famous architecture – Page 3

May 3, 2017May 2, 2017

Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center from “Rosewood”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking begets stalking. While out and about sightseeing filming locales in Orange County last month, the Grim Cheaper and I struck up a conversation with a friendly local couple who informed us that fave show Rosewood (well, it was a fave show until it jumped the shark recently) had just done some shooting at the Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center. So we headed right on over there and were both shocked at what awaited us! The library is one of the most architecturally unique, beautiful, and interesting spots I have ever had the pleasure of visiting!

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The Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center, which took 3 years to construct at a cost of $5 million, was opened to the public on April 2nd, 1975.

The property’s striking design came courtesy of Dion Neutra, son of Richard Neutra, the world-renowned modernist architect who gave us the Los Angeles County Hall of Records, the Ohara House from The Holiday, the Kauffman House in Palm Springs, and the Lovell Health House from L.A. Confidential.

The post-modern structure, which originally measured 74,000 square feet, was constructed out of volcanic rock, stone, wood, glass, and concrete .

Of the airy, light-filled space, which can hold 250,000 tomes, Dion said, “The idea was to place all readers in the outer portion of the floor area and concentrate the bulk of the book collection in a multi-tiered central core, brilliantly illuminated.”

I’d say he succeeded brilliantly with his plan. Dion’s creation is a bright, peaceful, and bucolic respite. I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to read, study or quietly contemplate.

The design could not be more unique – or open. As a 1975 Daily Pilot article stated, “The book stacks are centralized with all activity rooms located on the perimeter of the stacks, removing the cluttered look of most libraries.”

The building also boasts floor-to-ceiling windows on its rear side, which only adds to the site’s overall open aesthetic and affords visitors incredible views of Central Park, which is situated just outside of the library’s doors.

Though with all of its lush foliage, the interior itself almost feels park-like.

The Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center also features skylights, terraced reading decks, and seven interior fountains that Italian magazine Architecttura states “mask normal library sounds and permit conventional levels of conversation.”

The focal point of Neutra’s original design was a massive exterior spiral entrance ramp.

The concrete ramp, situated amidst a fountain, features seating areas, planters, and water displays.

In 1994, the library was expanded to 120,000 square feet, thanks to the addition of a large children’s wing, a 320-seat theatre, and 5 meeting rooms. Sadly, the project resulted in the enclosure of the front ramp and a massive overall of the site’s façade, which greatly altered Neutra’s design. You can see what the exterior of the building originally looked like here, as compared to its revamped state, which is pictured below.

Also altering the appearance of the library’s exterior is the fact that the huge moat-like fountain that surrounds it (which is very reminiscent of that of the John Ferraro Building in downtown L.A.) has been drained, for reasons I am sure have to do with California’s drought.

I can only imagine how stunning the views must be when the fountain is full.

In 2007, the library underwent another renovation, this time to restore Neutra’s original earth-toned color schematic to the interior.

Though the Huntington Beach Civic Center typically stands in for the East Miami Police Department on Rosewood, in Season 2’s “Half-Life & Havana Nights,” the Central Library was used instead. The scene in which Michelle Kelly (Joy Brunson) was brought in for questioning was shot just outside of the library on the pathway adjacent to the property’s large tiered fountain.

Later in the episode, the library’s east side (which I, unfortunately, did not get a photo of) masqueraded as the entrance to EMPD, where Harley (James Harvey Ward) was killed.

Central Park, which, as I mentioned earlier, is situated just outside of the library, was also featured in Rosewood, albeit briefly, in the Season 2 episode titled “Prosopagnosia and Parrot Fish,” in which it masked as a Miami cemetery.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center, from the “Half-Life & Havana Nights” episode of Rosewood, is located at 7111 Talbert Avenue in Huntington Beach.

