A great find at a Goodwill Bookstore: I purchased an elaborate pop-up book of Frank Lloyd Wright homes. My five year old daughter loves to turn the pages carefully and then inspect each 3D page. Now I'm on a mission to show her the best examples of important architecture in Los Angeles, starting with our Frank Lloyd Wright structures. Lately, I've been enamored with Malibu, so let's start there at the Arch Oboler Gate House and Eleanor's Retreat! A bit off the beaten track as it relates to the standard Frank Lloyd Wright tour. Plus, it's yet another important site saved from the Woolsey Fire, 2018. Check out the description of our first stop after the pop-up book photos.
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Ennis House, Los Angeles, CA
Ennis House interior
Frank Lloyd Wright’s monumental Ennis House hits the market for $23M
The Maya-inspired residence is up for grabs after a major restoration
The Ennis House was recently for sale. Check out the details in this article: https://la.curbed.com/2018/6/26/17507998/frank-lloyd-wright-ennis-house-for-sale
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Wright style interior design
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Arch Oboler Gate House and Eleanor's Retreat by Frank Lloyd Wright
The gatehouse and Eleanor's Retreat are located at 32436 Mulholland Highway, Malibu, CA.
This location is about 10 miles inland from the center of Malibu. The buildings are a private residence and not open for tours, but you can see them from the road.
Photo: Betsy Malloy
Information from TripSavvy
History of the Arch Oboler House
In the 1940s, radio and television personality Arch Oboler and his wife Eleanor set out to create an estate called "Eaglefeather" on the 360-acre lot they owned in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu.
Their grand plans included a house, a film-processing studio, stables, and paddock, along with other structures. Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to do the design.
Unfortunately, the Oboler's dream was never realized. World War II created shortages that made construction difficult. According to architect E. Fay Rippon, the Obolers stopped working on the project because their son died on the construction site, but Oboler's waxing and waning fortunes may have also played a part in the project's demise.
The gatehouse was built first in 1940. It appears in Oboler's film Five. The next year, a small studio was built for Eleanor on a nearby hilltop (you can see it in the next picture). Eventually, the gatehouse was expanded to its current size.
This structure is the only example of Wright's desert rubblestone construction in southern California. Oboler enjoyed collecting rocks as a hobby and gathered many of the stones himself, from as far away as Arizona.
The Obolers lived in the gatehouse until 1987, and it has had a few owners since then. In July 2018, real estate website Zillow estimated its value at $2.1 million. The lot covers 79 acres, and the two-bedroom house is listed at 2,486 square feet.
Eleanor's Retreat was one of only two structures built out of a grander plan created for 1940s radio and television personality Arch Oboler and his wife, Eleanor.
This small studio created for Eleanor stands on a hilltop near the gatehouse.
The gatehouse and Eleanor's Retreat are located at 32436 Mulholland Highway, Malibu, CA.
This location is about 10 miles inland from the center of Malibu. The buildings are a private residence and not open for tours, but you can see them from the road.
More of the Wright Sites
The Gate House and Eleanor's Retreat are among nine Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures in the Los Angeles area. https://www.tripsavvy.com/frank-lloyd-wright-buildings-in-los-angeles-4175153
The Arch Oboler Gate House is one of a few California properties that Wright designed using desert rubble construction, a style he first used in Arizona at Taliesin West. The other California examples are the Berger House and the Pilgrim Congregational Church.
Wright's work isn't all in the Los Angeles area. The San Francisco area is also home to eight of them, including two of his most important works. You'll also find several houses, a church, and a medical clinic in some of the most unexpected places. https://www.tripsavvy.com/frank-lloyd-wright-in-san-francisco-1476168
Don't be confused if you find more "Wright" sites in the LA area than are mentioned in our guide. Lloyd Wright (son of the famous Frank) also has an impressive portfolio that includes Wayfarers Chapel in Palos Verdes, the John Sowden House, and the original bandshell for the Hollywood Bowl.
More to See Nearby
If you're an architecture lover, check out famous Los Angeles houses that are open to the public, including Richard Neutra's VDL house, the Eames house (home of designers Charles and Ray Eames), and Pierre Koenig's Stahl House.
Other sites of particular architectural interest include the Disney Concert Hall and Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, Richard Meier's Getty Center, the iconic Capitol Records Building, and Cesar Pelli's boldly colored geometric Pacific Design Center.
Source: https://www.tripsavvy.com/arch-oboler-gate-house-eleanors-retreat-4123886