Film mogul Samuel Goldwyn's glamorous former digs become a grand gallery space.

When David Alhadeff first stepped into the palatial, light-filled interior of his new home in the heart of Hollywood, he knew he’d found the site of the next chapter for both his design gallery, the Future Perfect, and his young family. “We’re always interested in architecturally significant homes,” Alhadeff says, “but it’s less about the architecture and more about the way a house feels.” Though it was established in New York City in 2003, the Future Perfect has since 2017 shown work by its roster of designers and makers in residential environments in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Now, for the first time, Alhadeff is using one of the gallery’s spaces as a full-time residence for his family of three.

Completed in 1916 by a pair of architect brothers-about-town, Arthur and Alfred Heineman, and built by R.E. Fuller, a prominent developer in early Hollywood, the Goldwyn House is a prime example of the studied interplay between the historic and the contemporary. It earned its nickname in 1925, when Samuel Goldwyn of Paramount and Goldwyn Pictures—what would eventually become MGM—moved in with his second wife. “We worked hard to make it look like we didn’t do any work at all,” Alhadeff says. “We stripped it back, found the original elements, and brought those back to life.”

The Future Perfect team, led by gallery director Laura Young, worked with bicoastal firm Kamp Studios on custom plasterwork throughout, while Art Luna Studio relandscaped the grounds, bringing them back to their original Old Hollywood splendor. The first and second floors will serve as the viewing spaces; guests are greeted in the foyer by Dimoremilano’s sculptural lamp abutting the vaulted, light-filled dining room. (“I will be hosting Thanksgiving this year,” Alhadeff says.) The old screening room where Goldwyn presented his feature films is now the modernized library, a jewel-toned midcentury lounge swathed in velvet and crowned by a handwoven rattan chandelier by artist Chris Wolston.

The renovation leans unexpectedly classic, with seven bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms, that dining room with a butler’s pantry, a solarium, a breakfast nook, a sleeping patio, a poolside guesthouse, and an outdoor living room, not to mention those tenderly manicured gardens—“traditional bones,” as Alhadeff calls them. “This house really surprised us,” Young says, “We typically fight against this type of layout. Here, we’ve embraced it.” The integration of exhibition space in harmony with the architectural elements of the home echoes the Future Perfect’s vision for our hybrid times: a blend of work and home life. “Design is what connects the dots,” Young says.

And circling back to that growing family. The home will serve not only as the Future Perfect’s headquarters in Los Angeles but as the primary residence for Alhadeff and his husband, Jason Duzansky, and their newly adopted son, Leo. Having a design gallery in a private home may have seemed quirky prepandemic, but the past two years have given Alhadeff and his team the time and space to realize their unique vision on their own terms. “We’re taking a magnifying glass to this idea of ‘work from home,’ ” Alhadeff says. “You know what they say—‘It takes a village’—and this kid is gonna have a village.”

The Goldwyn House, as the team affectionately calls it (the sun has set on “Casa Perfect,” the moniker formerly ascribed to the gallery’s hybrid spaces in both L.A. and New York City), now exists seamlessly as a gathering place for the design-minded public and a private residence for Alhadeff and his brood. This is a feat that may be possible only in a city like Los Angeles, a place that is constantly reinventing itself yet retains a footing in its own storied past. “This is round one for the Goldwyn House,” says Alhadeff. “We’re only just beginning.” 

This story originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE

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