This month saw Ron Burkle’s tenure as owner of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House come to a close. Mr. Burkle sold the idiosyncratic residence — the so-called ‘Blade Runner House’, after its use for interior shots in the now-classic 1982 sci-fi flick — for $18 million. The buyers are Robert Rosenheck and Cindy Capobianco, the founders of Lord Jones, maker of CBD-infused products. The company was very recently acquired for $300 million.
The house is an example of Mayan Revival architecture, a style that popped up occasionally between the World Wars. Wright liked it enough to design at least one other building using it as a template: the Hollyhock House, also located in Los Angeles, constructed in 1922, and now open to the public as a National Historic Landmark and World Heritage Site.
The Ennis dates to 1924. Mayan it is…and eerie too, even amongst other examples of the formal style; the 27,000 concrete blocks that comprise its fundamental structure and its driveway accent walls were cast with a symbol borrowed from classical Mayan architecture. As an occasional flourish, the relief would’ve been interesting; the constant repetition of it renders the house remarkably singular, and slightly unsettling.
But very much a Wright. The concrete blocks were molded using granite blasted from the Ennis House building site; organic architecture, then, in spades. The interiors display Wright’s ability to render living spaces in exquisite poise, although the ponderous heft of historical and cultural reference would make inhabiting the home a dramatic affair.
The sale follows an extensive restoration of structural integrity that was begun in 2009, when the Ennis House Foundation was established. Burkle completed the job after buying the ailing home in 2011, for $4.5 million, but it wasn’t the first time the billionaire had taken on a property for reasons of historical relevance and preservation. 2016 found him shelling out $13 million for Bob Hope’s former Lautner-designed home in Palm Springs; less than two years later he paid $15 million for Hope’s former home in Toluca Lake.
Burkle’s net worth is estimated at $1.6 billion.
