Asking $62 Million: A California Home Designed by One of Napa’s Most Influential Architects

The sellers are investor Stephen Paul, a steel-fortune heir whose family is a limited partner in the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, and his wife, Nancy Paul. The couple paid $8.55 million for the property in 2006, property records show. They razed an older home on the site and tapped Backen to design a new house. Backen is known for designing Napa Valley wineries and homes for high-profile clients including Jeffrey Katzenberg and Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, according to listing agent Linda May of Carolwood Estates. Katzenberg sold his Backen-designed house for $125 million in 2020. 

Completed in 2015, the Paul house is approximately 12,300 square feet with five bedrooms, plus a detached guesthouse that doubles as a poolhouse. The lower level of the main residence contains a gym, billiard room, 1,200-bottle wine cellar and theater with 10 seats. Outside, the 0.85-acre property also has a tennis court, infinity-edge pool and an outdoor kitchen. 

Backen was noted for the symmetry in his homes, May said. Visitors to the Paul residence walk beneath a glass-walled bridge into a courtyard. There is an olive tree at the entrance that “follows a straight line to the rear garden, with another tree at the end,” she said. 

The home’s stone and wood finishes evoke Backen’s work in the Napa Valley and his tendency to use natural materials. There are oak-trimmed plaster walls and reclaimed wood ceilings, as well as limestone and French oak floors. The house has custom steel-framed glass sliding doors, and there are concrete veneer-paneled walls in the dining room and primary bedroom. “They give texture to a lot of the smooth surfaces,” May said. 

Outside, the Pauls worked with landscape architect Mark Rios of the design collective RIOS. The property has a reflecting pool and multiple courtyards and outdoor sitting areas. 

Stephen Paul, a descendant of the family that founded the Ampco-Pittsburgh steel company, is a managing principal of Laurel Crown Partners, a Los Angeles-based private-equity firm.