Last June, Waldo Fernandez—who's done everything from Elizabeth Taylor's old Bel-Air estate (which listed in May 2011 and then quickly sold) to last year's Academy Awards greenroom—purchased a three-bedroom villa in the Hollywood Hills for $2.4M. It seemed unlikely that the L.A.-based interior designer would actually live in it; after all, his full-time spread, a midcentury in Beverly Hills that published in Architectural Digest earlier this year, was something of an obsession. Now, a bit more than a year later, Ferndandez has sold his radically updated pet project to Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis.
A bit of backstory: the home was designed by F. Pierpont Davis in 1940 and later reinterpreted by John Woolf, an architect committed to the Hollywood Regency style. When it first hit the market for $3.695M in Aug. 2010—and even when it was relisted for $2.95M in July 2011—the 9,000-square-foot house sported intense, cluttered decor, though the hand-carved ceilings (originally from a European cathedral, as lore goes), 10-foot limestone fireplace, domed dining room, French doors, pools, and gardens are still in place today, even after what the brokerbabble suggests is a complete toning-down by Fernandez. At some point, the place was reportedly named "One of the 100 Most Desirable Homes to Own" by Architectural Digest, though this list sounds like a relic from the magazine's Paige Rense era. Fernandez listed the property for $3.6M in May and sold it to Kiedis (who has a track record of showing interest in architecturally significant properties) for $3.65M.
· Anthony Kiedis Buys Petite Sunset Strip Villa [The Real Estalker]
· Three-Bedroom Villa in the Hollywood Hills [Curbed LA]
· 8960 St. Ives Dr., Los Angeles [Redfin]