Bob Hope House by John Lautner, complete overview and walkthrough

hello my dear audience in this episode we're gonna visit the largest and most expensive house by john lautner it's of course the gigantic bob hope residence in palm springs california it's also his most controversial design because the house didn't turn out what john lautner wanted it to be and he finally disowned the project because of john lautner's own disad affection the house is a bit forgotten compared to his other designs this makes the bob hope house a mysterious house because there's only a limited number of photographs available and the information about exact layout of the house is hard to find the house was a dream project of his namesake famous american comedian bob hope in 1969 he visited the elroth house impressed by the spectacular design of this house bob hope immediately wanted a similar but larger house for himself a common misunderstanding is that he used this house to live in although bob hope had private living quarters in the house it was primarily used as an entertainment complex or an event center instead of an actual home bob hope did live most of the time in his toluca lake estate in los angeles when he was in palm springs he lived mostly in this smaller vacation home bob hope used this enormous john lautner complex mostly for giving fundraising parties benefit concerts and other large gatherings for the rich and famous this explains the very large terrace that could hold more than 400 people inside the house has large rooms with many cocktail bars chairs and couches and many entertainment facilities for the many guests the elrod house was already a house built for partying and what bob hope attracted so much was the large open space under the concrete dome this gives the possibility of inviting hundreds of people yet at the same time the concrete roof protects everybody against the heat of the sun both houses are located on southridge a gated community that is built on top of a mountain and is overlooking the valley of palm springs the community holds the largest and most expensive houses of the city less than half a mile away is the elrod house located at the beginning of the same road while the hope house is next to a cul-de-sac at the end of the road the building process started in 1973 but immediately there were some problems bob hope found a concrete roof way too expensive and he demanded a wooden roof which was cheaper so john lautner made a new design with a wooden roof just right off the finalization of that wooden roof the house burned down and the wooden roof was entirely destroyed a delay of three years started before the legal insurance issues were carried out in 1977 the building process was resumed with a concrete roof as john lautner had intended john lorner wanted that arthur eldot the commissioner of the eldrath house would design the interior but during the delay arthur elrod was tragically killed in a car accident bob and dolores hope then hired a befriended interior designer who made several changes to the project these changes differed so much from john lautner's original intention that he finally left the project it's always kept the secret what these changes were but luckily for us the house was after being for sale for many years bought in 2018 by billionaire ron burkle berkel then hired helena arweta a former assistant of john loner to bring back the house to its original plans today the process of redecoration is still going on but when we compare the first results of the new redesign with the old pictures we can see what a disagreement was mainly it was a collision between john loner's organic architecture and bob hope's preference for the classic hollywood luxury for instance in this original drawing you can see that loner had imagined a large garden underneath the oculus he also wanted the terrace to be covered with flaxstones like a large cave with vegetation in it bob hope rejected this idea and he choose to cover the entire terrace with black tiles also there were many arguments over the layout lautner wanted the dining room to be accessible by a large stair at the outside where hope choose for a spiral staircase at the inside lautner wanted more open spaces in the house which would make the house more transparent lautner also wanted the house to be decorated with rocks and mid-century modernist furnitures instead of the old-fashioned furnitures and murals that hope preferred john loner loved untouched and unpolished concrete as it was in both the elrod and the arango house this would integrate the house more with the surrounding mountains however the hopes choose for copper coating on the roof and cover the walls with white plaster much to the dislike of lautner unless or just because of john lautner's own disapproval the house is one of his most fascinating projects it might not be a comfy cozy house and anything but subtle but it was never designed to be either comfy cozy or subtle it's a house designed to impress an over-the-top structure with a movie like dramatic quality its interior reminds me of the lair from james bond movie you only live twice both then without rock launching and helicopter platforms it outside reminds me of both a volcano a mushroom and a ufo at the same time its oculus has a resemblance