Kurt Rappaport invites us into his refreshed Beverly Hills office
Dan Brunn reinvents real-estate magnate Kurt Rappaport’s Beverly Hills office in Los Angeles

When California real-estate magnate Kurt Rappaport wanted to refresh a Beverly Hills classic, architect Dan Brunn was his go-to choice. The result was a truly collaborative project and a labour of love from both sides, as client and architect worked in sync to create a new space that blends art and architecture, luxury and minimalism, past and present.
Dan Brunn and Kurt Rappaport: a fruitful collaboration
The site was in a 'quintessential Beverly Hills' building, sat on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Canon Drive. The architect and his team at Dan Brunn Architecture (DBA), worked closely with Rappaport, who, being an avid art collector and expert in property and development, has extensive knowledge to draw on and a passion for architecture.
'Kurt is a tastemaker in life and work,' Brunn said. 'Everything here either has a provenance that carries a special meaning to him, or its an all new creation by DBA. It’s all very lush and filled with great artifacts and curiosities.'
Restoring the building to its historical glory
Brunn redesigned the building's façade, as well as interiors, and brought the structure back to its original 1930s glory – infused with the architect's own modernist architecture influences, as well as 21st-century mod-cons. And while at first, the space was meant to be redesigned and leased out, Rappaport 'fell in love' with it during the process, and decided to move his own business in instead.
The building's historic bones were brought to the forefront and allowed to shine, revealing its elegant minimalism, both in the exterior and the extensive, clean, white interiors. These are dotted with their owner's collection in art and design, spanning from a Roy Lichtenstein painting, to a hanging Alexander Calder mobile, and vintage and contemporary furniture pieces by the likes of Charles and Ray Eames, Jean Prouvé and Ron Arad.
The sequence of spaces leads from the front-of-house, public areas, towards more private ones, such as executive offices and a guest suite. Strategically placed artwork illuminates the route through and creates corners of interest, punctuating the minimalist interior, wrapped in luxurious materials.
'The entire impression of moving through the structure,' Brunn said, 'is that of a single circular band unweaving from space to space, where the overlapping experiences of work and entertainment, business and relaxation transition naturally through a sensuous flow of movement and purposeful space.'
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Japanese designer Shinichiro Ogata's latest venture is a modern riff on the traditions of his home country
As he launches Saboe, a series of new tearooms and shops across Japan, we delve into Shinichiro Ogata's creative vision, mirrored throughout the spaces and objects, rituals and moments of his projects
-
These are Dover Street Market’s jewellery designers to watch, exhibiting at the London store all summer
In a special exhibition, Dover Street Market London is highlighting 36 emerging jewellery designers to know – shop our pick of their pieces
-
A street-like Pune clubhouse celebrates the ‘joy of shared, unhurried experiences’
A brick clubhouse in Pune by Studio VDGA reflects the fluidity and openness of the Indian way of life with a series of welcoming plazas, courtyards and lanes
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wilds
This glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
The great American museum boom
Nine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered