Dr Dre House – Andre Romelle Young, known professionally as Dr. Dre, is a US-based rapper, songwriter, record producer, CEO, and actor. Born in 1965, he has been working in the American Music Industry since the age of 20 (in 1985). Having gained traction as a musician, he helped several other rappers, some examples being Eminem and Snoop Dog, to make their paths in American Rap. His work in the industry for over three decades made him the second richest person in the Rap industry in 2015.
In 2014, Dr. Dre invested in an 18,000 square foot mega mansion in the Brentwood region of Los Angeles, California. With eight bedrooms and 9 baths, this 40-million-dollar investment is one of the largest mansions in the area.
Let us take look at the facts surrounding this impressive investment through an architectural lens.
European Architectural Influence
The Dr. Dre house was developed from the ground up by previous owners, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, who bought the barren 4-acre property in the year 2008 for 11 million dollars and spent another 20 million dollars on its construction. Ar. Richard Landry was hired to construct a middle-aged mansion-like structure, and he was able to put together this grand household in a French Castle style of architecture, complete with landscape features to match, such as cobblestoned pathways. Spread over a living space of 18,298 square feet, this mega mansion also sees other traditional European architectural influences and boasts a combination of six rooms and nine baths.
Higher ceilings for better ventilation
Dr. Dre’s new mansion has been designed as a castle, and true to the style utilizes the grandeur of the architecture on the interior along with the façade. Almost 12 to 15 feet floor heights, instead of the usual 10 feet, provide the rooms of the house with high ceilings, which look lavish and also help proportion the large room sizes inside the house. An additional feather on the cap is the double-height entryway. Apart from this, the tall floor roofs allow large windows, bringing in natural light and allowing air circulation for most parts of the day. This increases the breathability of the house, and eventually, the living conditions of the home will have improved, along with the health of its inhabitants, due to the availability of natural sunlight and air.
A hub of function and activity
The household of Dr. Dre, his wife, and his six children, will not have to come out of their lavish mansion very often, especially for recreational purposes. The architect has managed to introduce a hub of different activity rooms within the house, apart from its usual living spaces and bedrooms & baths. The Brentwood mansion is home to functions like a massive chef’s kitchen, multiple dining rooms, a family room, a living, and seven fireplaces. Apart from these, activity spaces have been added, such as the library, the media room (home theatre), home sauna, a wine cellar, an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor bath, and a mini golf lawn outside, along with a pool and a pond. Dr. Dre himself has combined work with pleasure by building a 10,000-square feet music studio by introducing a basement to the existing house.
Neutral and sophisticated interior themes
The common rooms of the house have been largely left as they were designed by the previous owners. Interior Designer Joan Behnke put together a sophisticated, neutral theme for the house to match its French Castle architecture. There are occasional accents of green and blue seen, giving the entire theme a ‘Mother Earth’ vibe. The color scheme was particularly brought together through the use of cladding materials and upholstery.
Each room has a different theme
Each of the bedrooms and bathrooms was completely furnished with added furnishings and decorations to suit the users. Once Dr. Dre bought this mansion, he spent time, effort, and money to renovate the interiors of the house, and each room was redesigned in the color and material palette according to the resident of the room. Care, although, was taken that the European traditional architectural theme reflects in each of the rooms.
An eco-friendly living space
This home was previously owned by NFL sportsperson Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen, who were heavily criticized for the strain that the use of the massive house put on the ecosystem and land. The celebrity couple was conscious of this disadvantage and installed a couple of eco-friendly systems. The home is part of a greywater irrigation system, where recycled water from inside the house is used to water the gardens and the golf course outside. This water is also used to fill the pool, the koi pond with its waterfall, and the moat. Apart from this, the previous owners also installed two solar panel pads on the terrace of the house, and these pads produce enough energy to power the entire house daily. Dr. Dre has inherited these investments and is currently using them to reduce his carbon footprint as an owner of several expensive real estate pieces.
