Benedikt and Lauren Taschen have put their Beverly Hills residence up for sale at $25 million, closing out an eight-year restoration of a mid-century modern house designed in 1956. Carolwood Estates holds the listing for the 5,000-square-foot property, known as the Adelman Residence, which the couple acquired in 2018.
The home was created by architects Thornton Abell and O’Neil Ford, and its lot once formed part of Charlie Chaplin’s larger estate, a detail reflected in the tennis court that predates the Taschens’ ownership and has since been brought back into shape.
Restoring the Adelman Residence
Over their years of ownership, the couple reworked the swimming pool, the landscaping and the guest quarters, alongside a run of interior features original to the house: cork flooring, sliding shoji-style screens, and a compact elevator finished in wood paneling.
Taschen has said that when the property first came onto the market, other prospective buyers had no interest in its architectural pedigree. Recounting the situation by email to the New York Times, he said, “All they loved was the beautiful site to build another spec monster.” He and his wife instead sought continuity with the neighborhood’s past. “We wanted to preserve a piece of history in ground zero of the golden age of Hollywood,” he told the Times.
The Taschens bought the house in 2018 from the daughter of its original owners, Lucy and Isadore B. Adelman. The Taschens’ current residence, a colonial revival house Benedikt has occupied since 2017, sits directly across the street from the property now being listed.
Art on view in the listing photos
Benedikt Taschen founded Taschen Books in 1980, and the company has grown into a major publisher of art and design volumes, operating under the slogan “books for optimists.” His personal collection includes pieces by artists such as Tom of Finland, Albert Oehlen, Jeff Koons and Martin Kippenberger.
Yet the artworks visible in the current marketing photos of the Beverly Hills house come from a different, younger source. Images show several large canvases by American painter Grace Weaver, who is in her thirties: a profile portrait of a woman’s head hangs in the entry, a triptych is mounted above a bedroom headboard, and a large painting depicting a walking figure appears in the living room.
No timeline for a sale has been disclosed beyond the new $25 million listing through Carolwood Estates.
Leave a comment