Icon Trend: Dream Architecture

Dolores del Rio House

The Gibbons House - a streamlined love nest in the Santa Monica Mountains that he designed, with architect Douglas Honnold, and completed in 1930 for himself and his new bride, Dolores Del Rio, the Mexican-born silent-film star and one of the town’s most exotic beauties. The pure and intricate Art Deco residence is influenced by Rudolf Schindler. Gibbons (March 23, 1893 – July 26, 1960) was an Irish American art director and production designer who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. Gibbons' nephew is Billy F. Gibbons, guitarist/vocalist for the rock band ZZ Top.

Dolores del Rio House

Tucked into a cul-de-sac in a terraced canyon with sweeping views of the Pacific, it captures the essence of Hollywood glamour. Gibbons pioneered the Big White Set, in which gleaming white interiors, dominated film for the first time and in a sense, his house was the ultimate white set. One can imagine how his wife, sultry Del Rio, slowly descends the drop-dead brushed-steel staircase, dramatically backlit by a wall of glass.

Del Rio’s 2nd husband Cedric Gibbons, MGM’s Art Director

Cedric Gibbons with Dolores del Río

Dolores del Rio House

I love the timeless and modern interior, the high-contrast geometric solids and voids and elaborate stepped recesses. I love the lighting, the angles, the spareness of the house—the drama … Cedric Gibbons had visited the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, which was the peak of Art Deco in Europe. Gibbons brought these ideas back with him to the States where he incorporated them into many of the studio’s films from the late 1920s.