A correction to an earlier version of this article has been appended to the end of the article.
ORINDA — When Vogue magazine reported in 2016 that the Frank Lloyd Wright Estate in Orinda was available for weddings with up to 400 guests, news quickly spread among couples searching for that one-of-a-kind venue for their nuptials.
“When you enter the Frank Lloyd Wright Estate, you immediately sense this place is special. And it is.” boasts the estate’s website, franklloydwrightestate.com, which goes on to describe the house at 6 Great Oak Circle as “sumptuous Mid-Century Modern” with “22k gold ceilings and a solid copper roof,” six buildings on four acres and a Japanese garden.
VIDEO: Neighbors of the Frank Lloyd Wright estate in Orinda are fed up with crowds from weddings blocking their streets, driveways and parking on their lawns.
“If you’re seeking a smashing venue for a personal celebration or a company soiree, this is the place,” the website continues.
But the Vogue piece and similar media coverage of the estate — including that of the East Bay Times and Bay Area TV stations — overlooked a fact.
The weddings, with a couple of exceptions, have violated Orinda’s zoning ordinance, which bans commercial ventures in residential neighborhoods, according to Orinda Planning Director Drummond Buckley.
As a result, the city has issued citations of up to $1,000 each since Sept. 1, 2017, against homeowner Gerald Shmavonian for the seven weddings it knew about.
The city of Orinda says that’s all it can do while studying other ways to toughen enforcement. As a general law city bound by state laws, it’s limited to setting the maximum fines for ordinance violations in the range of $250 to $1,000, Buckley said.
Shmavonian, who doesn’t live on the property and lists a Fresno address, couldn’t be reached for comment via email and a phone call.
“Our neighbor, Gerald Shmavonian, continues to flout the rules and regulations of Orinda and has had yet another event at the Frank Lloyd Wright house,” neighbors Jane and Ken Johnson, Orinda residents since 1970, said in a May 9, 2017, email to the city. “We have spoken to many of the people in our neighborhood and all agree this is an extremely bad and disruptive situation.
“It is not an appropriate business even if he did live here,” wrote the Johnsons. “This is a quiet residential neighborhood. It is not a business district.”
Other frustrated and angry neighbors have flooded the city with emails, affidavits, photos, videos and screenshots to support their complaints about amplified speeches from wedding parties, loud music lasting up to 10 p.m., catering trucks running back and forth, port-a-potties plopped on streets and guests parking in driveways and on lawns.
Shmavonian has paid a total of $1,750 in fines, repeatedly stating in his appeals of the citations that he has a right to hold events.
Police have responded to a dozen complaints about loud noise and music at the estate since last year, according to Orinda Police Chief Mark Nagel.
In his report about officers’ response to an Oct. 14, 2017 complaint about a loud party at the estate, Contra Costa County sheriff’s Deputy Devyn Hom said Shmavonian told him he was hosting a party for friends and would turn the music down at 10 p.m. “I asked Gerald if he was hosting a wedding like he has in the past, and he said, ‘No, it’s just a party with some friends. I know the rules.’ ” Shmavonian was cited.
“As a council member, to have somebody who doesn’t even live in our community impose this kind of misery on our residents and continue to get away with it is extremely frustrating,” Councilwoman Darlene Gee said at a July 10 meeting.
Molly Wolfsehr Boone, an event planner with Google, said in an interview that she has witnessed catering trucks and Uber drivers parking in her driveway and guests parking on a neighbor’s lawn.
“We hear the (wedding) speeches, the yelling, the music,” Wolfsehr Boone said.
“What we have here is a historic landmark site that he’s taken advantage of,” said Clint Johnson, a veteran firefighter who has lived in the neighborhood since 2004.
In 1948, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house for inventor Maynard Buehler and his wife, Katherine Buehler of Orinda. In 2006, the estate was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. After the Buehlers died, the estate was put up for sale, and in 2013 Shmavonian bought it for $3.3 million.
Shmavonian opened the house for tours and fundraisers, which were allowed with a special permit if they generated money for nonprofits. Few of those events seemed to raise any issues or concerns among the neighbors.
The estate is also subject to an easement set up by the Buehlers and held by the nonprofit Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Chicago. Under terms of the easement, the homeowner is required to open the estate to public events four to 10 days a year.
“The main thing to understand about that easement is that the city is not party to it,” Buckley said. “He may have some obligations to that easement, but he still has to comply with city regulations to the extent that he tries to meet the terms of that easement.”
Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, said in an email: “We require that easement grantors follow and recognize existing zoning regulations, or special uses approved in writing by local zoning authorities.”
Meanwhile, Shmavonian continues to hold weddings at the estate; one is scheduled for Sept. 2.
Correction: July 25, 2018
Because of incorrect information provided by Orinda, a July 21 story about weddings at the Frank Lloyd Wright Estate gave an incorrect amount of fines the homeowner has paid for citations issued by the city. The correct amount is $1,750 paid to date.
