Building cycles run in waves, and each wave has trends.
At some point, 10, 20 or 50 years down the road, you can almost spot the vintage of a home:
That's a 90s Spanish.
That's a 70s Tudor.
Oh, an original postwar bungalow.
Early-aughts Caliterranean.
Hey, a mid-teens Cape Cod!
Oh, man, the 80s were cruel.
And then, there are the rebels.
The iconoclasts.
They march to the beat of a different drummer.
They don't care what the trends are, or were. They're doing their thing. You can't suss out their vintage because they don't belong to any one time.
If you don't like their music or their smoking, why don't you go outside?
(Side note: Did you know that Billy Idol just turned 70? And is alive at 70? Ye gods.)
We say all of this in appreciation of a newly-in-escrow home in the unlikely location of 1709 23rd St. (4br/3ba, 2842 sqft.) in Liberty Village.
Unlikely, just because the LV is a Mayberry-style neighborhood whose original, master-planned postwar cottages were purely purposeful.
But this home was a concept we've never seen before, and it is both engrossing and exciting.
And so different from the typical Liberty Village stock. Call it daring.
This ground-up new build borrows architecturally from mid-century modern style. But you haven't seen this exact design anywhere.
Enter down the side toward the rear, and you're inside the primary living space, which has the volume of a basketball gym. Maxed-out 2-story ceilings (28' per the listing) plus tons of windows keep the room bright. (The windows face north, so the residents won't be baking inside the house on a sunny day.)
Up the stairs is a secondary living space – a loft described as an office, but perhaps destined to serve as a "kids' living room" up and away from the main family room.
Of course there's a splashy kitchen with a central island. The cabinetry features a mix of warm woods and white boxes.
Perhaps controversially, the "dining room" is designed as a central strip within the great room. This is where it will be, period, thank you. Likewise, the family room is oriented around the grand stone fireplace, and you will mount the TV on the stone, period, thank you. (Be sure to get one of those non-melty TVs.)
The outdoors area on this 5700-ish sqft. lot is mostly designed as outdoor living space – no toddler soccer practice here. There's a built-in BBQ and paved hangout spaces, accessed through foldaway doors.
How about bedrooms?
There's a large primary suite on the first floor. Yes, the first floor. Also on the first floor, according to the floorplan: An office with a powder room in the hallway (serving the first floor). It's shown as a baby room, as if it is the 4th bedroom listed as a part of the property. (No closet? No full bath?)
Upstairs, two bedrooms share a bath. Two sinks is a nice touch.
So, yes, the design is bold, the choices occasionally – as we said – daring.
It's a one-of-a-kind floorplan, and one that would force some buyers to wrestle with how to live in it.
But it's undeniably attractive, and it had big pull for that reason. Asking $4.499M, it lasted just about 2 weeks and is now under contract.
The highest-ever sale in Liberty Village (east of Redondo is the real LV) was last year's resale of a 2016 build at 1401 Lynngrove (5br/5ba, 3588 sqft.) at $4.600M. That was 10% above the highest sale for new construction – 2104 Lynngrove (5br/6ba, 3598 sqft.) in 2024 at $4.195M.
So it looks like 1709 23rd could slot in as the highest-ever new construction sale, despite lacking the bedrooms and square footage of its competitors for the crown. Is it going to beat 1401 Lynngrove by going over $4.600M?
Even if it doesn't go over 4.6, this is not a bad potential outcome for an edgy new build.
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Postscript
We began to wax a bit about Liberty Village up above, just to contrast it with the new build.
We have a little more to say that didn't fit the main body of the post.
Liberty Village was developed right after WWII. There were just a couple of floorplans way-back-when, either 2br or 3br, and they were all built up in record time to help house the aerospace workers who would be needed across the street – and in the area – at major new aerotech manufacturing firms.
About 10 years ago, on Manhattan Beach News – our sister site – we reported on a meeting of some Manhattan Beach "Pioneers," people who'd lived in town 50 years or more. The article includes a video of a resident talking about buying their Liberty Village home for $9,995, with just $199 down – which was refunded to them via the GI Bill.
(Where are programs like that today?)
The neighborhood has long been one of the lowest-priced "entry-level" areas of MB – although, of course, prices are no longer so "entry level," by any common definition.
You can still "see" the original homes throughout Liberty Village, with most having been updated – maybe added onto in strategic ways, but not demolished.
New builds from scratch seem far more rare in Liberty Village than in almost any other part of town.
But total rebuilds do exist! One of our first listings ever was 2104 Harkness, a 1990 Spanish that didn't look much like any of the neighbors.
We later went on to represent two others sales in Liberty Village on homes that set records, 1900 and 1901 Lynngrove. Each was a fairly new build taking advantage of a rising market.
There was a time when we thought we'd never see sales in Liberty Village over $4M, but you really should never say never. There have been two, and it looks like a third is on the way.
