Sierra Towers, perched above Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, is one of the most mythologized residential buildings in Los Angeles. Completed in the mid-1960s, it has been home to many of Hollywood’s elite, including iconic figures like Sidney Poitier and Joan Collins as well as contemporary celebrities like Sandra Bullock, Courteney Cox and Katy Perry.
Now, the penthouse is coming on the market for $39.5 million, a potentially record-breaking sum for L.A. The sellers are Dan Fischel and Sylvia Neil, a pair of Chicago-based philanthropists. They bought the apartment in 2021, paying just $17.5 million, and have invested “many, many millions of dollars” into finishing it, Fischel said.
The roughly 7,400-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment hasn’t been lived in since it was completed earlier this year, Fischel said. It has open living and dining spaces anchored by a dramatic stone fireplace, a large kitchen with custom oak cabinetry, a breakfast bar, as well as a gym and media room, said listing agent Linda May of Carolwood Estates.
The couple toured the unit early in the Covid pandemic as a potential pied-à-terre—their daughter was living in L.A. at the time—and fell in love with the midcentury building’s architectural style and the views. When they found out shortly thereafter that the unit would be auctioned off by then-owner Evan Metropoulos, an heir to the Twinkies fortune, they threw their hat in the ring, not really expecting to win. To their surprise, their bid of $17.5 million, submitted before the auction even officially began, triumphed.
Metropoulos took a significant loss on the sale; he had purchased two units in 2012 and 2015 for a total of close to $30 million.and combined them into one. He first listed the penthouse in 2018 for $58 million and later cut the asking price to $38 million. May attributed the low sales price at auction to the property’s unfinished nature—not every buyer has the appetite for such a big project, she said—as well as the unit’s trajectory on the market. At $58 million, it was considered significantly overpriced and quickly lost momentum as a result.
“There was a lot of publicity that it was a very attractive price,” Fischel said of the sale. “Obviously, we were thrilled.”
The couple spent the last nearly five years finishing the unit, tapping New York architecture firm Workshop/APD to do the work. Though it was completed a few months ago, they have never spent the night there.
“My wife may have been more inclined to do that, but for me…. I just want to leave it as an untouched jewel for the people who are fortunate enough to be the next owner,” Fischel said.
Fischel said he and his wife are selling the property because their daughter has moved back to Chicago and they have no other ties to L.A. They also already own a home in South Florida. Fischel is the former dean of the law school at the University of Chicago, where his wife also served as associate dean. He is also president of the consulting firm Compass Lexecon.
In the L.A. area, the prices of single-family homes have routinely eclipsed those of the highest-priced condos, unlike in New York and Miami where luxury condos have fetched record sums. The current record for an L.A. condo is $39.2 million, set by the sale of former nail-polish executive Miriam Schaeffer’s apartment at the Century condominium in 2025, records show.
Units regularly turn over at Sierra Towers, though most of the building is made up of smaller apartments. “When something comes on, it usually sells immediately. There is a wait list of people who want to be at Sierra Towers,” May said.
