When it comes to the architecture industry, there is no doubt that Frank Lloyd Wright is up there with the greats. He is a prolific American architect throughout his 70 years of being an architect. Out of the many designs he made, he built one famous house in a neighborhood in Los Feliz.
Named the Ennis House, it is the most expensive work he has ever sold. The house has been in the real estate market for more than a year until an anonymous buyer bought the beautiful residence for a whopping 18 million dollars. Once the purchase was made, it became well-known as the most expensive building design by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The entire residential is at least 6,000 square feet, complete with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms for the homeowners. The detached guest houses and main house are found under an acre of the property. Wright was the first to design the building, but Lloyd Wright, his son, built the residence in 1924.
The residence design took inspiration from ancient Mayan temples and Wright’s other designs, including the Wisconsin-based A.D. German Warehouse and the Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House situated in Hollywood. You can find many unique features of the residence, like the 27,000 perforated and patterned decomposed granite blocks on the relief ornament. It was based on the likeness of the symmetrical reliefs commonly found in Uxmal’s Puuc architecture.
When you step inside the property, you can find a long marble hallway and extend the entire length of the property’s initial house. The hallway’s design joins the several rooms inside the building, including the formal dining area with a cathedral-looking ceiling, the formal living room with an intricate design of the mosaic-tiled hearth, and the tucked library with a fantastic view provided by the wide windows.
It also has a vintage-looking kitchen with black and white floor tiles. Homeowners can open the glass doors that lead to the adjacent terrace. There is also a concealed screening room that includes a curved bard on the lower part of the residence and an open fireplace. And when you step into the bathrooms, you can see the uniquely patterned tiles and leaded glass windows and doors.
If the weather gets too hot, homeowners can enjoy the swimming pool in the residence’s backyard. And if you need somewhere to talk with someone privately, there is a narrow koi pond to do it. The southern part of the residence also has several terraces, balconies, and courtyards that provide a nice Los Angeles view.
Because of the Ennis House’s unique architectural aesthetics and design, many TV shows, advertisements, and movies were filmed around the house. One movie that had shots of the Ennis House was the 1982 Blade Runner. It also served several music video backdrops such as 3T’s “Why,” along with Michael Jackson, their uncle, and S Club 7’s “Have You Ever” single.
Things did not go well for the residence during the Northridge earthquake in 1994, where it suffered severe property damage. Fortunately, billionaire Ron Burkle restored the residence when he bought it for 4.5 million dollars in 2011. Reports stated that he reconstructed the building with a budget of 17 million dollars until he decided to place it back on the real estate market with an asking price of 23 million dollars in 2019. However, the new homeowners bought it lower than the listing value, and the name of the buyers are still undisclosed.
