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Inside the world’s most stylish garage

If you own a garage, chances are it's a closet that just happens to be big enough to hold your car. Maybe you've dressed it up with a TV or couches; maybe it's a true workspace with the tools and grease as proof.

But no garage looks like this one, built by a Los Angeles designer and architect as the centerpiece of a stylish house overlooking the Pacific Ocean — with a Ferrari 512 BBi as its inspiration.

Holger Schubert spent several years and more than $1.5 million renovating his Los Angeles home around his Ferrari, surviving battles with zoning officials and upset neighbors who threatened to shut the project down. The result was a garage like no other in the world, with dramatic views and a minimalist approach that would make a penny on the floor feel like clutter.

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"All the attention is on the car," Schubert tells video producers Petrolicious in the new short film below. "There's nothing that takes away from the car. It's a blank white canvas with a piece of art in front of it."

The only thing Schubert's award-winning garage space has in common with the typical suburban variety is a concrete floor. The Ferrari rests on an aluminum ramp that can be tilted by remote control 10 degrees, so that Schubert can roll out without having to start the Ferrari next to the couch. Outside, Schubert built a glass-enclosed 16-foot bridge to the street, which was so controversial that some neighbors petitioned the city to order it knocked down in 2010.

As Schubert describes it, all of this effort was due to his attachment to the Ferrari; he searched for years before finding the exact 512 BBi he wanted. It's an unusual choice; the 512 BBi of the early 1980s isn't considered as collectable as other older Ferraris, but it was a powerful ride in its era. Schubert's shrine of a parking space could almost make an Aztek handsome, but the 512 BBi looks just right.