Home designer unveils modern ‘Glass Ladies’ homes in Venice

LOS ANGELES — Inspired by a row of pastel-colored, adjacent Victorian-style homes in San Francisco, home developer and designer Alon Zacott wanted to create a Los Angeles version of the iconic Bay Area residences known as the Colored Ladies.

Zaqout said he dreamed of creating a row of distinctive, unique modern homes that residents and visitors could pass by, admire and take photos outside — just like the “Painted Ladies” of San Francisco.

He wanted to create a landmark for Venice.

Earlier this week, Zaqout unveiled “Glass Ladies,” three modern-style single-family homes in the 840 block of California Avenue in Venice, one block from the retail and dining strip of Abbott Kinney Boulevard. .

“This was my dream,” Zaqout told Spectrum News. “The dream was to bring something outside the box to Venice because in San Francisco, like Venice and other places in Los Angeles, there are smaller subdivisions. I wanted to bring the San Francisco style where people live close together.”

Zaqout and his team of investors are selling the first of the contemporary homes, Lucia Lady Lux, for $6.2 million.

According to the Compass listing, the two-story modern home features five bedrooms, six bathrooms, high ceilings, a floating staircase, a rooftop deck, a pool, a double waterfall island, modern appliances, custom closets, and a walk-through to the main floor’s indoor/outdoor lounge.”

The other two properties, Lauren, Lady Deco, and Maya, Lady Botanica, will be available soon.

“The Glass Ladies collection offers Venice something other than the boring modern box,” Zaqout said in a press release. “I wanted to figuratively and literally turn Venice on its side. I built the Glass Ladies as a way to give Venice the beauty it deserved, despite its condensed location. As housing became more limited, land was now harder to come by. Vertical space, we moved the area Outdoor entertaining from street level to rooftops takes advantage of fresh breezes and 360-degree views of the ocean, 1,000 palm trees and snow-capped mountains even in the sunny Southern California community of Venice.”

Zaqout spent seven years developing the site. Before the Glass Ladies were built, the place was a single-family home and a duplex. Zaqout collected the two pieces and divided them into three adjacent pieces.

Zaqout faced many challenges in building modern homes.

“It took us three years to convince the city and the residents to let us build this type of house,” he said. “No one has ever seen anything like this.”

Once the city approved it, the coronavirus pandemic delayed construction.

However, he felt joy throughout the construction process. In some ways, he said, each house develops its own personality: Lucia, the lady of Lux, is “the posh, the flamboyant one… and the spot.”

The house in the middle, Lauren, the Deco lady, is “timeless, artistic and very detailed.” The third, Maya, Lady Botanica, is earthy and natural.

“We built the landscaping before designing the house,” he said. “I love exploring the character of a building and take it quite literally. When you visit a house, you should feel the presence of the space: inspiring, livable, prestigious, unique. The space should speak to you. As I build houses and see them grow over time, each house shows me its intricacies special or unique qualities. By doing this, they are inspiring me, but they are essentially giving themselves a name.”

The interior of Lucia, Lady Lux, is for sale for $6.2 million (Photo courtesy of Noel Kleinman)

Compass listing agent Sally Forster Jones said she had never seen anything like these contemporary-style homes. She described the Glass Ladies as a piece of art.

“She’s like Picasso. You can’t replace her,” Jones told Spectrum News. “There’s nothing, nothing like this. These homes have personalities. There’s always value and a buyer for something special. This is the type of home that I will tell buyers, ‘If you don’t buy this, you win.’ ‘I don’t have another chance.'” This is an opportunity to own a special property. Extremely.”

Just like a piece of art, the buyer will not be able to modify the face of the home.

Zaqout said that he placed a condition in the title that the buyer or owner is not allowed to change or modify the facade of the houses.

“We put a lot of effort (to build the homes),” he said. “This is a landmark. There is no house like this in Venice.”