Deep in a carousel of photos posted on Instagram by Kendall Jenner last week is a curious photo of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner. Seemingly from the 1990s, the image shows the then-couple seated in front of a pair of eye-catching bronze doors. The distinctive brutalist design is almost certainly the work of Billy Joe McCarroll and David Gillespe, who designed the Heroic Sunburst doors in the early ’70s for Form+Surfaces.
Designer Alexandra Donohoe Church of Decus Interiors also used a pair of the doors — which came from an L.A. estate and were purchased on 1stDibs — for a home in Western Australia. “There was a connection in my mind between a mid-century Palm Springs aesthetic and the location — near the beach but a desert-like environment — which made it feel like the right choice,” she told Introspective. In addition to these examples, we’ve noticed a couple other appearances of the exuberant doors in popular culture lately.
The design of Netflix’s Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney was inspired by Johnny Carson’s opulent Malibu home, which presented a very ’80s take on beachside living with plenty of wood paneling and large expanses of windows. The Everybody’s Live set embraces this aesthetic, but with more of a ’70s slant. Each week, Mulaney performs his monologue and welcomes his guests through the imposing bronze doors that have since acquired a green patina.
Apple TV+’s The Studio has a similar taste for old Los Angeles design history. The Heroic Sunburst doors make an appearance on the show’s first episode, in the home owned by Catherine O’Hara’s character. The scene was shot at John Lautner’s Harvey House, the doors just the very first glimpse of design genius on the property. With three recent appearances in pop culture, we’re bracing ourselves for the next time the Heroic Sunburst doors pop up onscreen.