July 14, 2015July 13, 2015

That Pink Door

I have yet to really hop aboard the Pinterest bandwagon, but I know I’m in the minority on that one. Those who are Pinterest-philes are most definitely familiar with what has come to be known as “That Pink Door.” That Pink Door is actually the brightly-hued front door of a residence in the Indian Canyons neighborhood of Palm Springs. The home also pops up regularly on Instagram (do a search for #thatpinkdoor and you’ll be inundated with blush-colored images) as well as on countless fashion blogs, which is how I came to discover it. I have long been obsessed with fashion blogger Julia Engel, of Gal Meets Glam. Back in May, Julia, her BFF Jordan Jones and their friend Vero Suh visited Palm Springs for what they dubbed a “Best Bebs Weekend.” While in town, they snapped some photos at That Pink Door. When I saw the pics pop up on Julia, Jordan and Vero’s respective websites, as well as the Style Me Pretty website, a few weeks later, I became enamored of the place – and was shocked that I had never heard of it before. So I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list and finally made it over there last week.

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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I totally stalked Julia while she was in town. I follow her on Snapchat (@galmeetsglam) and could tell from one of her videos that she was eating at Norma’s at the Parker Palm Springs. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there in the hopes of getting a pic with her. As it turns out, Julia could not have been nicer! Jordan and Vero were incredibly sweet, as well, and we all wound up chatting for a good ten minutes. I also ended up later purchasing the romper that Julia had on when we met, much to the GC’s chagrin. As I said, I am obsessed! I just think she’s adorable and has such a fabulous and unique fashion sense. If you haven’t checked out her website before, you definitely should! But I digress.

The That Pink Door residence is absolutely massive in person, much larger than I expected it to be.

The post and beam-style home was originally built in 1968 and boasts four bedrooms, five baths, 5,310 square feet and a 0.57-acre plot of land.

The pad’s pink door came courtesy of interior designer Moises Esquenazi, who purchased the residence with his partner, Bryan Graybill, in 2004. At the time, the property was unkempt, outdated and begging for a remodel. The two quickly began redesigning the space into a mid-century modern dream home with such features as glass walls, two fireplaces, a billiard room with a sunken bar, a 75-foot pool with an inlaid tanning shelf, a 12-person spa, two outdoor bars, three fire pits, and an outdoor movie theatre. You can check out what the interior of the home looks like here. While pretty, I had hoped there would be a lot more pink.

The home’s cherry on top, of course, is the pastel pink front door. While Moises and Bryan sold the pad for a whopping $1,820,000 in 2008, the new owners have, thankfully, not touched the color of the door.

The residence has won many accolades, including being featured as one of the “Best Homes in America” in the 25th Anniversary issue of Metropolitan Home magazine. Palm Springs Life also published a piece on it in November 2006. And while the property is said to have been featured on an HGTV program, for the life of me I cannot figure out which program. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: “That Pink Door” is located at 1100 East Sierra Way in the Indian Canyon area of Palm Springs.

July 9, 2015July 2, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Gamble House from “Back to the Future”

Don’t forget to check out today’s post for L.A.mag.com, about the Gamble House from Back to the Future. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

February 4, 2015February 3, 2015

The Andrew McNally House from “Kingdom Come”

Los Angeles never ceases to surprise me. Though I feel like I know the city and its environs like the back of my hand and have spent the last decade of my life researching its locations, I am constantly learning of new spots that I had no idea even existed. Such was the case with an architecturally unique property located pretty much right in my own former backyard. A fellow filming location enthusiast name Liesel recently asked me why I had yet to blog about the Andrew McNally House in Altadena. The answer to that question was simple – despite the fact that the locale is historically significant, architecturally important AND a filming location, not to mention the fact that I lived less than three miles from it for over ten years of my life, somehow I had never heard of the place.

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The massive Queen Anne-style residence was originally built in 1887 for Andrew McNally (of Rand-McNally map company fame). It was designed by architect Frederick L. Roehrig, who also designed Stacy’s (Brittany Murphy) childhood home from Little Black Book, Pasadena’s iconic Castle Green apartments, and the Frederick Hastings Rindge House (a locale that I have stalked, but have yet to blog about as I am unsure of its filming history).

The residence was built facing south, away from the street, so the photographs below actually show the rear of the property. Unfortunately, the front side is not visible from the street. You can see a picture of what it looks like here, though.

