We visited an architectural landmark last weekend. That landmark is Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. The house is a sprawling mansion designed by arguably one of the greatest, most-celebrated architects of all time. That architect is Frank Lloyd Wright.
Of course, we knew about Frank Lloyd Wright. We were fans and had read about him since our youth. We had been to several of his buildings around the world and even to several exhibitions devoted to his life and work.
And we knew about Hollyhock House, too. We’d seen photos of it, seen it in movies, TV shows and music videos growing up. The house was and is a popular film location. We’d even seen books about it. We had been familiar with it for decades.
And we lived in L.A. The landmark is but a short drive away. In fact we had driven by the park where the house stands hundreds, if not thousands of times. But we had never actually visited it. As a fan of architecture, there’s really no excuse.
This changed last weekend. We finally booked a timed reservation to visit the house, to actually go inside and explore it at length.
Since we had seen so many visuals of Hollyhock House and Lloyd Wright’s style over the years, we had an idea of what to expect in terms of aesthetics and the look of the house, especially its exterior design motifs.
But there’s nothing that exactly equals experiencing a space or a place in person.
Within a minute of walking into Hollyhock House, we were blown away by just how awesome it really is as you walk through it and see first-hand, up close all the incredible design intelligence at work here, the craftsmanship, the thoughtfulness, the inventiveness and vision that resulted in this architectural masterpiece.
There’s so much to unpack about Hollyhock House and so much to see. Our knee-jerk need to document as much of it as possible swiftly kicked in. We started snapping pix. We took hundreds of photos. Almost 50 of them are included in this post.
Most of the interior of the house and the grounds are accessible or at least viewable, if partly roped off. All but one of the rooms is furnished in their original style. The room that isn’t stands empty at the back of the house and feels like a secret. It’s a small tea room with large windows that is worth spending some time in since you can completely walk around inside it and it opens up into a small private garden.
At the time of our visit, the wing where the bedrooms are was unfortunately closed as these are currently undergoing renovation and repair work. (So we’ll be going back for another visit when this is done.)
Lloyd Wright’s architectural design vision extended to the style of furniture and small decorative details, such as the carpets, lights fixtures, chairs and cabinetry.
Construction of the Hollyhock House was completed in 1921 around the same time that Lloyd Wright was in Tokyo overseeing construction of another of his great architectural landmarks, the Imperial Hotel.
The architect designed the house as a personal residence for the oil heiress Aline Barnsdale, for which the surrounding park and arts center get their names. But oddly enough, after only six years Barnsdale gave up the residence due to high costs of maintenance and ongoing construction. In 1927 she donated the house and its property to the City of Los Angeles.
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