Kipp Nelson’s $62 Million LA Mansion Is a Gearhead’s Wildest Dream Come True

The former Goldman Sachs partner and Formula Three driver spent a decade converting this home on top of a hill (the mansion is on a promontory overlooking West Hollywood's Sunset Strip in Los Angeles) into an actual home. It is beyond luxurious, with every piece of furniture and fitting either a bespoke creation or a vintage one, but also focused on offering the complete experience for a gearhead and that ever-elusive cozy feeling most mansions in this price range lack.

The mansion features a massive model race track, aptly called the Kippway, which is included in the price of the house, an impressive 12-car garage and a high-end Formula One racing simulator that allows the owner to try and beat Lewis Hamilton’s best times. The garage sells empty (bummer!), but everything about it is ready to turn the future owner’s car collection into the real star: there’s custom lighting meant to recall the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.“It does feel like you’ve walked into a surreal, futuristic-type setting,” Nelson tells the WSJ), lounge areas and ample of space to show off anything with an engine and more than two wheels.

The house, listed at the asking price of $62 million, measures a total of 16,000 square feet (1,486 square meters) and has views of the city, San Gabriel Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Designed by Seattle-based Olson Kundig, it’s made to resemble a Rubik cube and includes a variety of “gizmos” that render interior space entirely customizable, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Nelson bought the property in 2014 for a reported $12 million and would spend the next six years working on it. Construction on the three-story, six-bedroom mansion was completed in 2018, but he kept putting the finishing touches to it until he finally decided to sell it. This, of course, begs the question of why someone would spend 10 years working on a home only to list it once it was fully done, and Nelson says the answer is just that: 10 years is a very long time.

“The problem with having a 10-year project is that your life has changed by the time you’ve finished it,” he explains for the same media outlet. It’s not that he no longer likes the home, but rather that his priorities have changed (Nelson says he wants to focus more on producing, and his other two homes are more suitable to that end).

With interlocking boxes and planes, and plenty of glass pockets, walls and appliances that can be deployed or hidden from view at the touch of a button, the mansion blends industrial style with a more homey feel. Wooden floors and ceilings meet large metal panels and vast expanses of glazing to create a house like no other.

Of course, this $62 million mansion isn’t selling at this steep price only because it has a garage, race track and race sim. It also has two separate pools, including an infinity pool, a rooftop helipad, a fully-equipped gym with access from the master suite via a private deck, an olive grove on the ground level, several rooftop terraces, and the most stunning views that money can buy.

As noted above, every piece of furniture and fitting is either bespoke or vintage. There are at least two exterior firepits that can convert into coffee tables, surrounded by bespoke lounge sofas and plush armchairs, Panalu Black granite countertops in the open-plan kitchen, bespoke rugs, bespoke lighting, and the most exquisite mix of black metal and gray concrete, dark brown wood and the occasional but not random splotch of the brightest orange.

More importantly, most spaces open up to the exterior, removing physical barriers between the indoors and the outdoors, allowing for more versatility when entertaining. After all, what’s the use of such a gorgeous house and a considerably-sized car collection if you can’t have people over?

“The scale of everything feels fine when I’m just here by myself, but the house easily opens up and you could have a gathering of a couple hundred people,” Nelson says.

That said, it still feels like pictures don’t do this elegant mansion justice.