6 lounge-ready homes with conversation pits
Featuring a terrazzo-flanked pit in California and a fire-side pit in Nevada
Los Angeles, California
Modernist architect Harry Gesner designed this 1960 Hollywood Hills five-bedroom with a terrazzo-flanked pit facing a steel-clad fireplace. Once the home of Liza Minnelli and Christina Aguilera, it also features glass walls and skylights, and the lower level has a theater, fitness room, and wine cellar.
The property has a pool, a lagoon-style spa with fireplace, and panoramic views of the ocean and skyline. $7,495,000. Daniel Milstein, AKG | Christie's International Real Estate, (424) 285-3580.
Lakewood, California
Available for the first time since being built in 1967, this mansard-style seven-bedroom has a retro, shag-carpeted pit with a curving wall of windows. A two-sided brick fireplace anchors a living room with beamed ceilings and wood floors.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The 0.72-acre lot in Lakewood Country Club Estates has golf-course views as well as a pool, spa, patio, and firepit. $2,995,000. Kym Elder, Coldwell Banker Realty Long Beach, (562) 254-1489.
Madison, Wisconsin
Designed by architect John Bruni, this 1974 mid-century-modern-style home features a tiled pit facing a stone fireplace in the double-height living room. The four-bedroom includes an updated kitchen with an eat-in island, plus a sunroom, sauna, and second sunken den on a lower level.
Outside are decks, paths, yards, and a hot tub, and the University of Wisconsin is about 20 minutes away. $1,395,000. Trey Sprinkman, Sprinkman Real Estate, (608) 354-4000.
Hartwell, Georgia
This 2022 organic modern A-frame four-bedroom on Lake Hartwell has a large, cushioned conversation pit. The vaulted main space also includes a suspended fireplace and a chef's kitchen, with spiral stairs connecting to a bunk room and primary suite with an in-room copper tub.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The property, which is about two hours from Atlanta, also comes with a new dock and slip. $1,725,000. Jen Vasquez, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties, (404) 668-7735.
New Rochelle, New York
On Long Island Sound, this 1982 modernist mansion designed by Myron Goldfinger includes a half-circle pit facing a fireplace with views of the indoor pool. The five-bedroom has a wall of glass sliders, rounded stairways, emerald pearl granite flooring, and a sleek kitchen with skylights.
Slightly more than a half-acre, the property has an expansive stone patio overlooking the water. $4,195,000. Mimi Magarelli, Julia B. Fee | Sotheby's International Realty, (914) 715-3511.
Las Vegas, Nevada
This 1973 stucco-clad four-bedroom in Encore Paradise Valley has a fire-side conversation pit with tan carpeting and built-in benches. Beside it are a bar area, an all-white U-shaped kitchen, and glass doors to the enclosed backyard, where a covered patio overlooks a pool, palm trees, and a shed.
The Las Vegas Strip is about 15 minutes away, and the airport is even closer. $489,900. Heide Hanley, Realty ONE Group, (702) 561-4879.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked again
Feature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI
Feature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giant
Feature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
-
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) recipe
The Week Recommends German dish is fresh, creamy and an ideal summer meal
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"