Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger demolished a famed midcentury dwelling designed by late architect Craig Ellwood to make room for a brand new, fashionable mansion.
That’s not how Erin Ellwood, Craig Ellwood’s daughter, stated she would have gone about it.
“I feel it might have been actually cool to maintain it and do one thing … add to it in a very attention-grabbing, progressive approach,” Ellwood informed The Instances on Monday. “However you recognize, perhaps this simply isn’t their model. I imply, it clearly isn’t in the event that they’re constructing a farmhouse.”
Ellwood, an Ojai-based inside designer, spoke to The Instances about her father’s late ‘40s Brentwood fee, recognized amongst locals because the Zimmerman Home after unique homeowners Martin and Eva Zimmerman. The property, which she described as a “time capsule” due to its Midcentury Trendy aesthetic, was bought final 12 months and set for demolition seemingly with out purpose. In current weeks, a number of experiences revealed that the Marvel star and Schwarzenegger bought the lot for $12.5 million and that their new mansion — to be designed by Ken Ungar — was the explanation for the teardown.
On X (previously Twitter), the celeb couple rapidly confronted ire from structure fanatics and different critics. “Wow,” wrote one person who shared an Architectural Digest article. “Wow as in, that is actually dangerous.”
“Chris Pratt purchased a BEAUTIFUL Nineteen Fifties mid century fashionable home designed by THE Craig Ellwood and demolished it to construct a s— McMansion,” one X person wrote on Friday. “My mid century modernist coronary heart is shattered.”
“Think about tearing this historic home right down to construct a ‘fashionable farmhouse’ McMansion,” a second user wrote on Saturday.
As extra experiences concerning the Ellwood razing surfaced, handfuls of social media customers additionally revived “Worst Chris,” a dig that stemmed from a viral tweet concerning the Hollywood Chrises (Chris Hemsworth, Pratt, Chris Pine and Chris Evans).
Representatives for Pratt and Schwarzenegger didn’t instantly reply to The Instances’ request for touch upon Monday.
Like Pratt’s on-line critics, Erin Ellwood stated she solely realized concerning the purpose for the demolition earlier this month. However she informed The Instances that she understands “it comes with the territory.”
All through his decades-long profession, Craig Ellwood introduced his indoor-outdoor dwelling method to a number of properties throughout Southern California, together with his beachfront Hunt Home in Malibu. The Zimmerman home, with its floor-to-ceiling glass home windows and open ground plans, was designed early in her father’s profession and wasn’t the most effective illustration of his work, Ellwood stated.
“It doesn’t break my coronary heart,” she added of the raze.
Nonetheless, the house, bought to “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” creator Sam Rolfe and spouse Hilda Rolfe in 1975— stands for a timeless architectural motion. Erin likens her father’s lasting Midcentury designs to “the Chanel of structure.”
“There’s sure fashions that may by no means go away. They’ll all the time keep sturdy,” she stated.
The couple’s fashionable farmhouse aesthetic is probably not Erin’s most popular model, however she stated she understands why Pratt and Schwarzenegger would need the Zimmerman Home plot: proximity to Schwarzenegger’s mom, Maria Shriver. The previous first girl of California reportedly lives throughout the road from the property.
“I don’t really feel bitter. I perceive the love of household, I perceive desirous to be near my mom or my mom in-law,” stated Ellwood, whose late actor mom Gloria Henry additionally lived by Shriver. “I perceive being a multimillionaire and wanting to construct precisely what I need and maintain my household shut. I get all that. Sadly, it concerned tearing one thing down.”
Razing the Zimmerman Home is not only “so brutal,” however wasteful in quite a lot of methods, Ellwood added. She lamented that the house didn’t have some type of ceremonious sendoff — remaining excursions for structure college students, a celebratory cocktail hour, donation of supplies for architectural research — earlier than it was torn down.
“Is there one thing extra artistic that would’ve been executed within the technique of taking it away that would’ve given it some honor?” Ellwood asks.
She was talking to The Instances on what would have been her father’s 102nd birthday. She says Craig Ellwood “stood for innovation and a brand new approach of California dwelling.”
“I feel what individuals are responding to is [the home] is like this time capsule,” she stated. “I feel that’s what hurts individuals a lot — is that there aren’t that many nice ones.”
With the Zimmerman Home now a pile of rubble and Pratt and Schwarzenegger’s new mansion reportedly nonetheless in early development, Ellwood stated she hopes the couple considers giving again to the structure neighborhood amid the backlash.
“They’ve bought cash,” she stated. “It might behoove them to do one thing sort to the world of structure.”
