“This house doesn’t behave like one big house. It behaves like four small ones, each with its own weather.”
- Sam O'Connor
1028
Pleasantview Ave
Venice
Bedrooms
4
Bathrooms
5
Total Area
2,869 Sq. FT
Lot Size
4,634 Sq. FT
Price
$3,695,000
Built Around a Fern Garden, Not a Floor Plan
The house dates to 1947, but the version standing here now is the work of architect Christof Jantzen, FAIA, who rebuilt it around a single organizing move: roughly 68 feet of Arcadia retractable glass wall, folding the main living spaces open to a central courtyard. Most Venice remodels chase indoor-outdoor as a selling point. This one actually commits to it, room by room, all day, as the light changes.
Listed by Jane Dorian and Shaun Alan-Lee, Carolwood Estates
Inside
The kitchen is where the craftsmanship declares itself first: custom walnut cabinetry, marble and stainless steel counters, Heath Ceramics tile, a 36-inch Wolf induction range and speed oven, integrated Miele appliances, and oversized skylights doing the job a window normally would. Solid oak floors and custom millwork carry that same restraint through the rest of the house, alongside bespoke marble sinks and Italian lighting fixtures chosen with real intent rather than pulled from a showroom binder. The primary suite opens straight onto the landscaped courtyard, and its bath is doing the most: a Duravit Luv soaking tub, a custom marble vanity, dual skylights, and a walk-in shower sized for two. The two additional bedrooms keep the same material discipline, but it’s the landscaping outside their windows that does the real work, framing each one like a treehouse rather than a spare room.
Outside
At the center of it all is a fern garden modeled on the one at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, a quiet, almost accidental-feeling detail in a house this considered (someone thought hard about a plant nobody was required to include). A dramatic double-height space, paneled in furniture-grade plywood and closed off by two oversized glass garage doors, can run as a studio, an office, a media lounge, a gym, or, for the right buyer, a place to actually keep the cars. Past that sits a fully independent two-story ADU, with its own entrance, its own kitchen, a rooftop terrace, and its own outdoor space, built for guests, multigenerational living, or straightforward income. A 240-volt EV charging outlet and a UniFi smart security system round out the practical side. The location does the rest: this is Venice within easy reach of Abbot Kinney, Rose Avenue, and the beach itself, close enough to walk to more good restaurants than any one visit can cover.
The O' Factor
A lot of architectural houses solve for one good room and hope the rest of the plan keeps up. This one solves for the whole property at once. The courtyard sits at the center instead of the edge, so the glass wall isn’t a feature, it’s the hinge the entire house turns on. The ADU isn’t an afterthought bolted onto the lot line, it’s a second, complete address with its own roofline and its own view. Even the flex space refuses to settle into being just a garage. The result is a house that doesn’t read as one large volume so much as a small, well-run compound, each piece built with its own reason to exist. That’s a harder thing to design than a big square room with good windows, and it’s the reason this one is worth the walk-through instead of the listing photos.
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The Homes we Represent,
Represent Us.
Every home has a soul. Every human has a place they were meant to be. Our instinct is knowing when the two finally meet. We honor architecture, preserve great design and celebrate the match. Welcome to O’Connor Estates. We’ve been waiting for you.
Proof is in the Properties
SOLD
Closed $200K over asking
SOLD
Closed for $1,589/sq ft
SOLD
Closed $250k over asking
