Garcia House

Garcia House, also known as the Rainbow House, is a mid-century modern residence standing on a steep hillside along Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. The house was designed by architect John Lautner for composer, arranger and conductor Russell Garcia and his wife Gina, with construction completed in 1962. Rather than cutting a large platform into the hillside, Lautner suspended much of the building above the canyon on angled steel supports, placing the living spaces approximately sixty feet above the ground. The house is distinguished by its long parabolic roof, extensive glass walls and coloured glass panels that later inspired the Rainbow House nickname. Its interior is divided into different levels beneath the continuous curved roof and originally incorporated terrazzo floors, Hawaiian lava rock and built-in furnishings. After several decades of alterations and deterioration, owners John McIlwee and Bill Damaschke commissioned Marmol Radziner to restore much of Lautner’s original design beginning in the early 2000s. An almond-shaped swimming pool based on Lautner’s unrealised plans was added below the house in 2008.

Garcia House has appeared in Out of Sight (1966) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989). Its futuristic curved exterior first represented the home of a secret agent in the 1960s spy comedy, while its precarious position above the canyon later became an essential part of the story in Lethal Weapon 2, where it represents the home and operational headquarters of South African diplomat and drug smuggler Arjen Rudd.

In Out of Sight (1966), Garcia House represents the residence of secret agent John Stamp and his butler Homer. The spy spoof begins when teenager Sandra Carter overhears a criminal plot to sabotage a rock-and-roll event and attempts to contact Stamp for assistance. Stamp is away, however, and Homer answers the call and decides to impersonate his employer, becoming involved in the fight against the organisation known as F.L.U.S.H. Exterior views of Garcia House establish Stamp’s unusually futuristic home and complement the film’s parody of the sophisticated residences, gadgets and vehicles associated with contemporary spy films. The house is used primarily for its exterior identity, while the production also filmed at Universal Studios, Zuma Beach and other Los Angeles-area locations.

In Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Garcia House represents the hillside residence of Arjen Rudd, the South African consul-general who uses diplomatic immunity to protect an extensive drug-smuggling and money-laundering operation. The house is repeatedly associated with Rudd and his organisation as LAPD detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh investigate the South Africans. After Rudd’s men murder Rika van den Haas and several police officers, Riggs and Murtaugh abandon normal police procedure and pursue the organisation directly. Riggs arrives at Rudd’s house in his pickup truck, attaches a heavy cable to one of the building’s supporting columns and accelerates downhill, pulling the support away and causing the entire residence to collapse into the canyon. The real Garcia House was not damaged. A full-scale replica reproducing Lautner’s distinctive curved roof and stilt construction was built specifically for the destruction sequence, allowing the filmmakers to exploit the apparently fragile hillside structure without endangering the original building. The sequence became the house’s best-known screen appearance and is one of the most recognisable examples of modernist Los Angeles architecture being used as a cinematic villain’s residence.

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