Trejo’s House from ‘Heat’: Filming Location Is East Los Angeles Stilt House

Aug 17, 2023

Not many real estate listings can claim "Robert De Niro and Danny Trejo filmed here." But a singular property in East Los Angeles currently for sale can! The Stilt House, as it is largely known, which portrayed the residence of Danny's character Gilbert, the longtime getaway driver of master thief Neil McCauley (De Niro) and his gang in the 1995 action hit "Heat," has just hit the market for a cool $1.599 million. Delicately perched atop a set of slender steel supports stilettoed into a steep hillside overlooking virtually all of L.A. at 1219 Dodds Cir., the dwelling was only featured briefly in the landmark film but remains a favorite of fans worldwide, its unique profile framed against the city lights cutting an indelible image onscreen. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)

And now it can be yours! Boasting three bedrooms and three baths in 2,016 square feet, the single-story stunner is being offered by Sally Forster Jones and Joshua F. Smith of the Sally Forster Jones Group at Compass, marking the first time it has been up for grabs in two decades! Last sold to its current owners in 2003 for $289,500, the pad has been thoroughly overhauled and updated in the interim.

Originally constructed at the height of the midcentury movement in 1962, the residence's architect is unknown, which is actually not all that uncommon when it comes to stilt houses in the L.A. area, or "hill houses" as they are also known. A 1997 Los Angeles Times article details that such structures were typically built on spec "by a developer with a buyer of ordinary means in mind." While the blurb goes on to note that "the classic stilt house is hardly a feast for the eyes," Trejo's pad is all evidence to the contrary!

Something of a neighborhood icon, the residence has been dazzling area denizens (many of whom refer to it as the Bird House) and tourists for decades, with passersby traversing the curving roads below regularly craning their necks in wonder at the architectural marvel. Its framework is such a structural feat, in fact, the property once served as a case study for the engineering department at California State University, Los Angeles.

Although stilt houses have long been a staple of the L.A. landscape, those built after World War II bear some distinctions from their predecessors. As a Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey details, "The postwar hill house was more willing to expose its foundation framing to view and emphasize the difference between the unoccupied supporting structure below and the inhabited space above." A post-1945 stilt house was also "more commonly single-story in plan, reinforcing its image as a tray or platform, rather than as a series of masses that fit the slope of the hill." Cantilevered over a bluff like a large teetering box with its buttressing fully exposed, Trejo's pad is a textbook example of the style.

Inside, the property is a mix of classic midcentury detailing and tasteful updates. Built for entertaining, the residence features a thoroughly open floor plan with interconnected dining and living rooms situated under a gorgeous peaked beamed ceiling.

While renovated, much of the interior remains recognizable from "Heat," including the kitchen, which still boasts its original hand-fired orange tiling and retro cabinetry. The latter has since been repainted from the walnut brown coloring (rather darkly) seen onscreen to a bright white. Additional modernizations include new KitchenAid appliances, a picturesque stained glass window, open shelving and a wine fridge.

The home's original double front doors, also rather darkly showcased in "Heat," remain intact, as well.

Updated in all the right places, the bedrooms and baths are spacious and bright, with the owners’ suite hosting a serene washroom complete with a walk-in shower, a standalone soaking tub and a double vanity.

Situated on a 0.23-acre double-parcel, street-to-street lot with a 60-foot deck stretching its entire rear side, the dwelling grants unparalleled panoramas spanning the iconic Hollywood Sign, the downtown skyline, Catalina Island and everything in between. As realtor Joshua F. Smith espouses, "It's one of only a handful of properties of this kind that have unobstructed views of the entire city all the way to the beach with downtown L.A. as the centerpiece."

Further amenities include a minibar, a putting green, a 200-square-foot studio space and a lower deck and yard.

Gated and surrounded by vacant land to the north and south, the residence also offers the utmost in privacy, as well as the potential to add a lower level or an Accessory Dwelling Unit for additional income opportunities.

Highly cinematic, it is no wonder filmmakers have been drawn to stilt houses for decades, with cantilevered properties commandeering the screen in such productions as "Charlie's Angels," "Bosch," "Body Double" "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Lethal Weapon 2." Because the style is most closely associated with Los Angeles, the appearance of 1219 Dodds Cir. in "Heat," which has been called director Michael Mann's love letter to the city, proved a natural fit.

It is there that McCauley heads to confront Trejo following the film's climatic botched bank robbery, only to discover his cohort brutally beaten. (Fun fact – Danny's character was named after his real-life uncle, Gilbert Trejo, who worked with and befriended Mann during the filming of "The Jericho Mile" at Folsom State Prison. Throughout the ‘Heat’ shoot, the director continually referred to the actor by his uncle's name and, as Trejo told Screen Rant, "Finally, he came up to me and said, ‘You know what, Danny, every time I look at you, I think of your Uncle Gilbert, is it okay if I just call you Gilbert Trejo in the movie?’ I was like like, ‘Yeah!’" And the rest is history!)

Of the property, "Heat" location manager and famed location scout Lori Balton (an industry doyen who has lent her expertise to everything from "Catch Me If You Can" to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" to "Top Gun: Maverick") told L.A. Taco, "I’ve always been curious about the kind of person who could live in a house that's so precariously balanced because I could not. I just love that whole sense of sort of clinging to the edge." ‘Clinging to the edge’ is a perfect descriptor of Neil's entire criminal gang in the movie and the precarious lives they lead.

Associate producer Gusamo Cesaretti visited the residence with location scout Janice Polley in 2005 to shoot the featurette "Heat: Return to the Scene of the Crime" in honor of the film's 10-year anniversary and spoke with the homeowner, who had some exciting news to share. During the pad's remodel, while ripping up the carpeting in the room where (spoiler!) Trejo meets his onscreen end, she discovered residual staining left behind by whatever concoction was used to create the character's blood for the scene. As she divulges, there's "a little piece of history of ‘Heat’ right there under the floorboards." The blotch is certain to be a boon to any potential buyers who happen to be fans of the film.

Bonus – the bungalow where Kelso (Tom Noonan) lives in the movie can be found on the same block at 1235 Dodds Cir. Balton fortuitously happened upon the place while scouting Trejo's pad. Surrounded by chain link fencing and a wide array of antennae, the tiny structure immediately piqued the location scout's interest as the perfect spot to house Kelso, the film's resident hacker who gleans security intel from banks via satellite and sells it to thieves. She told L.A. Taco, "It was just so delightfully, disturbingly weird. I don't remember what [Michael] was looking for, but it wasn't that. And when I found it, I said, ‘Hey, wouldn't this be good?’ and he goes, ‘Not bad.’ He didn't go right away with it. He sort of mulled through things, and he ended up going in that direction."

Although the production team installed a 60-foot tower on the property for the shoot, most of the satellite equipment was already in place long before the filming of "Heat." As Mann explains in his DVD commentary, "The owners of this house actually did sell the air rights to companies that install microwave antennas and repeaters for cell phone communication." If Google Street View is to be believed, those antennas have since been dismantled, giving Kelso's house a far less recognizable look today.

Thankfully, Trejo's residence still stands indelible and iconic, towering over the City of Angels just as it did when Mann captured it with his lens nearly three decades ago.

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