[Images removed at request of copyright holder]
Smirky director/producer Michael Bay has made a career (and a bajillion dollars) combining hot chicks, buff dudes, and fiery explosions into flashy, crowd-pleasing, lowest-common-denominator crap (in Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, the Transformers franchise, etc.). In late 2009, he paid $10.9 million for a super-pedigreed mid-century house on Bel Air Road--it was designed in 1951 by Burton Schutt, had interiors by Billy Haines, and was for decades home to socialite Marion Jorgensen (who ran with Nancy Reagan and Betsy Bloomingdale) and steel magnate Earle Jorgensen (who was close friends with Ronald Reagan and a member of the pres's Kitchen Cabinet). Bay immediately tore the house down. Architecture and preservation geeks have been fretting about this place ever since, wondering what flashy, crowd-pleasing, lowest-common-denominator crap Bay was building on the nearly five-acre lot, but now a couple clever tipsters tell us they've figured it out--looks like it's this flashy but not-so-crappy-at-all house designed by Florida-based Oppenheim Architecture + Design.
Considering there's a half-naked woman wandering through the renderings, this seems like a good bet. According to the architects' website, the house is 30,000 square feet and has "a large theater, movie prop museum, parking, spa and bedrooms" nestled into the hill, while "two master bedroom modules hover above." (Is it just us or does it take a little design inspiration from John Lautner's Sheats-Goldstein House in Beverly Crest?) One of our tipsters tells us it looks like work is nearly finished. Now what's Bay gonna put in that prop museum? Ben Affleck's original teeth maybe?
· Bel Air Villa [Oppenheim Architecture + Design]
· New To Market: Bel Air Estate With History [Curbed LA]
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