Architect Gerard Colcord Leaves a Lasting Legacy in Pacific Palisades

By FRANCES SHARPE | Editor-in-Chief

In the 1920s, Americans looked to Europe for architectural inspiration.

“English and French revival houses meant instant credibility,” said Bret Parsons, the author of Colcord Home, a book that details the legacy of the late architect Gerard Colcord.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Colcord studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in France before returning to the Los Angeles area to begin his storied career.

Over a 60-year span until his death in 1984, Colcord designed more than 300 residences for a distinguished clientele, earning him the moniker “Hollywood’s Society Architect.”

Many of the Tudor, Country French, Country Colonial and other European-inspired homes he designed still stand in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods throughout Southern California.

One of the architect’s earliest masterpieces in Pacific Palisades recently hit the market.

The elegant home that’s available for $8,150,000 at 13535 Lucca Drive in the Riviera (see “Home Spotlight” on page 17) is representative of Colcord’s signature style.

Drawing inspiration from farmhouses in the northern France region of Normandy, the home features a high-pitched roof, exposed ceiling beams, wood-paneled walls and rough fieldstone masonry on the exterior.

According to Colcord Home, the architect was only 29 years old when he designed the Lucca home for prominent civic leader and avid sportsman Oscar A. Trippet, Jr. and his wife.

“Trippet House is a fully developed, sophisticated design, that invokes a rural French farm complex; a traditional rectangular structure organized around a central courtyard. Like many residences Colcord designed, the architecture had been modified to accommodate the practical demands of twentieth-century Southern California living,” Parsons wrote in Colcord Home.

“What’s really interesting about the Lucca house that’s for sale is that the house next door to the West is also a Colcord and the house across the street is a Colcord,” Parsons told the Palisadian-Post.

This enclave of Colcord homes lends a stately air to Lucca Drive.

“Most Colcord homes stay in the family for generations,” Parsons said. “They don’t come up for sale often.”

Family, Celebrities and Scandal

Laura (Borawski) Trama was about four or five years old when her family (her parents, two sisters and a brother) moved into the home at 13535 Lucca Drive in 1980.

Her mother loved buying homes, re-doing them and then selling them, Trama said.

When she landed in the Colcord home in the Riviera, however, her mother said she had finally found her “dream home.”

Now a real estate agent in New Jersey, Trama has many fond memories of the home on Lucca Drive.

She recalls running down the long hallways with her big brother and touching all the animal-shaped plaster mouldings along the walls.

“My mom would say not to get fingerprints on them,” Trama told the Post.

She also remembers how she and her mom used to pick tangerines and oranges from the trees in the yard and squeeze them and make popsicles with them.

Watching a video of the property (13535lucca.com) “brought tears to my eyes,” Trama said.

“I can remember spending Christmas Day in that living room. We used to have a piano in there, and the library looks exactly the same.”

Trama’s best friend at the time was neighbor Courtney Wagner, the daughter of actor Robert Wagner and his actress wife Natalie Wood, whose tragic drowning off Catalina Island remains a mystery to this day.

When you grow up in the Riviera, hobnobbing with celebrities is practically an everyday occurrence.

Trama recalls a party her parents had when OJ Simpson showed up in a Ferrari. Their next-door neighbor was director Sydney Pollack. And when the family put the home on the market in 1986, one of the potential buyers was none other than Dustin Hoffman.

In addition to its celebrity ties, the Colcord home on Lucca shares a bit of Hollywood scandal with one of the most famous estates in all of Los Angeles – the 46,000 square-foot Greystone mansion.

Dr. Ernest C. Fishbaugh, who purchased the Palisades Colcord home from the Trippet family, used to treat Edward “Ned” Doheny, the son of oil tycoon Edward Laurence Doheny.

Ned spent over $3 million – an astronomical sum in the late 1920s – to build Greystone and moved into the palatial estate with his family in September 1928.

Just five months later on the night of Feb. 16, 1929, Fishbaugh was called to Greystone when Ned and his male secretary Hugh Plunket were both found dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

“When police arrived, the doctor said he hadn’t touched the crime scene; later he admitted that he moved Mr. Doheny’s body in order to revive him, but others suspected that he had tidied things up to try to avoid any whiff of scandal,” according to Parsons’ book.

Modern Living in Historic Homes

People may be drawn to Colcord-designed homes for their architectural importance and historical allure, but families also tend to want the latest amenities.

“When Colcord houses are sold, they do get updated, but most owners do so compassionately and sympathetically,” Parsons said.

Like many Colcord homes, the Lucca home has been thoughtfully and meticulously restored and updated.

“The current owners, Bob and Amy Perille, were drawn to the architecture of Trippet House because it reminded them of their precious Tudor-style residence… in Illinois,” wrote Parsons.

According to Parsons, when the current owners moved into the home they found the interiors to be too ornately decorated and hired an interior designer to “un-decorate” the house.

The décor was pared down while several understated upgrades were completed.

Backyard upgrades included a pool, spa and an outdoor kitchen that make fresh-air entertaining a breeze.

The country kitchen has been remodeled with all the must-haves of a contemporary home, including marble counters, a Viking range, Sub-Zeros and a built-in desk. Even though it’s been re-engineered for everyday living, the kitchen still retains a country French feeling thanks to a number of decorative touches.

All the bathrooms have also been updated while staying true to the style of the home.

According to Parsons, who conducted 300 interviews for the book, “One of the most interesting things Colcord homeowners say is they love to entertain, but their guests never want to leave!”