7944 Woodrow Wilson Dr | Hollywood Hills

This luxury Hampton house meets modern home in the Hollywood Hills is airy and bright, and has a unique history: owned at one time by Sally Kellerman of M*A*S*H fame, and worked on by a young carpenter named Harrison Ford (in his pre-Star Wars days), it was completely reimagined in the 1980s by a world-renowned architect.

This 1940 Cape Cod home underwent a massive redesign and addition in 1983 by world-famous architect Frank Gehry. The result is a dynamic merging of traditional and contemporary spaces. The recent renovation has unified the interior and exterior surfaces and created a spectacular setting for living and entertaining. The scale of the main rooms and the flow from interior to exterior is exceptional. Each room is filled with glass & light and opens to the beautiful pool, spa and lawns. The floorplan is wonderful for entertaining and ideal for families with two family rooms…one up and one off the massive kitchen and dining space. The kitchen has two staff entrances for caterers and a half-bath in the laundry storage room. Two separate staircases take you to the second floor where three of the five en suite bedrooms are located. These three rooms surround the second family room. The master wing has a private balcony, massive rooftop deck and lavish bath and dressing area. Outside, the grounds are fully fenced, private and lushly landscaped with lawns surrounding the pool & spa. This truly unique home offers architectural pedigree, great style and sought-after location on “Celebrity Row” amongst many Woodrow Wilson estates.

Of course, what makes it most unique is the unusual redesign conceived by celebrated architect Frank Gehry, who oversaw the renovation in the 1983. Canadian-born Gehry, who established his architecture firm Gehry Partnersin Los Angeles in the 1960s, is world-renowned for his iconic buildings, his gravity-defying use of curves and organic shapes, and his love of light and movement. He is the architect who designed the iconic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, all organic, sweeping wings of titanium—architecture which, according to Gehry, still earns him hugs from fans. He also designed the similarly curved, stainless steel Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. His innovative designs earned him the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989.

His greatest goal has always been to create buildings that move people. His belief that we live in a culture where everything is moving permeates the flowing architecture he creates. He also likes to take ordinary materials, like chain link fence and stainless steel, and create beauty out of them. Take for example, the Louis Vitton Foundation building in Paris, a building of ordinary glass and wood that looks like a monument to the billowing sails of a sailboat.

While the property on Woodrow Wilson doesn’t have the epic sweep of the Guggenheim, it nevertheless bears Gehry’s fingerprints in the abundant use of light and movement (see the many windows and the different stacked levels of roof) and a love of common materials, like naturalwood and glass.