You can also catch a slight glimpse of the front of the home from the 600 block of East Deodara Drive, as shown in the Google Street View images below.

The residence, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, boasts 10 bedrooms, 2 baths and a whopping 6,938 square feet. Though it originally sat on 15 acres of land, the property was subdivided after McNally passed away in 1904 and today measures 0.82 acres.

Though its exterior is striking, the most interesting aspect of the home can actually be found inside. In 1893, McNally acted as a commissioner for the Columbian Exposition at the World’s Fair in Chicago. While there, he became so enamored of a Turkish display that upon the Fair’s closing, he purchased said display and had it shipped home. In 1894, McNally employed Roehrig to build an addition to the southeastern corner of the Altadena residence in order to exhibit it. The architect wound up constructing a 25×25-foot, one-and-a-half story, eight-sided room that he topped with a conical roof. It became known as the “Turkish smoking room.” The space was ornate to say the least and featured a built-in banquette, elaborate screens, tall arches, diamond-shaped paned glass windows, and carved wood paneling. You can see historic pictures of the smoking room, which is still intact today, here and here and you can check out some more recent photographs of it, as well as the rest of the interior, here.

According to Liesel, the smoking room appeared in an episode of NCIS, but try as I might (and boy, did I try – I spent countless hours searching!) I could not figure out which episode. If anyone out there knows, please fill me in.

Liesel also let me know that the residence masqueraded as Depew’s Funeral Home in the 2001 dramedy Kingdom Come.

The interior of the house also appeared in the movie.

Several different rooms were used in the filming. You can see photographs of those rooms here.

Amazingly, the Andrew McNally House is still a private residence. Yep, someone actually lives there! I can’t even imagine how cool that must be!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Liesel for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Andrew McNally House, from Kingdom Come, is located at 654 East Mariposa Street in Altadena.

December 10, 2014December 10, 2014

Sloane’s House from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

Once the pizza parlor from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had been found, my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, starting hunting for the home belonging to Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) – one of the last unknown locations from the 1986 comedy. We had known for a while, thanks to a helpful crew member, that the residence was not in Chicago, where much of the movie was lensed, but Los Angeles. In looking for it, though, we always came up empty-handed. Then last week, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, contacted a different crew member who informed him that the dwelling was located somewhere in Brentwood. Owen immediately started searching aerial views of the area and, voila, found the house fairly quickly. So I ran right out to stalk it while I was in L.A. last week. (I actually had to stalk it twice – the first time, it started pouring rain immediately after I showed up. That is why some of my pictures depict rainy weather, while in others the sun is shining.)

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As it turns out, Sloane’s house is famous in architectural circles due to the fact that it was designed by Paul Revere Williams, the prolific architect who also gave us Johnny Weissmuller’s former home, the McGinley Residence, Perino’s Restaurant, and the Just Married mansion. It was actually the first home that Williams ever designed in the Brentwood area. The property is known as the Preminger House in real life, in honor of one of its early inhabitants, film producer Ingwald “Ingo” Preminger. In later years, the American Colonial Revival-style pad was owned by another famous Hollywood producer, Harold Hecht.

In 1977, the Preminger House was purchased by Peter and Merle Mullin. The couple still own it to this day. Of possessing the residence for such a long period of time, Peter said in a 2012 article, “Every now and then, I think about leaving. Then I look around . . . and I can’t. I just love this place.” At some point in time, Peter and Merle hired Gary Drake of Drake Construction to do a renovation of the U-shaped dwelling, during which the central patio was enclosed with a large glass atrium. Drake also constructed a subterranean automobile museum to house Peter’s large collection of cars. The original garage was subsequently transformed into a guest home. You can see photographs of the Preminger House post-remodel here, here and here.

The Preminger House, which was originally built in 1925, currently boasts five bedrooms, six baths, 5,726 square feet of living space and 0.55 acres of land. Sadly, not much of the property is visible from the street, as you can see below.

The pad shows up twice in Ferris Bueller’s Day off. It first appears in the scene in which Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) and Sloane attempt to snap Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck) out of his stupor by taking him swimming. You can check out a photograph of what the Preminger House pool looks like today here. Thankfully, little of it has been changed since the movie was filmed almost thirty years ago.

