The home, which was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s love of Mayan architecture, was first badly damaged by the 1994 Nothridge earthquake; then, torrential rains wreaked havoc on it once more in 2005.
It wasn’t until 2011, when billionaire Ron Burkle purchased the property for $4. 5 million, that it began the long road to recovery and restoration to its former grandeur.
Burke has reportedly spent nearly $17 million to restore the home. The residence has been featured in dozens of films, television shows, fashion shoots, and music videos over the years, including Twin Peaks,Rush Hour,Buffy the Vampire Slayer,and, most famously, 1982’sBlade Runner(because of this, the property is often referred to as theBlade Runnerhouse).
As of earlier this week, the geometric, iconic Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Ennis home is officially on the market for an impressive $23 million. The unique, temple-like residence (the style is more Raiders of the Lost Ark than a Buddhist monastery) was originally built by Wright’s architect son Lloyd Wright in 1924 for retailer Charles Ennis and his wife, Mabel, but has since had a long and storied history of losing battles against Mother Nature.
The massive 6,000-square-foot home consists of four bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms, perched on a 0. 83-acre hillside parcel with breathtaking views of Los Angeles. From the outside, the home (comprised of two structures: the main residence and a detached garage with guest quarters on top) is impressive in its intricacy – the exterior is made up of more than 27,000 patterned and perforated decomposed granite blocks, stacked to appear as though rising from ancient ruins.
Once inside, the interior of the home is no less impressive: a cinematically long interior loggia with a mausoleum-like marble floor connects multiple living spaces that feature the same textured blocks as the exterior, coupled with geometric leaded glass windows and hardwood floors. The effect is ethereal, with the home’s southern- and northern-facing façades lined with windows to maximize natural light.
Rooms of note include the cathedral-style dining room, which features a tall, exposed-beam ceiling, a fireplace, and both a gorgeous framed picture window offering sweeping views of downtown Los Angeles and a second, frameless corner picture window which gives inhabitants of the room the feeling of floating above the city below. The spacious living room is similarly high-ceilinged, with a mosaic-tiled fireplace and several pillars made of the stacked granite blocks.
Elsewhere in the home is a black-and-white-tiled vintage kitchen, a cozy library with ample windows, and, on a lower level, a discrete screening room with a curved bar and open fireplace. Each of the home’s bathrooms boast a different patterned tile; one standout bathroom features a black-and-red pattern. Behind the home, multiple sets of glass doors open out onto a broad terrace with a small koi pond and a sizable swimming pool likely added sometime after 1940, when the property was purchased by radio announcer John Nesbitt.
