When the pair moved to Los Angeles in 2007 so Orlean could research a book, they quickly fell in love with the work of Rudolph Schindler, an Austrian-born architect whose work helped define Modernism in the city.
By 2017, Orlean and Gillsepsie were buying their second Schindler house. One of the architect’s most-cited works, the Hollywood Hills house appears to spill down the hillside on a sloping lot overlooking the San Fernando Valley. But in the years leading up to their purchase, the property had fallen into disrepair.
“We soon realized we bit off more than we could chew, but then we chewed pretty hard,” Gillespie says.
A 4.5-year renovation
The house “was pretty messed up when we saw it,” Gillespie says.
The foundation was crumbling on one end, causing the house to slide a few inches down the hill. The home had to be “jacked up” and caissons were installed underneath to stabilize the foundation, Gillespie says.
Inside, the original woodwork had been painted over in battleship gray. The couple says a six-person crew lay on their backs for months, chemically peeling and scraping the interior to reveal the original mahogany, Douglas fir and marine plywood underneath.
The budget reflected the scope, ultimately outpacing the $2.1 million Orlean and Gillespie paid for the house. The couple say they spent roughly $3 million to $4 million on the restoration, which was completed around 2020.
Architecture lovers
Orlean, 70, is a longtime New Yorker staff writer and the author of “The Orchid Thief.” The book was adapted into a film, in which Meryl Streep portrayed Orlean. Gillespie, 72, is a retired investment banker and CFO.
Orlean’s interest in houses dates back to her childhood in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a community known for its English, French and Colonial Revival-style homes. Her father was a real-estate developer.
When she was about 14, her mother encouraged her to knock on the door of a home she particularly loved and ask for a tour. To her teenage self, the English Tudor mansion looked like a castle, she says. “The owners weren’t there, but the housekeeper let me step in to get a glimpse of the foyer, which was spectacular,” Orlean says.
It was Gillespie who brought her deeper into the world of modern architecture. “My mother dragged me to literally dozens of Frank Lloyd Wright houses around the country to visit them as a child,” he says.
Can’t-miss features?
The house is a study in Schindler’s spatial experimentation, the couple says. “Most of the walls here are 15 degrees,” Gillespie says. “So it’s a puzzle piece in some ways.”
Orlean describes the interior as almost cinematic. “Schindler’s got this incredible sense of space being malleable,” she says. “The angles and the views are constantly changing depending on where you are in the house.”
Why they’re selling
The couple is planning on spending more time in New York, where Gillespie has grandchildren. The couple is also renovating a home in Santa Barbara, Calif. They share an adult son, who recently went off to college.
What they’ll miss
Orlean said she will miss the home’s four fireplaces, each built of “distinctive, almost Brutalist stonework.”
What they won’t miss
Living in a Schindler landmark has its drawbacks, like “people knocking on the door,” Gillespie says. Requests for tours arrive regularly, sometimes from architects who have traveled halfway around the world. “It’s not a museum,” Orlean says. “It’s our actual home.”
Market snapshot
Listing agent Hanna Ginsberg of Carolwood Estates said architecturally significant homes like Schindler’s tend to draw a “focused but committed buyer pool.”
She is listing the property with colleague Cooper Mount.