In John Hughes’ DVD commentary of the movie, he says of the pool scene, “We never identified where this was or whose house this was. I always presumed it was just someone else’s house. It wasn’t really Sloane’s house, it certainly wasn’t Matthew’s house, and it wasn’t Cameron’s house. They just sort of stopped and used somebody’s Jacuzzi.” I was surprised to learn this bit of info as I had always been under the assumption that the pool scene was supposed to have taken place at Sloane’s residence. In hindsight, John’s explanation makes more sense, though, being that Sloane was wearing a negligee in the scene and later references having changed out of her clothes outside by the Jacuzzi. Had she been at her own house, she would have worn a bathing suit and changed within the confines of her bedroom.

In the screen captures below, you can also see that the trio’s clothes are scattered about near the pool, further alluding to the fact that they broke into a random house to swim. Had they been at Sloane’s place, they all would have been able to change inside.

Oddly, while Hughes did not intend for the pool scene to have taken place at Sloane’s pad, he did choose to use the Preminger House to stand in for Sloane’s residence at the end of the movie. The back side of the dwelling showed up in the scene in which Ferris dropped Sloane off at home and kissed her goodbye. You can see a photograph of what the rear side of the residence currently looks like here. Though the addition of the atrium altered the property, it still looks much the same today as it did onscreen in 1986.

In this photograph, you can see that the large tree and curved brickwork surrounding it that were visible behind Sloane and Ferris in the scene are still there today.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Preminger House, aka Sloane’s house from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is located at 340 South Westgate Avenue in Brentwood.

November 19, 2014November 18, 2014

Henry’s House from “Selfie”

I was saddened to learn recently that both Selfie and A to Z – two of my favorite new shows of the fall season – had been cancelled. If How to Get Away with Murder winds up on the chopping block next, the networks will be receiving a very strongly worded letter from me! While Selfie is (or should I say “was”?) both hilariously written and fabulously acted, it is the architectural house where Henry Higgs (John Cho) lives on the series that has me most obsessed. So while I was in L.A. last week (before I learned that the show had been canceled) with my good friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria (that’s Melissa and Maria pictured above) who were visiting from Ohio, we headed out to Altadena to see the pad in person.

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Henry’s sprawling post-and-beam-style house is featured regularly on Selfie.

The residence looks very much the same in person as it does onscreen. I was shocked to discover while there, though, that the pad sits on a humongous piece of land. In establishing shots, only a small, tight-angle shot of Henry’s home is shown, so I never pictured it to be situated on such a massive lot, which, according to Redfin, measures 1.02 acres.

The tranquil property, which is located towards the end of a hilly, winding road, is extremely private and quiet.

The structure was originally built in 1949 by architect Robert F. Gordon. The entryway and living area were then remodeled in 1975 by Tim Andersen and in 2004 the husband-and-wife team of Fung + Blatt converted the home’s detached poolside stables into a guest retreat with a bedroom, kitchenette and bath. You can check out some photographs of the guest house remodel here.

In real life, the one-story residence boasts three bedrooms, three baths and 1,844 square feet of living space. Over the years, the stunning property has been featured in Sunset, Los Angeles and Atomic Ranch magazines.

I am fairly certain that the interior of Henry’s home is a mix of both the Altadena dwelling’s actual interior (which you can see photographs of here and here – LOVE the living room’s built-in couch and shelving) and a set located at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank where Selfie is lensed. I believe the room pictured below, which is the area of the house shown most often on the series, is a set.

But I think that the other sections of the house that appear onscreen are those of the real life residence. Henry’s kitchen, which is pictured in the screen captures below, is an exact match to the home’s actual kitchen, which you can see in this photograph.

On a side-note – I will be on The Bill Feingold Show Featuring Kevin Holmes once again this morning at 8 a.m. PST. You can listen in here.

Bill Feingold Show featuring Kevin Holmes (1 of 3)

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Henry’s house from Selfie is located at 3705 Alzada Drive in Altadena.

