On a hillside overlooking Beverly Hills is a house that “vibrates with the love that created it,” says its owner, actress Jennifer Aniston.
“I want to say this just right,” she muses. “I am so proud of this house. And I want to celebrate the people who made it: the master craftsmen who poured so much of themselves into its creation.” Not the least of these is designer Stephen Shadley, who worked with her on the project for nearly two and a half years. “I’ll be lucky if I ever do anything with this kind of team and freedom again,” raves the designer. “It was a project without a problem.”
The designer has collaborated with Diane Keaton on two of her residences in Southern California (see Architectural Digest, November 2008 and April 2005) and one in Arizona (see Architectural Digest, April 1998) and with Woody Allen on the interiors of his apartment in New York City (see Architectural Digest, November 2008). He and Aniston had come close to working together on two other residences.
“I’d heard about this place, and when I saw it, I loved it. I knew it was my metier,” he explains. The house, which was designed by architect Harold W. Levitt in 1970, was under renovation at the time and was, Shadley recalls, “in rough shape. We essentially tore the house apart and rebuilt it.”
