Chemosphere (building)

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View of the building from the street, 2007

Chemosphere is a building constructed in 1960 by John Lautner . It is located in the San Fernando Valley on the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles (7776 Torreyson Drive).

architecture

The house is around 200 square meters in size and is reminiscent of an octagonal UFO , with a single concrete pillar supporting the construction, which actually enhances the floating effect. The base, about 20 feet in diameter (about six meters), is located underground, which helped the building withstand the heaviest rainfall and earthquakes unscathed. The building stands on a 45 ° incline that you can hardly stand on.

The house can be entered via a funicular , but there is also an option via steps. Unconfirmed reports indicate that there was an accident on this funicular during the first owner's time, in which some young girls were injured. The Encyclopædia Britannica described the house as "the most modern residential building in the world".

Detailed view of the Chemosphere building (2012)

owner

The first owner and client was the aircraft engineer Leonard Malin, which is why the house is sometimes called the Malin Residence . The building is the second design by John Lautner for the building - Malin had not been able to get used to the first design, among other things because of his low budget of only US $ 30,000.

Richard Kuhn then became the owner, who was stabbed to death in a robbery in 1976. It was then rented out for parties for about ten years. In 1998, it was bought for a purchase price of US $ 1 million by Benedikt Taschen , the owner and founder of the German Taschen-Verlag , and his wife at the time, Angelika Taschen , who was then chief editor at Taschen-Verlag. Both used it as a home and work house. Benedikt Taschen has been the sole owner since 2004.

Cinematic reception

Due to its extraordinary optical properties, it was also discovered by film teams and used as a location for the television series The Outer Limits in the 1964-produced episode with the original title "The Duplicate Man". More attention was paid to the building in Brian De Palma's film Death Comes Twice (original title: "Body Double"), in which the protagonist from the house observes a murder.

The film Charlie's Angels, directed by Joseph McGinty Nichol , took the house as inspiration. In one episode of The Simpsons ("Selma marries Hollywood star" / "A Fish Called Selma"; S07F19) the character Troy McClure resides in a similar house. In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , a similar building stands near the VINEWOOD sign. The American cable television company Current TV , an Al Gore station , replicated the interior exactly for some studio recordings.

Web links

Commons : Chemosphere  - collection of images, videos and audio files
photos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Walt Lockley: Chemosphere ( Memento of January 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), 2005, (Engl.)
  2. ↑ a b Scott Timberg: Eight sides to this story. In: Los Angeles Times , April 7, 2005.
  3. ↑ latimes.com: Eight sides to this story. latimes.com. Accessed May 12, 2015.
  4. ↑ Angelika Taschen : A house that makes you happy - news . In: WamS , July 13, 2008.

Coordinates: 34 ° 7 ′ 39.5 ″  N , 118 ° 22 ′ 7.6 ″  W.