Our homes are reflections of ourselves, right? So it makes sense that’s house, hovering over a canyon atop Beverly Hills, California, is one of the most strange, fascinating and perplexing architectural projects in the world.
James Goldstein, 84, a controversial figure who made his fortune investing in mobile home parks in California, may be familiar to you.
He’s that leathery-skinned, frizzy-haired guy always sitting courtside at NBA games — he attends more than 100 a year.
He’s that guy who shows up at all the fashion shows in Paris and Milan with a couture-meets-cowboy look, often punctuated with snakeskin hats, colorful leather jackets and a woman more than half a century younger than he is.
And he’s that guy who owns the Sheats-Goldstein house, a stunning landmark by architect John Lautner that fuses prehistory and futurism, solidity and weightlessness, inside and outside, a house that has been a set piece for films (“The Big Lebowski,” “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”); for the real estate reality show “Selling Sunset”; for countless music videos; and for parties thrown by the likes of Rihanna and the Kardashians.
“The word ‘subtle’ doesn’t exist for me,” Goldstein said, dressed in all-black tennis gear and a palm tree-emblazoned black jacket. He’s sitting on the sprawling lower terrace of his home’s recently completed (for now) three-level addition, which is a separate compound overlooking the towers of Century City and, beyond that, the glinting bend of the Pacific coast.
He calls this undertaking the Goldstein Entertainment Complex, and it includes Goldstein’s office and a nightclub (yes, you read that right) called Club James, with an infinity-edge tennis court made of post-tensioned concrete as the roof.
Goldstein and his team of architects, builders, engineers and landscape designers have been working on the Lautner house addition since 2003, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes…
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