Pacific Palisades 'Paradise'

This week's hunt for the most special California mid-century modern homes on the market takes us to Pacific Palisades, in Southern California, where we spotted a slice of MCM paradise in a prestigious community just minutes from Malibu beaches.

The extraordinary home at 1030 Rivas Canyon Road may scare away most of us with its nearly $8 million price tag, but we should all enjoy the virtual tour nonetheless. Listing agent Liz Jones invites us in through a series of beautiful photographs.

"I've been here all day—and it's so quiet and serene, it feels like you're a million miles away," says Jones, Luxury Estates Director and partner at Fran Flanagan Group of Compass Realty, at a recent showing.

"The home is in a canyon surrounded by nature, and is very pretty. With glass everywhere, you're seeing greenery outdoors, which was a big part of the architecture of that time."

The secluded Rivas Canyon property sits between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains in, what has become, the elite Pacific Palisades community. Celebrities make their homes here; among them, actors Matt Damon and Anthony Hopkins, and producer/director Steven Spielberg.

Nearby you'll find the world-famous Getty Villa, Will Rogers State Beach (with 22 miles of biking paths), and Temescal Gateway Park, known for its scenic coastline views and hiking trails.

1030 Rivas Canyon Road was commissioned "as an avant-garde residence for a prominent local family," according to the listing. The home was designed for psychiatrist Marvin Mandel and his family by two Los Angeles based architects, Paul Wuesthoff, AIA, in association with Karl Klokke, and landscape architects Leone and Wemple.

Construction of the home began in 1958, and in January 1964, the Mandel residence was featured on the cover of Los Angeles Times' Home magazine.

Sited on 1.4 acres, access to the home is via a secluded driveway off of a private road. The Times article points out how the original architects solved the challenge of a difficult canyon site, "gaining a wonderful view by placing the living room at the end of a 40-foot corridor gallery, in the most desirable position...and removing it from the general traffic pattern."