Houzz TV: Tour Frank Lloyd Wright's Jaw-Dropping Hollyhock House

UNESCO has named eight works designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, including Hollyhock House, to its World Heritage List

Annie Thornton 8 July 2019

Houzz Editorial Staff

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See what else is on the World Heritage List. This story was originally published in 2015.

Visitors can once again tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed Hollyhock House, which reopened this year after a four-year-long, multimillion-dollar restoration. The Los Angeles icon has been described as the harbinger of California modernism. The monumental hilltop home has open multipurpose rooms and eliminates the barrier between the interior and the exterior in many places. These are features that became synonymous with California living and residential design as a whole. “It began to change the way Americans used and lived in domestic interior spaces,” says Jeffrey Herr, curator of the Hollyhock House.

Joshua White

The Hollyhock House takes its name from the home’s original owner’s (Pennsylvania oil heiress Aline Barnsdall’s) love for the flower, and it features hollyhock motifs throughout the 17-room house. This house, Wright’s first in Los Angeles, is done in the then-new ‘California romanza’ architectural style; ‘romanza’ is a musical term meaning “the freedom to make one’s own form.” The home dominates the surrounding landscape and is built around a central courtyard with many indoor-outdoor connections and views of the Hollywood Hills and Los Angeles basin. “This house was built for an unconventional client, so it’s an unconventional house,” Herr says.

Watch: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House as You’ve Never Seen It

Barnsdall, who was a traveler, philanthropist, art collector and political radical, hired Wright to build a theatre complex where she could put on avant-garde plays, but the project evolved to include her house in a larger art complex. Construction began in 1919, but Barnsdall fired Wright from the job in 1921, citing ballooning costs as cause for dismissal. Architect Rudolph Schindler moved from Chicago to California to oversee the project’s completion.

Joshua White

Despite its enduring architectural significance, Barnsdall wasn’t satisfied. She donated it, along with its surrounding land, to the city of Los Angeles in 1927 to be used as a public art park, and never lived there again. Now the California modernism harbinger and surrounding buildings comprise the Barnsdall Art Park; it’s a national historic landmark and has been nominated by the United States for Unesco’s World Heritage List.

Watch: Experience a flyby of the restored Hollyhock House

Shown: Wright designed the home’s original concrete bas-relief fireplace. A skylight above the fireplace and a pool area at its base bring the four elements together at the hearth, the traditional centre of the home.

Joshua White

The house has served different uses during its nearly 90 years as a city-owned building, and it became a permanent museum after a city-sponsored renovation in 1974.

The just-completed $4.4 million (₹28,57,58,000) renovation has returned the house to its original grandeur, inviting guests to experience what the house looked like when it was originally completed.

Construction focused on fixing leaking roofs and restoring floors, windows, doors and original paint colours, among other details. “With Frank Lloyd Wright, and especially Hollyhock House, the restoration is about re-creating the lost details,” Herr says.

Watch: See more of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House

Joshua White

Visit the Hollyhock House: Open Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m; 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles 90027; (323) 913-4031. More info

Read more:
What Frank Lloyd Wright’s Own Home Tells Us
Houzz Tour: A Delhi Home Rises Up For Three Generations

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