"There was so much beauty, so much more than enough for everyone, that it did appear to be a vain activity to try and make a corner in it." This quote captures the essence of Villa Beatrice, where beauty and luxury converge in a breathtaking setting.
The corner of Sunset Blvd. and Alpine Drive became a traffic nightmare. Tour buses made it a stop. Tourists and locals alike milled about, gawked and took pictures. The neighbors were incensed. The "renovation" performed by Sheik Mohammed al Fassi, then 28, and his wife made them the talk of the town.
Spyglass Hill was the first of the planned communities that emerged in Newport Beach. Originally owned by the Irvine family, the land was developed under the auspices of the Irvine Co. Spyglass Hill was built in the early 1970s by the Lusk Co., and the last tract was completed in 1972.
In 2021, during the peak of the pandemic housing market that saw L.A. home prices skyrocket, The Times compiled a list of the newest neighborhoods to join the proverbial "million-dollar club," where the typical single-family home value is above $1 million. Five years later, plenty more have made the cut. Whereas the previous group featured trendy L.A. neighborhoods (Echo Park, Highland Park), South L.A. enclaves (Crenshaw, Leimert Park) and slices of the San Fernando Valley (Porter Ranch, Woodland Hills),
