$16 Million Tour De Force

It's not every day that we can look up and see an eye-shaped modern home boldly suspended on a hillside 60 feet above a canyon. That is, unless you live in Los Angeles.

For this tour de force known as the Garcia House, we can thank master architect John Lautner (1911-1994), whose thrilling, one-of-a-kind designs have astounded the world since he settled in Los Angeles in the late 1930s.

The surreal vision of the Garcia House is captured at its most mesmerizing in the 1989 film 'Lethal Weapon 2,' where the house plays a starring role as the headquarters for a drug cartel.

In the movie, the house is cinematically ripped from the villains' hillside perch by actor Mel Gibson, who attaches cables to one of its V-shaped supports and drags the house down the mountainside in an explosive spectacle. (Note: The house was not harmed during the making of the film; a studio model stood in for the real house.)

This prized property, at 7436 Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, is now listed for sale at $16 million by Aaron Kirman, Dalton Gomez, and Weston Littlefield of AKG / Christie's International Real Estate in Beverly Hills.

"We're actually marketing the house as an art piece," says Littlefield. "John Lautner is one of the most notable architects, and this is one of his last iconic pieces that is still available."

"Many other Lautner residences have been acquired by mega-wealthy men and women who will probably never sell those houses in our lifetime," Littlefield adds. Among Lautner's most famous structures are the Chemosphere House, Silvertop, and the Sheats/Goldstein House.

Another Space Age Lautner that was immortalized on the big screen is the Elrod house, in Palm Springs, which was used as a film location in the 1971 James Bond movie 'Diamonds are Forever.'

Current owners of the Garcia House are award-winning Broadway producer Bill Damaschke, a former DreamWorks executive; and John McIwee, a business manager in the entertainment industry. In 2002, the couple purchased the home as a 'fixer' for $1.2 million from actor Vincent Gallo.