SOUTH BAY DIGS | Digital Edition Online

68 DIGS.NET | 7.23.2021 S W E E T D I G S | 9 0 9 V I A C O R O N E L , P V E M A R K E T D RIVE ALONG SCENIC Palos Verdes Drive and swing onto Via Coronel, a peaceful street sweeping along a green hillside on the Peninsula. Duck onto a secluded side street and through a gated entrance, shrouded with old-growth trees, leafy palms and trim green hedges. At once, there's a feeling of entering a more peaceful realm, where sculpted grounds and time-honed elegance meet under vivid scenes of coastal splendor. The atmosphere builds as you continue onto the circular automobile court, which is set in slightly pink-tinged stone and appropriately scaled to the prop- erty. This is a true California estate with an early 20th century pedigree, where both the grounds and dwellings have been skill- fully touched by modernity. "This is one of the most elite estates on the Peninsula," states real estate agent Chris Adlam. "It's set on over three acres, with panoramic ocean and coastline views, history and Old Spanish architecture." Known as the Roessler Estate, named for the first mayor of Palos Verdes Estates, this 7-bedroom, 15-bath- room property was built in 1926. (Mayor Fred Roessler and wife Edna would purchase it in 1937.) The home was designed by Santa Monica architect John Byers, whose signature was Span- ish Colonial Revival, and whose faithfully executed works in this style included homes for King Vidor, Ray Bradbury, Buster Crabbe and other LA notables. About 15 years ago, the property underwent a careful renova- tion by its current owners. The home was thoroughly upgraded, with its original square footage increased to approximately 13,032 square feet in the process. The property's original imprint, notably its Spanish Colonial Revival design, was kept firmly intact—only made more expansive. Walk past the carved entrance doors into a poetic interior courtyard for a fitting intro- duction to the home: Water cascades down the tiered fountain in its center; and there's decorative paving, layers of green land- scaping and shady nooks courtesy of the home's clay barrel overhangs. Helming the project was architect George Shaw of firm Edward Carson Beall & Associates, and so smoothly was the bridge built between past and present, that when one encounters 21st century luxuries like the estate's plush movie theater, its 600-bottle wine cellar or five-car garage, they feel perfectly in-sync with the colorful mosaics, wood-beam ceilings and majestic, colonnaded walkways—glowing with chandeliers at night—that underscore the estate's Old World allure. The home was designed to offer the experience of a luxury coastal resort in full, so the grounds are treated on par with the home itself, and not as an afterthought. To start, the address offers a blessed canvas, positioned neatly on the Peninsula to offer premium-vantage scenes of the Pacific Ocean, framed by rolling green hills and a boundless sky that never stops shifting in

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