November 25, 2013November 23, 2013

The Mulholland Drive Boat House

I am extremely excited to announce (to those who haven’t already heard via Facebook or Twitter) that I was recently invited to contribute a weekly blog post to the CityThink section of Los Angeles magazine online. (I’m feeling so very Carrie Bradshaw! Winking smile ) My post, Scene It Before (thank you, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for the title!), will chronicle filming locations (duh!) then-and-now and will run each Thursday. I could NOT be more floored about this new endeavor and hope all of my fellow stalkers will check it out each week. My first column, which was published this past Thursday, can be read here. (I actually wanted to make this announcement last Friday, but felt weird mixing in such happy news with a blog about the assassination of JFK.) And now, on with the post!

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Back in September, my mom texted me to ask if I had ever stalked a huge, white boat-shaped house on Mulholland Drive. Such a property was being featured on an episode of Million Dollar Listing that she was watching at the time and real estate agent Josh Altman had mentioned that the site was often rented out for movie and TV shoots – so much so that the owner was said to make about $700,000 a year on filming alone! (In fact, during the episode Altman loses the listing because a movie production company swept in and rented the place for four months – for $320,000! When Altman learned the unfortunate news, he asked if the flick being filmed was Titanic 2. LOL) I had never even heard of such a structure before, but was, of course, immediately intrigued. Thankfully, I found the pad rather quickly that very same night via a Google search (there aren’t that many houses shaped like ships on Mulholland Drive, I guess). One look at the images Google kicked back had me absolutely drooling. The place was easily one of the most architecturally unique residences I’d ever laid eyes on. So I ran right out to stalk it while the Grim Cheaper and I were in L.A. two weeks ago.

Before arriving at the property, I had an inkling that it would not be very visible from the street, so I was floored to discover the opposite to be true.

Kinda makes you want to scream out, “I’m the king of the world!”, huh?

The 5-bedroom, 8-bath, 4-level, 11,000-square-foot residence, which was originally built in 1992, offers glass walls, 300-degree views, 2,500-square-feet of outdoor living space, an office, a pool, 2 spas, a fire pit, a gym, a nightclub/theatre, a wine cellar, 2 kitchens, and parking for 8 cars. It was last offered for sale for a cool $6,749,000. You can check out the real estate listing, complete with interior photographs, here.

For such a unique dwelling, the entrance to the property is actually quite non-descript, as you can see in the below Google Street View image. (Unfortunately, Mulholland Drive is a very busy thoroughfare and there was absolutely nowhere for me to pull over to snap photographs in the vicinity of the, ahem, stern area.)

I was floored to discover while doing research for this post that the abode has quite a few celebrity connections. According to MailOnline.com, pop group One Direction stayed there for seven nights this past August during the last week of the North American portion of their Take Me Home tour. Harry and the gang shelled out $27,000 for the privilege. Yep, $27,000 for seven nights! (While the article also states that the boat house is located in a gated community, that information is actually incorrect. As you can see above, the home is situated right on Mulholland Drive and is quite accessible.) According to Virtual Globetrotting, model Katie Price and then-husband, singer Peter Andre, leased the residence back in 2008 and Curbed LA states that Prince rented the pad for a time, but, for whatever reason, never actually lived on the premises.

The episode of Million Dollar Listing my mom had watched back in September was Season 6’s “All Aboard,” in which Altman and his assistant, Mikey, hosted a broker’s open house at the boat-shaped residence.

Of the property, Altman said, “Some houses, they sell themselves. This one, not so much. Not only is it shaped as a ship, but it probably needs about a million dollars worth of upgrades. It looks like the freaking Love Boat in here! This thing is straight out of the ‘80s.” LOL The place is definitely unique – you gotta give it that. It is not very hard to see why the pad has been utilized so often as a filming location.

Thanks to Curbed LA, I learned that in 2002 the top ten finalists from the first season of American Idol were put up in the mansion. (Once I heard the news, I ran right home and watched our American Idol: The Search for a Superstar DVD, which chronicles the series’ first year. Man, that season was great! In my mind, no other season has even come close to comparing.) Quite a few areas of the house were shown in those episodes, including the front exterior;

the kitchen;

several bedrooms;

the pool;

the living areas;

and the carport.

