—PEMBROOKE & IVES x CASA PERFECT—
Beverly Hills, California. 2019
“Designed in 1958 by Rex Lotery as a California modernist single-family home, it was updated in the mid 1960’s with a quirky, Hollywood regency overlay. The playful blend of aesthetics lends the space an idiosyncratic feel, well-suited to its cultural cachet as the home of Elvis Presley during his “comeback years” (The King purchased the home in 1967).
The home is sited within Trousdale Estates, a slice of wooded hills above Sunset Boulevard that emerged as one of the world’s foremost hubs of modernist architecture in the 50’s and 60’s. The neighborhood’s Master Architects, including Wallace Neff, Harold Levitt and Frank Lloyd Wright, conceived daring, original structures like the enormous Tudor-style Greystone Mansion and drew stars like Groucho Marx, Jane Fonda, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin -rendering the enclave synonymous with the California good life.
In the 1970’s, the California modernist aesthetic — with its expansive use of glass and flowing, open-plan layout — fell out of favor, only to be rediscovered this century by a new creative vanguard. Fashion photographer Steven Meisel, who staged a seminal fashion campaign in a Trousdale modern, began the neighborhood’s revival; Hedi Slimane, Ellen Degeneres and Kelly Wearstler followed suit.
Today, Casa Perfect offers an ideal blend of the city’s history of cultural cachet and its contemporary design renaissance. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame panoramic views of Los Angeles, while a rolling green lawn meets a Hockneyesque swimming pool at the exterior. The interior’s details are meticulously restored, including marble fireplaces and coffered ceilings.
The Elvis Presley residence opened in January 2018 and is the second iteration of Casa Perfect in Los Angeles, following its previous home in the Hollywood Hills” [Casa Perfect].