with a pantheon in rome and its circular layout make it look like a modern day colosseum for this tour i combined pictures of both the old version and the new version of the house the house has a concrete dome that is 180 feet in diameter and 40 feet high there's a circular hole in the middle of the roof with a diameter of 60 feet there are three large openings there's a small oval opening left from the terrace and a large window to the right the oculus brings light under the canopy from every hour of the day the light falls different on the terrace in the ceiling this creates an ever-changing game of light and shadow which is spectacular to see [Music] underneath the roof the structure is half circular [Music] if you're standing here the view looks like this [Music] and from this perspective [Music] huge fireplace has the feeling of a campfire and it is powerful enough to heat the entire terrace from this picture you have clear overview of the house the terrace is here the main entrance is here and there's a second entrance on the second floor level because the rise of the hill the second entrance is in line with the ground level from the parking lot here we start our tour we walk through the garden towards the main entrance the main entrance exists at glass sliding doors and once you go through you step right into the great hall the toilets the wardrobe and a huge bar divide the hall and separate living quarters behind the bar is a lounge this lounge was used for playing cards at the back side of the bar is a wall with a hundred years old style of jungle painting [Music] at the right side of the cocktail bar is the spiral staircase that leads to the dining room above behind the spiral staircase is the indoor swimming pool there's a large mural of a greenhouse with plants against the back of the swimming pool the other wall is covered with mirrors that give the illusion that the pool is twice as large as it actually is behind swim pool is a gym a health spa with a sauna and a game room a series of guest rooms is at the right side the cross indicates the location of the access to the guest rooms you can see clearly here that the guest rooms are only accessible from the outside these guest rooms were mainly used for employees who could spend the night without interfering with the rest of the house on this picture you also have a clear view of the entrance of the gym and the game room at the right side of the hall is a cinema a utility room and many storage rooms but i don't have pictures of these at the left side of the hall separated by the wardrobe it's a part that was used for playing music the piano is still standing a rock from the outside enters a hole [Music] [Music] the living room was used for lounging and after parties [Music] [Music] it has a large window that opens to the right here you can see the large window from the outside [Music] note the fireplace the cocktail bar and a door to the inner balcony [Music] from the inner balcony you can walk towards the main dining room the dining room gives a complete view over the terrace [Music] the second inner balcony leads to the office of pop hope here is a place where he wrote most of his funny speeches the oval shape in the concrete gives access to sunlight here you see the outside of the office [Music] there are three large guest bedrooms each with their own individual bathroom these bedrooms were used by the most prominent guests of the house the bedrooms are connected to one large balcony there are sunlighted from two parts one part is a large wall of glass that's connected to the balcony and the other part is a skylight that's connected to the inner balcony and ascended by the oculus as you can see here bobbing the lowers hole and separated that walls each with their own individual bathroom walk-in closet and office when he arrived home bob hall could walk from the back door of his carport over the balcony straight into his bedroom the second entrance was used by the staff and employees of the house this entrance goes straight into the kitchen this kitchen is enormous in size but keep in mind that sometimes a dinner for more than 300 people have to be prepared next to the kitchen is a living room for the staff where they can relax without interfering with the rest of the whole family or with the rest of the guests the staff quarters even have their own enclosed part of the balcony here you have a clear overview of the west side of the house the main entrance the hall the three bedrooms the staff balcony and a part of the kitchen let's now take a look at the garden there is a huge swimming pool and an artificial waterfall based on real rocks which were already there the artificial waterfall ends in a pot that separates the garden from the golf course lower downhill at the other side of the garden is a tennis court the water for the swimming pool and for the artificial waterfall is provided by huge water drums next to the cardboard we end our tour with a nightly view over the valley of palm springs this was your tour guidance thank you for watching until next time good bye

Channel: John Lautner Architecture Videos

Views: 518,185

Keywords: architect, john lautner, frank lloyd wright, bob hope, architecture

Id: dGU5kcBkD7Y

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021