Touring Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Hollywood

Hollyhock House, situated on Olive Hill in East Hollywood, was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Los Angeles commission and the first residence after his Prairie style period.  The house was commissioned by Aline Barnsdall, a wealthy oil heiress, and intended as part of a cultural arts complex on Olive Hill and was also to be her personal residence on the site. She asked him to incorporate her favorite flower, the hollyhock, into the design of the home's roofline, walls, columns planters and furnishings.  Built between 1919 and 1921, it represents his earliest efforts to develop a regionally appropriate style of architecture for Southern California. Wright himself referred to it as California Romanza, using a musical term meaning “freedom to make one’s own form."

Today, Hollyhock House is part of the Barnsdall Art Park administered by the City of Los Angeles.  Perched on Olive Hill, it has spectacular views of downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and two iconic Hollywood structures - the Griffith Observatory and the "Hollywood" sign.  This last view was entirely accidental, because neither the sign nor the observatory had been constructed when Hollyhock House was built:

 
We were interested in visiting Hollyhock House because it is one of the few fully-renovated Wright-designed buildings that are open to the public.  Kathy had visited Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, and we had visited Taliesin in Scottsdale on a prior visit to Phoenix.  We enjoyed the dramatic experience of walking through Wright's architectural spaces and seeing how he incorporated elements of the surrounding environment into the interior design.  Hollyhock House is only about 2 miles from Katie's apartment, where we are puppysitting, so we decided to take an afternoon stroll over to see it.

This was our first view of Hollyhock House as we approached the entrance.  Its design, of massive concrete blocks, seems in stark contrast to other Wright houses we have seen.  The exterior struck us as almost institutional in spirit:

Here is another view of the facade with the city in the background:

A walk around the house to the rear starts to give a hint of the unique architectural vision it represents:

The following descriptions are from the museum self-guided tour brochure, and the photos are from public sources because we were not allowed to take photographs inside.

"In a device Wright often employed, the home’s entryway steers visitors down a progressively narrower path which opens up after entering the house, creating a sense of compression and then release.  Unlike most traditional architecture of the time which would guide visitors toward explicitly defined public rooms, Wright’s design for the entry of Hollyhock House presents a series of inviting options to someone first coming through the door.  To the left is the Dining Room, with its signature Wright-designed furniture echoing the “hollyhock” elements of the house:  Straight ahead, indirect views glimpse the spacious Living Room, the home’s most dramatic interior space:"

One of our favorite rooms was the Library, which had both an intimate and an open feeling, much as the other rooms of the house:

"The Conservatory, traditionally a sun room for plants, faces south and receives natural light throughout the day. Intended partly as a breakfast room, it is scaled for people who are seated and has garden views on three sides.  The room exemplifies Wright’s ideas about blurring the distinction between outside and inside spaces. Beyond the French doors is an exterior space that is as much a room as its interior counterpart, lacking only a roof and upper walls."  Here is a view of the Conservatory:

As large as the house seems from the outside, it did not feel large inside.  Our visit lasted about an hour.  If we had wanted, we could have visited the adjoining Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, also on the Barnsdall Art Park grounds, but we had a souvenir gift to pick up and a grandpuppy to return to, so we walked back to Katie's house by way of Hollywood & Vine.