Artist Sells Two-For-One HP Property
While the pool house has been named the number one party house in the world by Architizer.com, Dana Nearburg’s property, listed at $14.9 million, was great for raising a young family.
Dana and her former husband, Charles, built the main house at 3908 Euclid Ave. with architect Joe McCall and Oglesby-Green in 1991. At the time, their children were 4 and 8 years old.
“We would get in the kitchen and hold hands and go exploring,” Dana recalled.
The house and pool/second house, built in 2005 and designed by Gary Cunningham, sit on two 70- by 225-square-foot lots.
“I’m kind of astounded that I can use all this space. I don’t have any trouble,” Dana said.
In both houses, the architects incorporated rooms and features fit to Charles’ and Dana’s hobbies. In the pool house there’s a second-floor room Dana, a trained architect and artist, uses as a studio, and downstairs there’s a five-car garage for Charles. In total, the property has space for 11 cars.
Charles, a former Formula One racer, also requested a water feature in the main house that doubled as both a fountain and spa in which he could relax after races.
“I thought it was the stupidest idea when we started, but I love it. I love the sound,” Dana said.
Both houses provide views of the property’s award-winning landscape through large walls of windows, most of which have panes that can be opened to let in fresh air. Smaller, square windows scattered throughout at varying heights act like picture frames bringing in more color to the minimalistic and neutral-toned house.
Even with all the windows, privacy and noise isn’t an issue, Dana said. The houses are nestled back and protected from the street by both landscaping and a lit sculptural glass-filled wall.
At night, the wall’s blue lighting filters over the property and fills the house. Dana can see it from the second-story master bedroom.
“When we first did it, I would hear screech, rerrrr, of people throwing on the brakes and backing up to look. We got all kinds of people getting out to look,” Dana said. “At this point it’s been copied so much.”
The houses’ neutral walls also come to life with art, some of which Dana said she would consider selling with the house for the right offer. But in the new house she’s designing down the street, there will be space for most of it, including a huge painting that’s the main feature of the second-floor of the pool house.
Dana painted the piece after their son Rett died in 2005 of Ewing’s Sarcoma. It was made on dry wall from the house that used to sit on the second lot before they added the pool house.
“The architect thought we should save it and put it here, and so we did,” she said.
Living in a house that is as much a piece of art as the art it holds was made easy with the help of a book of people who built and maintained the property and landscaping, which Dana said she would pass on to the new owners.
“I feel a real commitment to maintaining it in a pristine condition,” she said. “I love this place and I had a huge hand in the design and I hate to leave, but I knew I would need to [one day].”
