Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger demolished a famed midcentury residence 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, mentioned she would have gone about it.
“I believe it will have been actually cool to maintain it and do one thing … add to it in a very attention-grabbing, progressive manner,” Ellwood informed The Instances on Monday. “However you already know, possibly this simply isn’t their type. 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 authentic homeowners Martin and Eva Zimmerman. The property, which she described as a “time capsule” due to its Midcentury Fashionable aesthetic, was bought final 12 months and set for demolition seemingly with out motive. In current weeks, a number of reviews 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 rationale for the teardown.
On X (previously Twitter), the celeb couple rapidly confronted ire from structure fanatics and different critics. “Wow,” wrote one consumer who shared an Architectural Digest article. “Wow as in, that is actually unhealthy.”
“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 consumer 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 consumer wrote on Saturday.
As extra reviews in regards to the Ellwood razing surfaced, handfuls of social media customers additionally revived “Worst Chris,” a dig that stemmed from a viral tweet in regards to 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 mentioned she solely discovered in regards to the motive 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 residing 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 flooring plans, was designed early in her father’s profession and wasn’t the perfect illustration of his work, Ellwood mentioned.
“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 can by no means go away. They’ll at all times keep sturdy,” she mentioned.
The couple’s fashionable farmhouse aesthetic will not be Erin’s most popular type, however she mentioned she understands why Pratt and Schwarzenegger would need the Zimmerman Home plot: proximity to Schwarzenegger’s mom, Maria Shriver. The previous first woman 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,” mentioned Ellwood, whose late actor mom Gloria Henry additionally lived by Shriver. “I perceive being a multimillionaire and wanting to construct precisely what I would like and hold my household shut. I get all that. Sadly, it concerned tearing one thing down.”
Razing the Zimmerman Home isn’t just “so brutal,” however wasteful in a wide range of methods, Ellwood added. She lamented that the house didn’t have some form of ceremonious sendoff — last 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 inventive that would’ve been accomplished within the technique of taking it away that would’ve given it some honor?” Ellwood asks.
She was chatting with The Instances on what would have been her father’s 102nd birthday. She says Craig Ellwood “stood for innovation and a brand new manner of California residing.”
“I believe what persons are responding to is [the home] is like this time capsule,” she mentioned. “I believe that’s what hurts folks 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 building, Ellwood mentioned she hopes the couple considers giving again to the structure neighborhood amid the backlash.
“They’ve acquired cash,” she mentioned. “It will behoove them to do one thing variety to the world of structure.”
