I believe it was my responsibility to maintain the Gehry vision and then do my best to pass it on. Now that the restoration is complete, the time has come for me to find the home's next patron.”

Frank Gehry is a Pritzker Prize winner based in Los Angeles, California and declared “the most important architect of our age” by Vanity Fair magazine in 2010. Gehry first gained international acclaim with the design of his private residence in Santa Monica, California, and has since revolutionized the architectural world with his innovative use of everyday materials in design. A pioneer in deconstructionist architecture, Gehry's works are often cited as pieces of functional sculpture rather than buildings. His best-known works include the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

Platt says that a comment from UCLA professor Sylvia Lavin resonated with him. In the introduction to the 2009 book, “Frank Gehry: The Houses,” Lavin wrote: “Every inhabitant of a house by Gehry becomes an artist, as they are called on, not merely to use its spaces, but to preserve its architectures.”