According to an always-in-the-know snitch, Justin Kirk has changed up his living situation with the recent, slightly-shy-of-$1.8-million purchase of a multi-level contemporary perched on a vertiginous hillside high in the Hollywood Hills.
The accomplished 51-year-old actor, who got his showbiz start on the stage in New York City, where he earned a prestigious ensemble Obie Award for Terrence McNally’s snappy Broadway play “Love! Valour! Compassion!”, received an Emmy nomination in 2004 for Mike Nichol’s celebrated TV miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking play “Angels in America” before he took on a pivotal role on the long-running cult-favorite Showtime series “Weeds.” More recently he’s appeared opposite Jim Carrey in the riveting, dark and short-lived series “Kidding” as well as HBO’s gorgeous neo-noir reboot of the 1960s legal drama “Perry Mason.”
Set right up against the street along a serpentine-cul-de-sac, every room of the boxy and updated late 1950s contemporary has downright Olympian, knock-your-socks-off views that sweep over Los Angeles to encompass The Hollywood Sign, the downtown skyline and the distant Verdugo Mountains on the other side of Burbank. Even the garage has a spectacular mountaintop vista that surely made view-seeking house hunters salivate with desire! Modest at not even 2,000 square feet, the idiosyncratic aerie offers three well-separated bedrooms and three updated (if not especially stylish) bathrooms over three floors of glass-walled living space.
On the middle level, where the main entrance is located, there are newly installed wood floors and light fixtures. However, the star of the show is unquestionably a continuous ribbon of windows in the combination dining room and freshly rehabbed kitchen that provide a glittery, cinematic sweep across the Cahuenga Pass and San Fernando Valley. A curved staircase leads down to the living room, which features white-painted terra-cotta floor tiles — arguably an unfortunate decorative choice better remedied by the installation of new flooring — and an open-beam exposed wood ceiling. A simple but imposing raised-hearth concrete hearth fireplace is set into a wall of windows and wood-trimmed glass sliders at either end of the room lead to one of the home’s myriad decks, terraces and balconies.
A penthouse-level guest bedroom boasts a small private deck with a soaring bird’s vantage point and another en suite guest bedroom tucked away on the lowest level has direct access to a large terrace shared with the living room. Warmed by a fireplace, the homeowner’s bedroom spills out through French doors to a multi-level series of decks, all with breathtaking views and the uppermost with a spa.
The property was listed Marko Babineau of Compass and Kirk was repped by Elisa Ritt of the Rogers, Stellini and Ritt Team, also at Compass.
Kirk seems to have a thing for modestly sized homes with huge views. Scooped up about 17 years ago for a tetch under $600,000, his longtime home in L.A. is an apartment-sized 1,300-square-foot cliffhanger nestled into a precipitous slope above a deep ravine in Beachwood Canyon with an unfettered view into Griffith Park.