Reclaimed Material Palette
Along with being partly energy self-sufficient, the interiors of the mansion use a combination of reclaimed materials, complemented with a few new additions. Old wooden beams have been used to create the high reclaimed ceilings in this French Castle-style house, as are the reclaimed wooden floorboards. Tiles used in the bathrooms and the grand kitchen have been salvaged. Even the wooden doors and the wood shutters used on the windows are ancient in their making – they have been reused to continue the reclaimed nature of materials as well as match the aesthetic of the French castle architecture. The marble fireplaces compliment this look perfectly.
Landscape as a barrier and a recreational addition
While the house sits on half an acre of the large 4-acre plot, the landscape around the house encompasses almost three and a half acres, all around the home. While creating a perfect barrier between the house and the outside world, the landscape features, as installed by the previous owners, also creates the perfect opportunity for recreation. Several elements have been designed for these purposes, such as the infinity pool and cabana at the rear of the house, the Koi Pond with a natural-looking waterfall, a mini golf course, and a vast lawn with pathways. The koi pond also turns into a moat in the front of the house, where a permanent cobblestone bridge has been installed to cross over to the house.
Introduction of a new basement
We all know the challenges that come with making additions to an already-existing structure, and Dr. Dre has taken a step further to introduce an entire basement below his new house. Although impressive in scale (10,000 sq.ft.), there must have certainly been severe technical issues with this step. As an architect, it is difficult not to wonder about this precarious decision, since the foundations of the house, which used to sit on ground level with an additional story upwards, would not have been capable of handling the structure of a basement, too. Dr. Dre must have had to shell out a lot more than usually necessary for a basement studio this size, that is for sure. However, the renovation team seems to have done a commendable job, since there have been no reports of structural mishaps in the last seven years since the studio was built.
Low design-to-usability ratio
Although designed beautifully with inserts of a European castle and traditional styles, the Dr. Dre mansion seems to have a very low design-to-usability ratio. All the recreational and activity elements aside, the mansion only houses six bedrooms and nine baths – a small number when we compare it to the total size of the house, and the estate at large. As an architect, it is surprising to see someone spend millions on a house where the ‘staying in the housing’ can only happen in six rooms out of the 18,000 square feet property. The other rooms may be used with much less frequency than the living spaces will be.
Conclusion
Although a home large enough to comfortably house a family of 8 is necessary, Dr. Dre’s investment brings back the question of affordable luxury versus unnecessarily lavish built forms. Massive architectural projects such as this Brentwood mansion seem to be an investment in more than required spaces, in terms of size, construction costs to the planet, and energy utilization. Monumental in design, for sure, but it is necessary for us, the newer generation of this planet, to rethink the utilization of land and built form – what purposes do they serve to our world, and the world that will be left for the generation that will come after us.
References
- Dr Dre | House Tour 2020 | $ 40 Million Brentwood Mega Mansion, Famous Entertainment YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmgia-Kz2WA)
- Dr. Dre, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dre)
- Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady’s House in Los Angeles, Architectural Digest (https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/gisele-bundchen-tom-brady-los-angeles-eco-conscious-home-article)
- Curbed (https://archive.curbed.com/2014/12/4/10015386/dr-dre-is-building-a-giant-studio-under-tom-bradys-old-mansion)
- Velvet Ropes (https://www.velvetropes.com/backstage/dr-dre-house)
- Dr. Dre’s House, Pinterest (https://in.pinterest.com/pin/29766047512581381/?nic_v3=1a4lTjtW7)
- AmoMama (https://news.amomama.com/256649-inside-dr-dres-40-million-mega-mansion-c.html)
- Homes of the rich (https://homesoftherich.net/2022/03/inside-dr-dres-los-angeles-mega-home/)
- House Digest (https://www.housedigest.com/768392/a-look-at-dr-dres-lavish-california-mansion/)
- The Richest (https://www.therichest.com/luxury-architecture/inside-dr-dres-40-million-mega-mansion-in-brentwood/)
