Notable architect Ed Niles designed the unusual circular structure as a family house with a large central courtyard.
An Ed Niles-designed glass home in Beverly Hills, once a party pad for the likes of Justin Bieber and Meek Mill, is up for sale for $35.995 million.
The glass and steel residence, known as the Beverly Hills Glass House, sits on a half-acre lot on Loma Linda Drive, with 7,500 square feet of living space, and an infinity pool overlooking Los Angeles.
The house was built in 2009 for real estate developer Raffi Cohen, who commissioned Niles—a modernist architect known for his futuristic, angular homes throughout Malibu and Beverly Hills—to build a home for his family that would feel open to nature but insulated from society, according to the architect.
“The primary thing here was to envelop the family into a big inner court, not unlike a traditional Spanish home, where all the family activities would occur,” said the Malibu-based Niles.
The six-bedroom home has been informally dubbed the “salad spinner” for its primary circular glass structure, which rings the courtyard. A second circular offshoot houses the primary suite, offering nearly 360-degree views of Beverly Hills, while a linked cube serves as a guest suite.
The glass ring provides a feeling of togetherness as the family is always in sight of each other, Niles said. “Even though the family is separated by distance, they are also not separated by the fact you can look across the court,” he said. “That’s quite different from what normal houses are, where everything is separated by hallways.”
The house was listed for sale or lease by Jade Mills Roza Mehdizadeh of Coldwell Banker Realty Beverly Hills in late May. “It truly is a totally different living experience,” said Mills.
Though the home was built for family life, it’s got something of a reputation as a party house. The sellers have been renting it out since they purchased it in 2014 for $10.5 million, at monthly rents ranging from $50,000 to $85,000, Mills confirmed. One of their first tenants was Justin Bieber, who leased the space shortly after moving out of Calabasas following a run-in with his neighbor, the Los Angeles Times reported. Soon after that, Meek Mill reportedly threw a rager to celebrate the Grammys in 2015, which got him sued.
The owners, a Los Angeles-based doctor and his family, are currently asking $59,000 per month, but the monthly cost would be higher if the lease is shorter than a year, Mills said. “They’re conflicted because it’s been leased for so much money,” she said. “They’re conflicted about whether or not to rent or sell.”
Despite the abundance of glass, the exposure is tempered by the outside greenery, and a ribbed metal facade separates the home from its neighbors, offering substantial privacy while still taking advantage of the site’s views.
“Nature is bought in—artificially, yes—but brought in. It’s like a terrarium,” Niles said.
The home’s modular form also references some of NIles’ other homes, including a futuristic steel-and-glass home built in Malibu in 1992, sometimes referred to as a “fortress,” where the primary living space is separate from the rest of the rooms, which are built along a 60-foot spine.
“Most of my work is, in a sense, skeletal. It’s made up of the understanding of pieces, of parts. It’s not made up of just rooms and blocks,” Niles said.
Other Niles homes have listed for anywhere from $6.5 million for a 1970s original, to $68.8 million for a Feng Shui-designed beachfront megamansion, though that house is now headed to auction, Mansion Global reported last month. Also in May, a butterfly-inspired home in Malibu listed for $29.5 million.
