European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 4, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine a  Nisi Abs or Kos in the Beverly Hills Home of Mary Plait food and Douglas Fairbanks is modest by today a standards a fwd Griffin new Home will cover Over so 000 Square feat on 1s7 acres and include elevators party rooms and a gym. Living High in la. A.  by David Ferrell los angelas times there was every reason to. Believe thai to producer Aaro spelling would own the biggest House in los Angeles. Alter ail inc nearly completed Structure dominates an entire Ridge. I is More floor space a Gargantuan 56,500 Square Leel than Hearst Castle with its own gym Bowling Alley and an entire Mezzanine floor of closets. It looks like Versailles nearby. Homeowner Betsy laties said gazing up from the Street Lar below. You d have 16 have roller skates to go from one end to  but All of a sudden spelling in being upstaged. Former talk show Host Merv Griffin announced thai his new Hilltop Home the one with the helipad and the360-degree View the one trial initially was going to be 25,000 or 30,000 Square Leet is instead going to sprawl Over 58,000 Square feet. A the Palisades attorney Bil. Highberger is creating a Home thai in some neighbourhoods would be a to urls. Attraction a Wood design with Lour Levels shaped in a Hail Circle with 100 View windows a spiral stairway Down to the hot tub a game room Library and study plus a panoramic View of the coast. Bui in his neighbourhood the 4 ooh Swaro loot Structure is nil Hing extraordinary. Housing officials say it is difficult to gauge the scope of the trend Homes costing to million or More make up a Small fraction perhaps 2 percent of the roughly 17,000 new Homes built in los Angeles county each year. Bui the shift has been toward larger costlier abodes. Three years ago the county s average new single family residence ran 1,665 Square feet and sold for $150.500 la year the figures were up to 2.015 Square feel and $215,900. The High end of the Market has been a Magnet Lor celebrity watchers. In september s new Vormeer Magazine Joan Didion writes about the rumours surrounding Aaron spelling s House including one denied by spelling and doubted by real estate insiders that his Wile Candy ordered the foundation lowered partway through construction because she did t want o see  Robinsons department slots sign from her bedroom. Likewise. Griffin s House is now the target of gossip. Designer Waldo Fernandez who has Laid out floor plans for Elizabeth Taylor Betle Davis and Burt Bacharach conceded that ego is sometimes a catalyst Lor a monstrous Home. But Fernandez insisted that in was not Griffin s plan 16 outdo spelling it just. Happened that Way. Griffin started but with a Beverly Hilts Mountain lop site of 157 acres larger than the . County arboretum and last fall walked of building a Home of up to 30.000 Square Leet. Bui then the grading and design work began and before anyone. Could say Robin Leach Griffin and the designer found themselves trying to create something worthy of the Selling according to Fernandez. Ii got to be bigger and bigger and bigger and Here was noway to Stop in the designer said the grading has required the movement of enough dirt to till the Rop bowl twice. But there is no place quite like Home the Way Griffin envisions it elevators party rooms a solarium style courtyard larger than Iha average new Home in the county a gym and screening room the perfunctory poof and Jacuzzi three lakes swans. The design will feature 60 classical columns More than the Parthenon plus 200 doors 80 windows and 40,000 Square feet of Rotor into Fernandez said. Hearst Castle which today occupies 135 acres has Only 49,000 Square feet of Irving space in the main House although the guest Homes there would bring the Tola Square footage to 70,000, a spokesman said. Another creation of Wiliiam Randolph Hearst the san Simeon by the sea. Beach House he built for mistress Marion Davies in 1929, actually was larger. Containing 60,000 Square feet plus or minus a few bathrooms in a four Story Structure on 3vi acres in Santa Monica said Doug bad former manager of the Sand and sea club which now occupies the site. Bu1 the Boach House torn Down As a while elephant in 1956 did not cover nearly the grounds that spelling s Home will have much less Griffin a i doubt thai there Anol Hor single residence in the cry of los Angeles that occupies its own Mountaintop said Griffin s Independent planning consultant Gary moms spelling s six acres Morris noted would fit very nicely in Unerv s front Lawn. Historians Point out thai such Osle Lalion has a Long Rich tradition in los Angeles. All during the glory years of Hollywood entertainers built big. The 48,000-Square-fool Greys one mansion. Now owned by the City of Beverly Hills is just one example constructed by the Oil Rich Doheny family at the height of the 1920s building Boom. Pic fair the one Lime Hunting Lodge renovated by Mary Picord and Douglas Fairbanks in 1919, was visited by the likes of Albert Einstein. Babe Ruth and King Alfonso Xiii of Spain. Now owned by Enlar Launcr Pia Zadora it still stands covering about 15,000 Square Teet in Beverly Hills. At one development recently environmentalists won Protection Lor Fossil Ridge a 100-acre area reported to contain 10 million year old fish fossils. Developers have agreed to build their 93 Homes expected to sell for Aboul $1.5 million each without grading the Ridge. It s incredible one resident said. How can de Many people Allord this stuff where do they get 1ho Money they Are doctors lawyers corporate executives entertainers. Japanese businessmen producers and film writers speculators and developers according to real Eulale sales people. Fashion designer Electra Casadei 35,. Is building a luxury Hilltop Home thanks to her successful lines of sports and evening Wear. The tropical landscaping fountains sweeping View and Art Nouveau decor including a White Oak door hand carved Wilh falling orchids Are. All aids loner fashion work. Casadei said. "11 i m not in Environ men that s very. Soothing to me it disturbs my creative " flow she explained. Irene Dezzany an agent for Fred Sands estates said Many buyers Are simply longtime homeowners cashing in on huge Eumes. Last year alone land prices in Pacific Palisades near the Ocean went up 42 percent Wazzan said. And in the area near the Riviera country club where director Steven Spielberg is building a 40,000-Square-fool Home a typical 3,500-Square-fool fixer upper goes Tor ii  Home Selling there for $800.000, she added is doing lobe nothing More than .1 a tear Down valuable Only for the land it is sit Ling on. Wariness of the Slock Market and Federal tax reforms  placed a Premium on Home mortgages As write. Oils also Are fueling construction. On top of that foreign businessmen View new. York and los Angeles As the Best places to invest and of course we have an Edge in terms of  said Joyce Rey who handles Only is million pigs Homes for Rodeo realty in Beverly Hills. Friday november 4, 1988. The stars and stripes Page 13