Before & After: He Gave His Hollywood Hills Midcentury an All-Electric Upgrade

At first, it was the view that took everyone’s breath away. This midcentury home stood for decades as a veritable time capsule perched high above the Sunset Strip in the Bird Streets neighborhood of the Hollywood Hills. Near dusk, the sky is ablaze with pinks and oranges, and the grid of Los Angeles shimmers long into the distance before extinguishing into the soft blue of the ocean beyond.

"The view was quite impressive," says architect George Kypreos, who cofounded the firm Sherwood Kypreos with his wife, interior designer Shana Sherwood. "The site itself was very interesting, because it felt expansive from one end, but actually quite intimate and enclosed by nature at the other."

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

The home was built in 1959, and its facade bore several hallmarks of the era: a sloping roof and a brise-soleil in front of the living room. "But beyond the drama of the site and the key architectural elements toward the front, the house was fairly nondescript," Kypreos explains. "Past the living room, it was just a mishmash of random openings with cheap finishes from the early 2000s."

Before: Exterior