Spent a couple of hours at Hollylock House. About 20 blocks away from the Renaissance hotel on Hollywood Drive. Frank Lloyd Wright’s first commission in Los Angeles (several were to follow). Commissionned by Aline Barsndall, the scion of one of the first oil fortunes in the US, and we are told a rather unconventional and independent-minded woman, who early on, had decided to support theatre and asked Wright to design and build her a theatre complex in Los Angeles. Project turned to build a house first – the theatre never saw the light of day until much later on, paid by someone else and designed by someone else.
The house was completed in 1921 and is very much in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright – the recurring thematic decorating feature throughout the house, inside and outside – in this case the stylized hollylock that looks like inspired from a Maya design (which apparently Wright strongly denied!) low archways leading to narrow doors; his own designed oak furniture; stained windows; patches of water here and there; opening up the interior to the exterior surroundings with rooms openings to gardens and views; etc... The place has been subjected to some renovations and lately restorations since its construction, but I think it looks pretty well the way it did back in the 20’s, including the furniture of the living room, which are in fact beautiful replicates. Lots of personal stories, the owner, the architect, the contractors, and their multitudes of disagreements and battles, etc. – the place ended up costing 3 times the initial $50,000 budgeted for it, and that after Barnsdall’s financial handlers forced her to rein in Wright and his contractors – the docent likes to regal us with (we are 2 people taking the tour! The whole house is open for visit) In the end, Barnsdall did not like the house very much and left a few years after its construction. She left it to the city of Los Angeles to look after it, as a place to be dedicated to the Arts...
The place is built on a vast expanse on top of a hill that offers a 360-degree-view on the surrounding LA landscape and the ocean (“by a clear day” we are told, which does not happen very often nowadays in LA, but then, it must have been a different story). I meandered around the place for a good half hour, taking in the various perspectives on the house and the property, under a nice end-of-afternoon and still warm sun.
On the park grounds that surround the house, a tai-kwan-do class in full practice...
(check http://www.hollyhockhouse.net/index.htm)
See my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bourlingue/sets/72157617226750522/
Two quotes from Wright that I enjoy:
About Hollylock House, in a letter to Aline Barnsdall:
"Well -- the building stands ...
It is yours for what it has cost you.
It is mine for what it has cost me.
And it is for all mankind ...
Whatever its birth pangs,
it will take its place as your contribution and mine
to the vexed life of our time."
About life: “Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities”!
