Paul Williams-designed Bel-Air estate hits market

A 20,000 square-foot, Paul Williams-designed Bel-Air mansion is on the market for $65 million.

“Years in construction, this gem is a showplace for art and high design,” the listing says. “A rare combination of scale, quality and location.”

The 1.1-acre property is located at 10771 Bellagio Road, overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club, and has a style to match, with a traditional all-white exterior and landscaped grounds that include a large circular motor court, infinity pool, fountain and putting green. The 10-bedroom mansion includes a primary suite with a sitting room and “closets that rival the finest retail stores,” as well as a home theater, wine cellar, bar and eight fireplaces. The estate has a total of four kitchens.

The sellers are Todd and Kasey Lemkin, according to records, who bought the property in 2016 for $27.6 million from the attorney Jeffrey Kaplan and his wife, Tracy.

The estate was built in 1936 by the pioneering architect Paul Williams; the Kaplans bought it in the early ‘00s and subsequently renovated and expanded it.

Williams, who died in 1980, ranks among L.A.’s most preeminent 20th-century figures: He was the first Black architect to be admitted into the American Institute of Architects and helped design buildings including the Los Angeles County Courthouse; he also built homes for celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, helping establish an aesthetic that would come to define L.A. luxury architecture.

Another Williams-designed property on Bellagio Road — also 20,000 square feet — sold for $43 million in April 2020, a sale that at the time marked L.A.’s highest price since the beginning of pandemic-era lockdowns.