Fashion designer Eva Chow’s Holmby Hills mansion in Los Angeles has hit the market at a asking price of $65 million. Chow and her ex-husband restauranteur Michael Chow (as in Mr. Chow) built in the home in 2005 and modeled it after the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. The megamansion isn’t your typical home, but more like an art museum that houses the former couple’s world-class art collection of more than $50 million worth of art. The 1.1-acre plot of land is shrouded by trees and far from prying eyes and has a manicured flat lawn flanked by towering palm trees, which is the perfect space for outdoor entertaining or lounging. Understandably, the home took more than seven years to build.
With more than 30,000 square feet of living space, it’s an architectural masterpiece with 400-year-old moorish columns in the upper gallery areas, 30-foot ceilings, 16th- and 17th-century Florentine carved ceilings, monolithic white walls, patterned stone floors, an Art Deco library with walls made from polished rare Macassar ebony, wooden doors from a Spanish monastery in the kitchen and antique carved stone fireplaces. Of course the art is magnificent: Inside, there is classic and contemporary art, and even includes Picasso’s Guernica. Chow is also a trustee at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, so it only makes sense she has such a fine collection.
Each museum-quality room is carefully curated with mixed materials and creates a blend of a gallery, artistic temple and sanctuary in one. The exterior is inspired by Spanish colonial architecture, but the entire home is a medley of various styles and design elements, but somehow comes together to look like a beautiful work of art.
“ The house is very much me and built with what I love,” says Eva Chow. “It has old stones, antique wood, gold leaf, creamy limestone, enough ceiling height, and walls to hang paintings. I like materials that will last forever; the house is built with stone and steel. The walls of the house are all a foot thick which gives the sound grounding feeling.”
There is also a three-story guest house, which features a large billiards and recreation area, a subterranean home theater, an outdoor ballroom and even its own pool. The underground theater also has a unique view: A peek into the pool through a glass window.
Safety is paramount and the home is set within a gated compound that is walled and camera-secured. The estate is set on one of the most expensive residential streets in Los Angeles: The Playboy Mansion is just down the road and Ellen DeGeneres and heiress Petra Ecclestone once called this area home.
The home is listed by Drew Fenton of Hilton & Hyland. View Listing
Story written by Forbes