Francie Rehwald’s Wing House has the media buzzing. Working with architect David Hertz of Santa Monica, Ms. Rehwald responded with enthusiasm to the notion of repurposing a 747 aircraft, using wings as roof structures, and deconstructed tail pieces, cockpit windows, fuselage, et al. to build the ranch’s main house, guest lodgings, barn, meditation chamber and more. The 55-acre property Ms. Rehwald purchased had once been a getaway for Tony Duquette, legendary Los Angeles artist/designer, and his wife Elizabeth. Duquette dubbed the property, ‘The Empire,’ devoting 30 years to building out a fantastical setting. Duquette’s extravagant sanctuary featured a plethora of ornamental pavilions, pagodas, houses and outbuildings that utilized old props, along with discarded salvage of every stripe for construction materials: Oil drums and satellite dishes, metal pipes and Navy surplus framing devices, embroidered parasols, and antlers with a provenance tracing to Hearst’s San Simeon ranch – All were reworked in marvelous and amazing ways; these cast-off objects transformed into dreamy elements of enchantment. In 1993 a fire swept through Malibu, destroying all but a few of the unique creations Duquette designed for his so-called Sortilegium.
Continue reading Wing Ranch Soars: Architecture in Tune With Nature
