Sunnylands: Inside The Pink Walls

The famous pink walls stretch for miles in Rancho Mirage.

The Annenberg Estate at Sunnylands is an immensely private and guarded piece of property with a rich history.

The 25,000 square foot mansion sits on 200 acres of lushly, landscaped grounds.

There’s also a heli-pad, 13 lakes stocked with fish, a handful of guest cottages that housed presidents and movie stars, and a golf course.

All of which are currently undergoing renovation and restoration to bring them up to code and back to their original glory.

Walter and Leonore Annenberg built the home and they finished it in 1966.

And, now for the first time ever, next fall, you’ll be allowed behind the pink walls.

“They’ll find one of the most remarkable places in the world,” according to Geoffrey Cowan. Cowan recently became the first President of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. “It’s kind of a magic place, where every president from Eisenhower through George W. Bush, including Bill Clinton and Reagan, all played golf. They’ll find a place where Prince Charles came. Where Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra were.”

Cowan is the Dean Emeritus of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will help lead the transformation of the private estate into a public destination.

A new visitor center will be free to the public.

You will also be able to pay to go on a small group tour of the historic estate leaving from here at the visitor center.

There will be a variety of tours including architecture, art, golf, and general grounds tours.

Right now, the thought is that each tour will run about $30.

The estate will also host retreats for leaders around the world.

“Sunnylands is going be one of the great retreat centers in the world,” according to Dean Cowan. “The idea the Annenberg’s had in setting it up was to make it a sort of Camp David of the west. High level, small retreats which will change the world.”

Dean Cowan had a long relationship with the Annenbergs and shared with us his own fond memories of visiting Sunnylands.

“Both Ambassador and Mrs. Annenberg took us on tours of that art, but then they took us into a room that is still, will still, be here for people to see, which is what they called the room of memories,” Dean Cowan remembers. “And, Mrs. Annenberg would take us by each one of the pictures and tell us what each one meant to her.”

His hope is carry forward their tradition of hospitality and philanthropy.

“I have some understanding of what that world was like when they were alive, and i hope to be able to build on that,” Dean Cowan said. “It wont be a replica of that, but it would build it into a place they would have been proud of.”

Sunnylands is set to open to the public next November, on 11/11/2011.