That same year, the boat house was featured in Eve’s “Gangsta Lovin’” music video.

You can watch that video by clicking below.

In the Season 3 episode of Californication titled “Slow Happy Boys,” which aired in 2009, the abode was where Sue Collini (Kathleen Turner) lived and threw a rowdy party.

The interior of the property also appeared in the episode.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Los Angeles magazine online . And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to my mom for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Mulholland Drive Boat House is located at 15105 Mulholland Drive in Bel-Air. You can check out a good view of the residence from Woodcliff and Cody Roads, which run just north and east of it.

May 24, 2013May 24, 2013

The Darkroom from “The Big Picture”

Sometimes I think Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I are one brain living in two different bodies. Case in point – one of my most beloved movies of all time is the little-known 1989 sleeper The Big Picture, which I saw with my mom shortly after it originally came out almost two-and-a-half decades ago. In the years since, I had never met anyone who had ever even heard of the flick, let alone loved it as much as I did. So imagine my surprise when, during one of our first stalks together in 2008, Mike and I drove by the historic Vista Theatre in Los Feliz and he mentioned that it had been featured in one of his favorite films of all time . . . The Big Picture. Yep – one brain, two bodies. It was not until last year, though, that the two of us decided to track down the many locales used in the movie, the most important of which (for me, at least) was the extremely unique Indian restaurant that appeared in one of the opening scenes. The trek was far easier said than done, though.

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The Indian restaurant in The Big Picture boasted a very unusual, camera-shaped façade. Figuring that an eatery matching that description would be an easy find, I did a quick Google search for every permutation of “Indian restaurant shaped like a camera” that I could possibly think of, but none yielded any sort of result. I then ordered I Killed Charles Bronson’s Cat, a book written by The Big Picture’s location manager, Barry Gremillion, hoping it would provide a lead. And while the tome did prove to be a fascinating read and proffered information about several of the movie’s locales, maddeningly not a word was mentioned about the Indian eatery. My next step was to track down Barry himself, which I managed to do via Facebook. I sent him a message asking about the restaurant location and, amazingly enough, he wrote back less than ninety minutes later! Barry informed me that while the eatery was no longer in operation, the camera façade could still be found on Wilshire Boulevard. From there, tracking it down was a snap. And ironically enough, it was a place I had actually been to before!

The programmatic/Streamline Moderne-style camera-shaped storefront was originally designed by architect Marcus P. Miller sometime during the late 1930s. (There seem to be differing reports about the exact year of construction everywhere you look online, varying from 1935 to 1936 to 1937 to 1938). The site, not surprisingly, originally housed a photography supply store named The Darkroom. Miller assembled the whimsical façade, which consists of a nine-foot-tall replica of a 35-millimeter Argus camera, complete with a shutter speed indicator, winder and dual rangefinders, out of black Vitrolite glass.

A porthole window comprises the camera’s lens, on which, according to the book Images of America: Los Angeles Art Deco, newsreels were at one time projected to passersby. (I absolutely love the photograph below in which a reflection of Mike taking my picture is visible in the porthole.) The Darkroom, the façade of a which is a Los Angeles Cultural-Historic Monument, became so iconic and synonymous with the Miracle Mile area of L.A. that it inspired replicas at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, Disney Studios Paris, and Universal Studios Orlando, all of which you can see photos of on the Yesterland website here. And you can check out a historic picture of The Darkroom when it was still in operation here.

Sometime during the mid-80s, an Indian restaurant named Sher-e Punjab opened at the site. It was during that time that The Big Picture was filmed. In late 1999, the fine dining establishment La Boca del Conga, which was owned in part by Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez, Paul Rodriguez, and Sheila E., moved into the space. It was there that I attended a party back in 2000. Today, the property houses a Tex-Mex restaurant named El Toro Cantina and it looks pretty much exactly the same as it did during the La Boca del Conga days, which explains why I did not recognize it. Most of the façade has, unfortunately, been hidden behind foliage and a large awning and, as you can see below, has been rendered inconspicuous. You can read an interesting story about what became of The Darkroom signage here.

