Bellevue Hill's modernist landmark Oculus sells for more than $13.5 million

Bellevue Hill’s landmark modernist residence Oculus, designed by 1960s architect Frank Fox and sympathetically remodelled by Tzannes Associates for former Goldman Sachs partner Philip Moffitt and his wife Jillian Gower, has sold.

Michael Pallier of Sotheby’s International wouldn’t reveal the sale price but sources say it sold for more than $13.5 million, which puts it close to the latest asking price of $14 million.

Fox, who established the Old Sydney Town theme park on the Central Coast in 1975, designed the striking circular house for the late  Philip Malouf, a prominent lawyer and board member of now-defunct Radio 2SM, after Malouf’s family company purchased the corner property in 1960 for £14,000.

The Malouf family held it until 1996 when it was sold for $1.875 million to restaurateur Nic Stergis.

Gower and Moffitt purchased the striking circular house in 2008 for $6.7 million from lawyer Magdalen Simpson, who had only owned it for two years after buying it for $6.05 million from winemaker Andrew Simon.

A redesign by Tzannes Associates in 2014, with landscaped gardens by William Dangar and new interiors by Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke, was awarded a commendation at that year’s NSW Australian Institute of Architecture Awards.

While the footprint and form of the original house remained largely unchanged, an underground garage was excavated under the house. The round design meant almost all the finishes had to be custom made.

Moffitt, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Australia Managed Fund Board, had a career change in 2019 when the house was first listed for sale. After completing a degree in psychology in 2018, he started a PhD in decision-making with uncertainty at the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology and co-founded Beckon Capital.

The house was returned to the market earlier this year. The sale comes after Bellevue Hill’s median house price rose 5 per cent last year to a median of $5.8 million.