Dream House in 'Dreamland'

Dramatically transformed twice in three-quarters of a century, a newly listed home of exceptional modern style and grace is attracting such attention on the Los Angeles market, its availability won't survive long on the current market.

"I could have sold it twenty times," marvels realtor Steve Frankel, who co-listed the house at 3346 Beverly Ranch Road in mid-August with realtor Michael Collins for a healthy $3,150,000. Speaking that same week, he added with amazement, "I got a hundred calls on this!"

The sparkling house on a ridge just below renowned Mulholland Drive began its life as a 900-square-foot, one-bedroom clapboard structure of modest but promising layout. Built in 1948 and created by a designer now unknown to history, Frankel said that iteration shares some walls but "bears no resemblance to this [listing]."

Seventeen years later, a prominent television director commissioned another little-known architect, Frank Burton Wilson, to expand it into his dream home. The result today is a three-bed, three-bath covering 2,537 square feet with spectacular views of the San Fernando Valley below.

"You feel like you're in 1960s L.A.," suggests Frankel (perhaps forgetting momentarily how limited views of the valley were in the decades preceding the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990).

He is representing the home for another well-known creative force in the City of Angels, groundbreaking artist Chase Langford and his partner Steve Ziel.

Langford invented what he calls "geographic expressionism," and his work hangs in art collections like that of Magic Johnson, Pete Sampras, and the Saudi Royal Family. He also narrated a promotional video about the property that showcases the couple's sensational modern furniture and art.

When the couple bought the house in '97 for a reported $536,000, it had already been expanded by Wilson 32 years prior at the behest of TV director Herschel Daugherty. Daugherty was most of the way through a two-decade directorial career that included numerous episodes of 'Dr. Kildare' and 'Bonanza' and award-winning work on 'General Electric Theater' in the '50s with host Ronald Reagan, a fading actor who later switched careers.