You know a house is a modernist wonder if it's been owned by film producer/serial-modern-house-collector Michael LaFetra, and this one has always seemed to be one of his faves: it's the Stevens Residence in the gated Malibu Colony, built in 1968 and designed by genius John Lautner (his first design in Malibu). In a LaFetra profile in 2007, shortly after he bought the house, the New York Times said it "looks like an avant-garde boat that's been hauled onto the beach." The original owners sold the house in 2004 to filmmaker (not wrestler) Steven Austin for $7.6 million; LaFetra hadn't been able to get the money together at the time, but kept an eye on the house. When his broker set up a tour for him a few years later, he was horrified to find everything had been shabby-chiced--the new owners "had painted the poured concrete white and removed the Lautner-designed furniture; the cast-in-place concrete light fixture in the dining room had been replaced with a French chandelier lit with fake flame bulbs." So he made an offer and ended up buying the Stevens in 2007 for $13.8 million.
LaFetra restored the house to its original fantasticness and made a few careful upgrades, as described on his website: "The restoration included carefully selecting and replacing all cedar planking, restoring concrete that had been painted, bringing back the originally designed but never fully implemented lofts for each of the kids rooms, recreating the original tile, as well as enhancing the house's sustainability by utilizing cork flooring and converting the house to solar energy." The house also has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, enormous glass and douglas fir sliding doors, a deck, a yard, a pool, and 37 feet of beach frontage.
Asking price is $22 million.
· John Lautner: 1968 Stevens' Residence [Michael LaFetra]
· 78 Malibu Colony Road Malibu, CA [Estately]
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