During testimony on day two of evidence in the defamation case against Amber Heard brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, much was made of the art deco building in which the couple lived.
Between 2013 and 2016 Depp owned five penthouses on the top floor of the historic Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway in the theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles.
Testifying on Wednesday were Depp’s longtime friend and neighbour, Isaac Baruch, and the general manager of the building, Brandon Patterson.
Mr Baruch explained that he had known Depp since they were teenagers, had been in bands together, and he had worked for him at The Viper Room nightclub. He eventually became an artist, and Depp his patron, and as part of that arrangement he let him live in one of the penthouses.
Depp and Heard lived next door with an adjoining balcony to Mr Baruch, while Heard’s sister Whitney lived in another, and friends occupied the others. They were also adjacent to the building’s rooftop pool, with views over the city.
Three of the units were connected via doorways with another used by Mr Baruch as his home and art studio, and the fifth as a guest suite.
A floorplan of the penthouse level of the building was submitted as evidence to give the jury an idea of the proximity in which they all lived.
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The apartments feature large windows, rich dark wooden flooring, tall ceilings with mezzanine levels and industrial-looking staircases. There is an eclectic mix of interior design, from sleek modern kitchens to colourfully decorated bohemian-themed bedrooms, appropriately Art Deco bathrooms, and flourishes of colour and personality throughout, indicative of the actor’s style.
Mr Baruch had fond recollections of this time of almost semi-communal living, with the group all becoming good friends and entertaining in each other’s penthouses. His early testimony elicited smiles from both Heard and Depp.
However, much of the testimony that followed focussed on the night of 21 May 2016 and the following days, about a year after the couple had married.
Depp is alleged by Heard to have become violent during an argument and thrown a phone at her. Mr Baruch arrived onto the penthouse floor to see shards of broken glass in the hallway and spilled wine.
The next day he said he found Heard with a security guard having the locks changed on penthouses one, three, and five — he lived in penthouse two — and it was claimed that Depp had hit her.
Mr Baruch testified extensively that over the next few days he failed to see any marks on Heard over several encounters in the building, claiming she was not wearing make-up. Heard’s legal team focussed a great deal on his knowledge of her make-up routine in their cross-examination.
General manager Brandon Patterson, appearing in a pre-recorded interview identified numerous video clips preserved from those days in May 2016, showing Depp and Heard and their friends taking the elevator to the penthouse level, appearing in the Art Deco lobby, and even the moment police officers visited on the night of the alleged altercation.
Missing from the videos was a moment mentioned by Depp’s attorneys and Mr Baruch that is purported to show Whitney Heard mock-punching her sister and the two of them laughing around the time of the incident.
Mr Patterson says neither legal team at the time asked for that piece of footage to be preserved and so it would have automatically been recorded over at a later date.
Once Heard’s allegations about her husband became public, Mr Baruch decided to break off contact with her.
In September of 2016, Depp put all five units at the Eastern Columbia Building on the market either as a package or separately.
The Eastern Columbia Building was originally built as a department store in 1930 and was allowed to exceed a city-enforced height limit with its large clock visible from some distance — directly above where the penthouses are now located.
One of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in Los Angeles, its distinctive turquoise terracotta facade with blue and gold trim, flying buttresses and clocktower earned its designation as a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1985.
The conversion to condominiums happened in 2006, with Depp buying the penthouses in 2007.
