The Story Behind
A Paul McClean Masterpiece Redefining Modern Luxury Above the Sunset Strip
There are homes that are built, and then there are homes that are authored. 9126 Cordell Drive belongs emphatically to the latter category. Conceived by architect Paul McClean — whose portfolio defines the upper echelon of Los Angeles residential design — and brought to life over fourteen deliberate years through a creative partnership with Grammy-nominated music producer Alex Da Kid and interior designer Jeff Corney, Cordell represents something rare in the luxury market: a residence with a genuine point of view.
The architecture announces itself without apology. Five levels of glass, steel, and stone rise from the hillside above the Sunset Strip, each plane precisely calibrated to capture light, frame views, and dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior. The scale is immediately felt upon entry, where a central light shaft draws daylight deep into the core of the home and a cascading water feature introduces movement and sound as primary design elements. A sculptural staircase and glass elevator connect the levels, anchored by a four-story digital art wall — a permanently installed canvas for rotating high-resolution installations that transforms the vertical circulation of the home into a museum-quality experience.
The material palette throughout is one of deliberate restraint and warmth. Rift oak millwork, suede wall panels, limestone, marble, and light oak flooring compose an interior environment that tempers the boldness of the architecture with tactile richness. The result is a home that feels simultaneously monumental and intimate — a difficult balance that few estates achieve.
Eight pools are integrated throughout the property with the same intentionality applied to every other element. An eighty-foot outdoor pool commands the exterior, a wraparound interior pool blurs the line between inside and out, and a two-person infinity pool extends directly from the primary suite — offering an experience of waking to the Los Angeles skyline suspended above the water's edge. The primary suite itself exemplifies the home's mastery of indoor-outdoor continuity, with floor-to-ceiling glass opening to that private infinity pool against a panoramic backdrop of the city below.
The lower levels redefine what residential entertainment can mean at this level. A two-lane bowling alley, a forty-person theater with tiered lounge seating, a glass-walled nightclub, a game lounge, and a half basketball court — each space designed with the same architectural rigor applied to the living areas above. A glass car elevator delivers automobiles into a dramatic subterranean gallery, elevating the act of displaying a collection into a theatrical moment.
Dedicated entirely to health and rejuvenation, the wellness floor houses a professional gym, massage room, cold and hot plunge pools, sauna, and cryotherapy — a comprehensive facility that rivals the finest private wellness retreats. The innovative Pleasure Suite, developed in collaboration with The Pleasure Chest of West Hollywood, extends the home's commitment to holistic, multifunctional living with advanced lighting systems and a Murphy bed configuration. Above it all, the rooftop terrace crowns the residence with a retractable movie screen, spa, and panoramic entertaining space that frames the Los Angeles basin in every direction.
Cordell is the product of fourteen years of creative and technical ambition. It is a home that does not ask its occupants to choose between art and comfort, technology and warmth, spectacle and serenity. It contains all of it — in perfect, considered harmony.
To live above the Sunset Strip is to occupy one of the most mythologized addresses in American cultural history — and 9126 Cordell Drive does so from an elevation that commands both the spectacle below and the quiet of the hills above.
The property sits within the boundaries of West Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills, a corridor that has long served as the natural habitat of those who shape culture. The Sunset Strip itself — the stretch of Sunset Boulevard running through West Hollywood — has been the axis of Los Angeles nightlife, music, and creative life since the 1920s. Its legendary venues, from the Whisky a Go Go to the Roxy Theatre to the Troubadour, have hosted defining moments in rock, pop, and contemporary music. The Strip's cultural legacy is embedded in the neighborhood's identity, attracting artists, producers, directors, and entrepreneurs who are drawn not just to the lifestyle but to the creative energy that has accumulated here across a century.
West Hollywood itself is one of the most walkable and culturally active municipalities in Los Angeles County, incorporated as an independent city in 1984. It is home to a concentrated design district along Melrose Avenue and West Hollywood's Avenues of Art and Design — a stretch of high-end furniture showrooms, galleries, and design studios that draws architects and interior designers from across the country. The city's commitment to arts and culture is reflected in its public art program, its support of the design community, and its roster of world-class restaurants and boutiques along Santa Monica Boulevard and Robertson Boulevard.
The immediate neighborhood surrounding Cordell Drive is defined by its elevation and privacy. Tucked into the hillside above the Strip, the streets here are quiet and winding, shielded from the activity below by topography and mature landscaping. Properties at this elevation offer the rare Los Angeles combination of proximity to everything and genuine seclusion — a quality that makes the Hollywood Hills perennially desirable to those who require both access and retreat.
The practical geography of the location is equally compelling. Sunset Boulevard places Cordell within minutes of the restaurants and hotels of the Sunset Strip — Nobu, Catch, the Pendry West Hollywood, and the historic Chateau Marmont among them. Beverly Hills and its Rodeo Drive retail corridor are a short drive to the west. The studios and production infrastructure of Hollywood lie to the east. Los Angeles International Airport is accessible via multiple routes, and the private terminals at Van Nuys Airport and Burbank Airport are within reasonable reach for those with more demanding travel schedules.
For the buyer of 9126 Cordell Drive, the location is not incidental — it is integral to the home's meaning. This is a property conceived by and for those who operate at the intersection of creativity, influence, and achievement. The Sunset Strip below is not merely scenery; it is context. And from the rooftop terrace of Cordell, with Los Angeles spread across the horizon in every direction, that context becomes something close to poetry.
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