Architecture and Construction
In 1923, Lloyd purchased a historic home site from P.E. Benedict at the mouth of Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills, California. The land had been owned by the Benedict family for more than sixty years and was close to the spot where Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks had built their famed Pickfair estate.
In 1925, Lloyd hired architect Sumner Spaulding of the firm Webber, Staunton & Spaulding, after an introduction by landscape architect A.E. Hanson, to design a house on the property. Lloyd also hired Hanson to landscape the 15-acre (61,000 m2) grounds.
The final plans for the house were not completed until July 1927, at which time the Los Angeles Times published the architectural drawing. The home was designed in the Italian Renaissance Mediterranean Revival style: modeled after the Villa Palmieri near Florence. Construction of the mansion began in July 1927 and was completed in 1928.
The 44-room, 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2) house and estate was said to have cost $2 million.
Read more about this topic: Harold Lloyd Estate
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