Goldstein Gifts The Big Lebowski House to LACMA
There are charitable donations, and then there are charitable donations. Local real estate investor James F. Goldstein recently donated his entire house to The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which is a really big deal. The iconic home in Beverly Hills is valued at about $40 million, and is famous for being the place where The Dude abides in the film The Big Lebowski.
And if that wasn’t generous enough, a $17 million endowment for maintenance, as well as a James Turrell Skyspace, is included. “I want the house to be an educational tool for young architects, and I want to inspire good architecture for Los Angeles,” Goldstein said.
The spectacular house has quite the party history, since Goldstein was known for entertaining. For example, Rihanna’s 27th birthday party was held in the home, with Jay Z, Mick Jagger and Leonardo DiCaprio in attendance. Most recently, a private post-Grammy party with some of music’s biggest stars took place in the home’s famous nightclub, called, appropriately enough, “Club James.”
That, of course, was a recent add on. The home was originally built by esteemed architect John Lautner, for Helen and Paul Sheats, in 1963. Nearly a decade later, in 1972, Goldstein fell in love with the glass and concrete structure’s gravity-defying architecture, distinctive, triangular concrete roof, and view of Beverly Hills and beyond to the Pacific Ocean. He paid full asking price for it: $185,000.
He then commenced working with the original architect until Lautner died in 1994, on improvements like floor to ceiling windows and doors, retracting skylights and jungle foliage to cover the lot’s four acres, among other features. Over the years, Goldstein has added even more, including a wooden ceiling that opens to let down a huge TV,
and a sink with no visible plumbing — water falls from a hidden spout and flows with the wave of a hand, then drains outside the window.
Also a tennis court.
So what will LACMA do with this piece of stellar real estate? It will be used to hold fundraisers, exhibitions, conferences, and other events. See more details about the house and donation at ArtNetNews.
Goldstein Gifts The Big Lebowski House to LACMA
