James Dolena

James Dolena was born in Russia on May 17, 1888.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/220/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database] He emigrated to the United States in 1905.{{Cite web |url=http://www.aaroearchitectural.com/architects-historic/12 |title=Aaeroe Architectural |access-date=2013-05-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001045252/http://www.aaroearchitectural.com/architects-historic/12 |archive-date=2013-10-01 |url-status=dead }}Sam Watters, Houses of Los Angeles: 1920-1935, Acanthus Press, 2007, p. 361 [https://books.google.com/books?id=qi03AQAAIAAJ&q=%22james+E.+dolena%22] He was trained as an architect and a painter.

Dolena first moved to Los Angeles to install a mural with Hubert Valentine Fanshaw, and spent the rest of his life there.

In 1926, Dolena designed a house for the silent actor Hobart Bosworth, a 3.2-acre mansion located at 809 North Hillcrest Road in Beverly Hills, California.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3888/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: William Powell House]Hamish Bowles, [http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/kelly-wearstler-the-bold-and-the-beautiful/#1 Kelly Wearstler: The Bold And The Beautiful] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419040345/http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/kelly-wearstler-the-bold-and-the-beautiful/#1 |date=2013-04-19 }}, Vogue, October 01, 2009Emily Eerdmans, Kelly Wearstler, Regency Redux: High Style Interiors: Napoleonic, Classical Moderne, and Hollywood Regency, Rizzoli, 2008, p. 9 [https://books.google.com/books?id=QDbrAAAAMAAJ&q=%22james+dolena%22] The interiors were designed by William Haines and the gardens by Benjamin Martin Purdy. In 1933, William Powell and Carole Lombard purchased the house, and the following year, Dolena redesigned it.[https://books.google.com/books?id=MXRvA_Hwgq8C&dq=%22james+dolena%22&pg=PA99 John Chase, Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving, Verso, 2004, p. 99] In 1969, the producer Albert R. Broccoli bought it, and in 2005, the interior designer Kelly Wearstler bought it.

In 1931, Dolena designed the Garden Apartment and Retail Shop, an apartment house in Westwood, Los Angeles.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/1485/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Garden Apartment and Retail Shop] The following year, in 1932, he designed the private residence of film director Richard Wallace in Bel Air, Los Angeles.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3889/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Mr and Mrs Richard Wallace House]'Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wallace, Bel-Air', Architectural Digest, 9: 4, 33-37, 1934-1935 Later in 1932, he designed the private residence of actress Constance Bennett in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3890/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Constance Bennett House] In 1936, he designed the home of Ingle Barr, a renowned book collector, in Beverly Hills, California.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3906/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Ingle Barr House]'Residence of Mr. Ingle Barr, Beverly Hills, Calif.', Architectural Digest, 10: 3, 100-104, 1940 From 1934 to 1937, he designed the Farmers Market in the Fairfax District, Los Angeles.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/766/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Farmers Market]

From 1937 to 1939, Dolena designed Casa Encantada located at 10644 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles for Hilda Boldt Weber, heiress to the Charles Boldt Glass Co.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/379/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Casa Encantada][http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15150coll5/id/5867/rec/35 Huntington Digital Library: Hilda Boldt Weber residence]John Chase, Exterior decoration: Hollywood's inside-out houses, Hennessey & Ingalls, 1982, p. 50 [https://books.google.com/books?id=nHAqAQAAIAAJ&q=%22james+dolena%22]Ulysses Grant Dietz, Sam Watters, Dream house: The White House as an American home, Acanthus Press, 2009, p. 198 [https://books.google.com/books?id=gvZIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22james+E.+dolena%22] The interiors and furniture were designed by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings. It spans {{convert|8.4 |acres}} and has sixty-four rooms. In 1950, hotelier Conrad Hilton purchased it for $225,000. He sold it to David H. Murdock for $12.4 million in 1979.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3909/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: David Murdock House] Gary Winnick purchased it for $94 million in 2000.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2019-10-16/gary-winnick-casa-encantada-bel-air-record-listing|title=Bel-Air estate lists for the highest price in America: $225 million|last=LEITEREG|first=NEAL J.|date=2019-10-16|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-17}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/18/los-angeles-mansion-sets-us-market-record-with-225m-price-tag|title=Los Angeles mansion sets US market record with $225m price tag|last=Gammon|first=Katherine|date=2019-10-19|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-10-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

From 1937 to 1940, Dolena designed the Boddy House for Manchester Boddy on the grounds of Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, California.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3908/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Boddy House]'Residence of Mr. Manchester Boddy, La Canada, California', Architectural Digest, 10: 3, 93-96, 1940 In 1939, he designed the private residence of George Cukor.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/432/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: George Cukor House]William J. Mann, Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, Macmillan, 2007, p. 188 [https://books.google.com/books?id=60tp4b5PiXYC&dq=%22james+dolena%22&pg=PA188]'Cukor house a vestige of gentility', The Los Angeles Times, part VII: 1, 9/4/1983 William Haines was the interior designer. The same year, he designed the house of Col. David L. Reeves in Santa Barbara, California.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3905/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: Col and Mrs David L. Reeves House] In 1940, he designed the B.T. Gate House in Brentwood, Los Angeles.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3907/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: B.T. Gate House]

In 1949, Dolena designed the Walt Disney Estate, a 5,669-square-foot, seventeen-room mansion, for Walt Disney and his wife Lillian Disney in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles.[https://books.google.com/books?id=VWxdBTTzfFoC&dq=%22james+dolena%22&pg=PA68 Marc Wanamaker, Westwood, Arcadia Publishing, 2010, p. 68]Laura Meyers, 'Reality Check: Lovers' Lien', Los Angeles, March 1998, p. 44 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8V0EAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22james+dolena%22&pg=PA44][https://books.google.com/books?id=EX0WAQAAIAAJ&q=%22james+dolena%22 Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Biography, Aurum, 2007, p. 474]

Dolena lived in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in a house he designed in 1935.[https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/structures/3895/ Pacific Coast Architecture Database: James E. Dolena House]"Residence of Mr. J.E. Dolena, Brentwood Park, California", Architectural Digest, 10: 3, 166, 1940Bruce David Cohen, 'A Dolena legacy: refurbishing the architect's classic house in Los Angeles', Architectural Digest, 47: 10, 164-171, 227, 9/1990

Dolena died on June 12, 1978, in Los Angeles County, California.

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Category:1888 births

Category:1978 deaths

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

Category:Architects from Los Angeles

Category:People from Brentwood, Los Angeles