In The Big Picture, budding filmmaker Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) dines at Sher-e Punjab with his girlfriend, Susan Rawlings (Emily Longstreth), and friends, Emmet and Jenny Sumner (Michael McKean and Kim Miyori, respectively), after winning a prestigious student film award.

The interior of the restaurant was also used in the filming.

That interior looks quite a bit different today.

And for some odd reason, there is currently a fish tank covering the inside of The Darkroom’s iconic porthole window.

Sher-e Punjab also made a very brief appearance in 1993’s Falling Down. In the movie, William ‘D-Fens’ Foster (Michael Douglas) walks past the eatery before heading to the “Swap Meet” next door to purchase his daughter a snow globe.

Be sure to check out more Big Picture locations on Mike’s website, MovieShotsLA.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: El Toro Cantina, aka The Darkroom, aka Sher-e Punjab from The Big Picture, is located at 5370 Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles. You can visit the Cantina’s official website here.

April 19, 2013April 18, 2013

Dick Clark’s Former Malibu Home

Last June, my Grandma sent me an article about legendary television personality Dick Clark’s former Flintstones-style Malibu home, calling it “unbelievable” and asking if I could track it down and stalk it. One look at the photographs of the cave-like structure, which had recently been put on the market, and I was in! And while I did manage to track it down right away, it was not until a couple of weeks ago that I finally got around to stalking it. And I just have to say here that my Grandma, who is 88, never ceases to amaze me! I called her one evening back in January while on my way home from a SAG screening and she asked which stars, if any, I had gotten a photograph with. When I told her Robert De Niro and “an actor you probably haven’t heard of named Bradley Cooper”, she replied, “Of course I know who Bradley Cooper is! He was People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive last year.” I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Or grand-tree in this case.

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Dick Clark’s former home is located at the far northern end of Malibu, past the Ventura County Line, at the top of a very windy and steep road. It is situated so far up the road, in fact, that in driving there I wound up above the fog line, as you can see below! It was uncanny to witness! As my photographs of Neptune’s Net show, the weather was extremely overcast along the Pacific Coast Highway that particular morning, but up by Dick’s house, skies were clear and blue.

I was disheartened to learn, as I arrived at the property, that very little of it was visible from the street.

It wasn’t until I started back down the hill towards the PCH that I spotted a faraway glimpse of the structure.

The small, one-bedroom, two-bath residence was custom-built for Dick and his wife, Kari, although, for the life of me, I cannot figure out when. I searched through historic aerial views, but was only able to ascertain that the property was built sometime between 1980 and 2005. Anyway, at some point, “the oldest teenager” purchased a 23-acre plot of land adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Center and set about building a house there. The National Park Service objected to the plans, though, so architect Phillip Jon Brown came up with a design for a dwelling that looked like a rock formation in order to appease the group. His idea worked and the Clarks were given the go-ahead. The incredibly unique result is pictured below. According to a March 2012 CNN.com article, Brown created the home’s exterior out of stucco and loose rock. Of the process, he said, “When it was still wet, we scrubbed in to expose some of the stones. That made it look like decomposed granite.”

The house boasts very few straight lines, which would make it hard to hang any artwork. With views like those pictured below, though, who needs artwork?

According to the CNN.com article, the curved walls were constructed out of wood and steel beams and then covered over with concrete.

I absolutely love the openness of the residence and all of its indirect lighting.

I could do without the kitchen . . .

. . . and the bathroom, though. And while I don’t know that I’d ever want to live there, I’d give pretty much anything to see the place in person.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to my Grandma for asking me to stalk this one!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dick Clark’s former home is located at 10124 Pacific View Road in Malibu.

