1930s Bel-Air estate has signature style

Gordon Kaufmann, who designed the historic Greystone Mansion now owned by the city of Beverly Hills, later designed this 1936 Bel-Air home, which was once owned by actor and director Erich von Stroheim. Stroheim played the director in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), starring Gloria Swanson.

Kaufmann, who died in his early 60s in 1949, is known for designing the Athenaeum at Caltech; La Quinta, a hotel complex near Palm Springs; the Santa Anita racetrack; the Streamline Moderne Los Angeles Times building; and the Royal Laundry in Pasadena. He redesigned the Hoover Dam, simplifying and modernizing various parts.

He designed other mansions, including one in Beverly Hills that was owned at one time by newspaper czar William Randolph Hearst and his mistress, actress Marion Davies. It was the house used in “The Godfather” scene in which a character awakens to find the severed head of a horse next to him in bed.

About this house: The classic architecture remains despite a recent remodeling.

The home is set on nearly an acre of rolling lawns with city-to-ocean views.

Asking price: $7,495,000

Size: There are five bedrooms plus two staff rooms and eight bathrooms in about 11,000 square feet. The lot size is 38,770 square feet.

Features: There is a wood-paneled library, an eat-in kitchen, and the master bedroom suite has three walk-in closets plus French doors to a limestone terrace, typical of Kaufmann’s style.

To enhance privacy, he often used inner courtyards and loggias, like sleeping porches, off second-floor bedrooms.

Where: Bel-Air

Listing agents: Jeffrey Hyland at Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills, (310) 278-3311, and Paul Czako at Gussman Czako Estates, (310) 274-9495.

To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, please send color interior and exterior photos on a CD and a brief description of the house, including what makes the property unusual, to Ruth Ryon, Real Estate section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Questions can be sent to homeoftheweek@latimes.com.