Sean Connery leaves, leaving us a large group of images, good moments from the movies and fantastic locations, like the Elrod house in Palm Springs.
One of the most incredible successes in cinema was hiring Sean Connery as an actor. Thanks to that we have enjoyed good movie evenings, great moments of action, and the emotions and illusions that a good actor can generate on screen. Connery was. After his death on October 30 at the age of 90, thousands of anonymous people around the world of social networks, colleagues and the press in general have recognized his worth as an actor.
The summer house of Willard Whyte, the enemy of 007
Of course, the character that crosses our minds when we name Sean Connery can be none other than His Majesty’s iconic Agent 007, ready to kill. Of course, for the good of humanity. There are many wonderful scenarios through which the character has moved throughout the series. However, there is a building that shines with its own light in the celluloid sky. It is the summer home of billionaire mogul Willard Whyte.
Who is Mr Whyte? Well, he happens to be a victim of the tyrant of the Bond series, you know, the one with the kitten, Number One, whose name is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He steals Willard’s identity in the Diamonds Are Forever chapter, known in Spain as Diamonds for Eternity. Blofeld locks the mega-millionaire in his summer home with two athletic bodyguards, Bambi and Thumper, Lola Larson and Trina Parks, and there goes the world’s most famous secret agent to rescue the tycoon, facing death once again.
A house integrated into a mountain
The spectacular house we see in the scenes is actually called the Elrod House, and it was built for the interior designer Arthur Elrod in 1969. It was designed by the renowned architect John Lautner, one of those names that leaves most of us the same, but which was a precursor to the great architectural models that we enjoy today. The home encompasses 9,000 square feet of floor space, has five bedrooms, and is built into a rocky hillside just six minutes from downtown Palm Springs.
The house, located at 2175 Southridge Drive, California, is distinguished from Palm Springs, and from its living room you can enjoy Mount San Jacinto, Mount San Gorgonio and the magnificent views of the valley where it is located. The construction required the demolition of a large part of the rocky complex, since the main room, from which the rest of the building turns, is integrated into the mountain, on which the fantastic circular concrete roof rests.
The roof is conical in shape and rocks emerge from the walls and floors.
The roof is conical in shape, with nine triangles radiating from the center, covering the incredible living room, and giving way to a pool that has one part inside and one outside. The sinuous walls accompany this architectural story with curves, highlighting in the room the rocks emerging from the pavement and the walls. Two details that some character brazenly used to attack good old Bond. To the north of the room, a large window opens giving the impression that the house is outdoors, or that it is a natural part of the mountain.
The circular roof is 18 meters in diameter and is self-supporting. This implies that he himself guarantees its structural stability. In addition, the roof opens through triangular skylights, simulating a flower with nine petals. These openings serve as an excuse to see the enormous thickness of the pieces, a thickness that contrasts with the edge beam of the roof. This contrast makes the sensation of levitation of a material as robust as concrete increase exponentially.
The house has 830 square meters divided into two floors
From the living room, the lower part of the house is accessed through a staircase anchored to the concrete, which is, in short, the king material of the building. The entire house has exposed concrete, without complexes, with flat finishes on the horizontal surfaces, and striated finishes in vertical forms on the walls, perfectly adapting to the rocky feel of the exterior space. Another small staircase, embedded in the rocks, leaves the main room to enter the rest of the house.
On the same floor we find a long kitchen, and just opposite the pool, behind a huge curved wall, there is a dining room, a toilet and another living room. The main bathroom has a bathtub embedded in the pavement, with views to the outside through a huge window, although with privacy thanks to its location among the rocks of the place. The complex also has extensive gardens that surround the house, and a gym, a sauna and five bedrooms with bathrooms included, which included the owner who acquired the house in 2002.
Jeremy Scott is the current owner of the home
Accompanying concrete and glass, slate forms a spectacular third material. Specifically, the black slate in the form of spikes, which imitates the classic wooden parquet. And, so that envy takes us to the extreme, the master bedroom has a wooden bar cabinet with large cork-lined cabinets and a bar. Of course, housing has been adapting to modernity, especially in carpentry, in air conditioning devices and in electricity generation. And it is that it currently has photovoltaic panels.
After going through several owners, the house came into the hands of fashion designer Jeremy Scott in 2016, for the not inconsiderable figure of 7.7 million dollars, about 6.59 euros. Scott is Creative Director at Moschino.
Agent 007 Sean Connery’s house
In one of the images taken during filming, Sean Connery is seen with a photo camera, sitting in a B&B Italia Serie Up 2000 armchair, enjoying his free time. The indelible mark of the Scottish actor leaves no room for deception. His films will accompany millions of celluloid fans for eternity, as well as the architecture that made magnificent scenes possible, although in the background, of course.