Throughout his decadeslong career, Craig Ellwood brought his indoor-outdoor living approach to several properties across Southern California, including his beachfront Hunt House in Malibu. The Zimmerman house, with its floor-to-ceiling glass windows and open floor plans, was designed early in her father's career and wasn't the best representation of his work, Ellwood said.

"It doesn't break my heart," she added of the raze.

Still, the home, sold to "The Man from U.N.C.L.E" creator Sam Rolfe and wife Hilda Rolfe in 1975 — stands for a timeless architectural movement. Erin likens her father's lasting midcentury designs to "the Chanel of architecture."

"There's certain fashions that will never go away. They'll always stay strong," she said.

The couple's modern farmhouse aesthetic may not be Erin's preferred style, but she said she understands why Pratt and Schwarzenegger would want the Zimmerman House plot: proximity to Schwarzenegger's mother, Maria Shriver. The former first lady of California reportedly lives across the street from the property.

"I don't feel bitter. I understand the love of family, I understand wanting to be close to my mother or my mother in-law," said Ellwood, whose late actor mother Gloria Henry also lived by Shriver. "I understand being a multimillionaire and wanting to build exactly what I want and keep my family close. I get all that. Unfortunately, it involved tearing something down."

Razing the Zimmerman House is not just "so brutal," but wasteful in a variety of ways, Ellwood added. She lamented that the home did not have some kind of ceremonious sendoff — final tours for architecture students, a celebratory cocktail hour, donation of materials for architectural studies — before it was torn down.

"Is there something more creative that could've been done in the process of taking it away that could've given it some honor?" Ellwood asks.

She was speaking to The Times on what would have been her father's 102nd birthday. She says Craig Ellwood "stood for innovation and a new way of California living."

"I think what people are responding to is [the home] is like this time capsule," she said. "I think that's what hurts people so much — is that there aren't that many great ones."

With the Zimmerman House now a pile of rubble and Pratt and Schwarzenegger's new mansion reportedly still in early construction, Ellwood said she hopes the couple considers giving back to the architecture community amid the backlash.

"They've got money," she said. "It would behoove them to do something kind to the world of architecture."

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