Nestled behind lush greenery, an unassuming house sits on Moreno Drive in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood. But if the hot pink front door is any indication, it isn’t a book that should be judged by its cover.
The home with colorful design and panoramic views of L.A. is the former home of late movie producer Lynda Obst, known for her work on movies including “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Interstellar” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
Obst purchased the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in 2002 for $882,000 and lived there until she died in October. Last week, it hit the market for $2.6 million, according to a listing on Homes.com.
The home’s Hollywood history is a selling point, but it has more to offer than that, according to listing agents Heather Roy and Learka Bosnak of Douglas Elliman.
“People like to have things validated by other people; that’s a human nature thing,” Bosnak said in an interview. “It often helps [buyers] feel confident in knowing that someone cool lived there.”
A unique architectural style for Silver Lake
More than that, though, the house represents a style of architecture not commonly found in the area, Roy and Bosnak said.
“We don’t have just one type of house in California, or at least in our area,” Roy said, “but there is a heavy presence of the Mediterranean, the Spanish that’s a subset of that.”
This property is different, though. Designed by modern architect Harry Hayden Whiteley and built in the 1940s, it is an example of the Streamline Moderne style born out of the Art Deco movement. The style is more prevalent among commercial properties, according to Roy.
Inside, the house boasts colorful accents, like a red railing lining the imposing stone staircase and a floral stained-glass window tucked into a corner. Most of the rooms are lined with windows offering panoramic views of reservoirs and the snow-covered caps of the San Gabriel Mountains, sometimes referred to as “the Silver Lake Alps.”
“It’s a highly desirable view, even for Los Angeles, which has a lot of incredibly beautiful-view properties,” Bosnak said. Already, the duo noted, visitors to the property have been “drawn to the windows.”
There are also several sun decks, a hot tub and a cold plunge.
Roy and Bosnak said the property is so well designed, it could work for a wide pool of buyers.
To quote Tom Hanks' character Sam Baldwin in "Sleepless in Seattle," “It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together, and I knew it."