January 8, 2013January 11, 2013

Shaheen’s House from "Into the Night"

Last week, fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me with the following message, “I know you aren’t big on blogging about popular movie locations, especially those discussed elsewhere on the Internet (which is why I have SADLY never been able to read about Marty McFly’s house on your site!!!), but I have a location that may be of interest.” His logic was five-fold: “The reasons I think it may be worth an IAMNOTASTALKER post: 1. It’s from Into the Night — not exactly a popular movie or a location that has been discussed ad nauseam online. 2. The house is in San Marino, which isn’t too far from where you live … or at least where you live for the next few weeks. 3. The house is definitely unique. It has mosque-like architecture yet is in the midst of a neighborhood of typical suburban homes. It seems soooooooo out of place. 4. Because it’s so out of place, I’m curious if there is a story behind it. If there is, I suppose it’d make for an interesting blog. 5. In addition to the house’s uniqueness, its grounds are impeccably manicured … or at least look that way from the ‘street view’ on Google Maps. It would probably make for some nice photos.” I was, of course, intrigued by Owen’s email and immediately popped the address he provided into Google. Well, let me tell you, once I saw the Street View image of the place, I knew that it was a must-stalk and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there less than 24 hours later. Thank you, Owen!

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I did not tell the GC anything about the house prior to us stalking it and I believe his exact words upon first pulling up to the place were, “What the #&%@!& is that?” LOL To say the dwelling is unique would be an understatement. In fact, I think it is safe to say that I have never seen anything quite like it before in my entire life. Well, outside of Disneyland, anyway.

Owen was certainly correct in his assertion – the abode is definitely out of place in the neighborhood and bears a significant difference from the Anywhere, U.S.A.-style residences located directly to its left and right, both of which are pictured below.

You can see its disparity from the neighboring homes below.

According to An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, the home has been dubbed “The Mosque” by neighboring residents. And while the book states that the four-bedroom, four-bath, 5,283-square-foot structure, which sits on 0.54 acres, was originally built in 1980, all of the property records that I was able to dig up dated its construction at 1973. Amazingly enough, though, outside of the one-sentence blurb in An Architectural Guidebook, I could not find any history of the place online or in print, which is absolutely bizarre! I mean come on, a house like that must have some sort of a backstory. The only information that I was able to gather online was that the same people who originally purchased the property in 1973 (and who also most likely commissioned the place) still own it to this day.

Even odder still was the fact that I could not find a copy of Into the Night anywhere! For whatever reason, the 1985 flick is not available to stream on iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube. None of my local Blockbusters had the DVD, either, nor did Vidiots in Santa Monica, which usually stocks every movie known to man. I think it is safe to say that I spent more time trying to track down a copy of the flick than I did researching the house! Thankfully, I was finally able to find the DVD at Videotheque in South Pasadena, which wound up being one of the coolest video stores that I have ever been to. I highly recommend a visit if you are looking for a hard-to-find rental. But I digress. The Moorish-style residence, which is supposedly located in Beverly Hills’ Trousdale Estates neighborhood, only appears once in Into the Night, in the scene in which Ed Okin (Jeff Goldblum) goes to the home of Shaheen Parvici (Irene Papas) to sell some stolen jewels.

As you can see below, the home has not changed much in the 28 years since Into the Night was filmed.

Although, the reflecting pool shown in the flick featured a fountain that is no longer there. And while the façade of the home appeared to be gray in Into the Night, I am not sure if the exterior was actually that color at the time of the filming or if it appeared to be so due to the movie’s lighting.

The real life interior of the home was also used in Into the Night.

As was the property’s massive pool and central courtyard area.

You can check out some fabulous aerial views of the pool and courtyard on Bing Maps. What I wouldn’t give to see the pool in person! It looks pretty amazing.

Fellow stalker Gilles informed me that the house also appeared in the Season 5 episode of Dynasty titled “Domestic Intrigue” as the supposed Istanbul, Turkey-area hotel where Adam Carrington (Gordon Thomson) met with Dominique Deveraux (Diahann Carroll).

The interior of the property masqueraded as the interior of the palace belonging to Rashid Ahmed (John Saxon) in the episode. For the exterior of Rashid’s palace, an incredibly unique mansion named Casa Blanca in Carpinteria was used – a place I am definitely going to have to stalk in the near future! You can check out some photographs of it here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Shaheen’s house from Into the Night is located at 2250 Montecito Drive in San Marino.