Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Chris Pratt And Katherine Schwarzenegger Called Out For Demolishing Historic House In LA

Chris Pratt with wife Katherine Schwarzenegger
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/GettyImages

The couple sparked outrage from architecture fans after tearing down a mid-century modern house by architect Craig Ellwood to make room for their new farmhouse-style home.

Actor Chris Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger drew the ire of architecture aficionados and preservationists when the couple demolished a historic mid-century modern home to create space for their 15,000 square-foot modern farmhouse.

The original home, located in Brentwood, California, was designed by Craig Ellwood, an untrained architect whose influential work proliferated in the Los Angeles area during the 1950s through the mid-1970s.


Ellwood was known as a true "design genius." His houses were featured in the experimental Case Study House series sponsored by Art & Architecture Magazine.

The Case Study Houses project commissioned major architects of the day, including Ellwood along with Richard Neutra and Edward Killingsworth, to design and build inexpensive model homes during the residential housing boom following the end of World War II.

The home that Pratt and Schwarzenegger razed was called the Zimmerman House, named after its previous owners, Martin and Eva Zimmerman.

The Zimmerman House was commissioned in 1948 and completed in 1950. It was a single-story five-bedroom mid-century modern valued at $12.5 million.

It is now relegated to the annals of LA architectural history.


Below, you can watch a clip showing the perfectly maintained house's interior, taken during the 2022 estate sale by TikToker Quinn Garvey.

The clip starts with the TikToker saying:

"Chris Pratt, you’re a weirdo for this one."
@vintageonq

Hurl!! I have a video posted back in December 2022 on the sale itself if you want to see more of the family’s collections. Is Brentwood too far gone?? #midcenturymodern #midcenturyhome #chrispratt #craigellwood #architecturelovers #modernfarmhouse

In January 2023, the Los Angeles Conservancy alerted to a "Demolition Alert" facing the "1950 Modernist residence."

The post stated:

"Designed by Emiel Becsky and working within architect Craig Ellwood’s office, he created a one-story, nearly 3,000 sq. ft. residence that appears to be highly intact and a noteworthy example of Modernist design from this era."
"The City’s SurveyLA program identified it as potentially historic, yet no protections are currently afforded."

At the time, they noted the motivation behind the demolition was "unclear" since it wasn't for sale and wasn't "transferred out of longtime ownership."

They campaigned to "immediately initiate Historical Cultural Monument (HCM) designation."

But the call to save and preserve the home came too late.

The Robb Report confirmed the Hollywood couple was behind the 74-year-old Zimmerman residence demolition, and the internet mourned its loss.


The couple paid $12.5 million in an off-market sale for the house.

To prepare for the new construction, all traces of the original landscaping were destroyed. The 0.83-acre grounds featured gardens and mature trees thoughtfully placed by modernist landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, who is also famous for his 1950 book Landscape for Living.


@ineffable_ollie/X

According to Architectural Digest, Pratt and Schwarzenegger's newly constructed farmhouse-style house will be a 5,000-square-foot-per-floor "sprawling two-story home."

The new home will be designed by Ken Ungar, whose portfolio of homes "range between traditional, transitional, and contemporary styles" according to his website.

Social media users who already thought Pratt was "the worst Chris" felt vindicated in their resentment towards the Guardians of the Galaxy actor.






Even Ellwood's daughter, Erin Ellwood, was disheartened by the news.

The Ojai, California-based interior designer told theLA Times:

“I think it would have been really cool to keep it and do something ... add to it in a really interesting, innovative way."
“But you know, maybe this just isn’t their style. I mean, it clearly isn’t if they’re building a farmhouse.”

It's worth mentioning that the property was apparently across the street from Schwarzenegger's mother, Maria Shriver.

In June 2018, Pratt began dating Schwarzenegger, an author and the daughter of actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger and journalist and author Maria Shriver.

The couple married on June 8, 2019 in Montecito, California, and they have two daughters, three-year-old Lyla Maria, and Eloise Christina, who is almost 2.

More from Entertainment/celebrities

bride and groom cutting wedding cake
Wedding Dreamz on Unsplash

People Who Smashed Wedding Cake In Their Spouse's Face Reveal How Their Relationship Is Going Now

According to The Knot wedding resource magazine and website, smashing cake into the face of a spouse after tying the knot is a tradition tied to medieval England. To celebrate the marriage, the bride would toss a piece of piece of cake over her shoulder for good luck.

This evolved into newlyweds feeding a piece of cake to one another, then taking frosting or a small bit of cake and rubbing it gently onto each other's faces—usually the cheek or tip of the nose.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of U.S. Army veteran who criticized Donald Trump
@btnewsroom/TikTok

U.S. Army Vet Goes Viral With Blistering Speech Ripping Trump For Deploying Troops To L.A.

A U.S. Army veteran went viral after she spoke out to encourage other current and former military members to publicly condemn President Donald Trump for using them as "pawns" to suit his own ends after he deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles amid ongoing protests against his administration's immigration raids.

Trump has activated over 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines, despite opposition from city and state leaders. He has painted a bleak picture of Los Angeles—claims that Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom say are wildly exaggerated.

Keep ReadingShow less
Barack and Michelle Obama
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Obamas Just Shared A Rare Family Photo With Their Adult Daughters To Celebrate Sasha's Birthday

Former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama warmed hearts when they shared the same photo to their respective social media accounts, showing them with their adult daughters, Sasha and Malia, to commemorate Sasha's 24th birthday.

Sasha Obama was born in June 2001, nearly eight years before the family moved into the White House at the start of her father's first term in January 2009. She and her older sister, Malia, now 26, spent their formative years in the presidential residence, growing up there throughout their father’s two terms, until the family departed in 2017.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump; Joe Biden
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images; Scott Olson/Getty Images

Trump Dragged After Hilariously Flubbing Insult About Biden's Mental Acuity

The term malaphor means when two or more colloquial phrases or idioms get confused and combined to create something nonsensical. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), malaphors are a common symptom of frontotemporal dementia or other cognitive impairments.

So when a person seeks to accuse someone of being unintelligent, their use of malaphors is ironic and possibly very telling—narcissists will always accuse others of their own faults and failures.

Keep ReadingShow less
Christy Walton; Donald Trump
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

MAGA Now Calling For Walmart Boycott After Heiress Funds Ad Promoting Anti-Trump Protests

MAGA fans are boycotting Walmart after Christy Walton, one of the retail giant's heirs, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times promoting the “No Kings” protests planned against President Donald Trump's military parade.

Walton, who is worth an estimated $19.3 billion and ranks among the wealthiest women in the U.S., urged critics of Trump to "mobilize" against the parade—echoing a similar message she shared in a New York Times ad back in March.

Keep ReadingShow less