Walk Wright In: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House

“Walk Wright In” is a self­-guided tour of Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Los Angeles project. Visiting hours are Thursday through Sunday, from 11:00AM to 4:00 pm. Last ticket sold at 3:30 pm.

Admission is $7 for adults; $3 for students & seniors with ID. Free for children under 12 when accompanied by a paying adult. Tickets are sold onsite, by credit card only.

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.”

Taking advantage of Los Angeles’ dry, temperate climate, Hollyhock House is a remarkable combination of house and gardens. In addition to the central garden court, each major interior space adjoins an equivalent exterior space, connected either by glass doors, a porch, pergola or colonnade. A series of rooftop terraces further extend the living space and provide magnificent views of the Los Angeles basin and the Hollywood Hills.

Selecting a thirty-­six acre site known as Olive Hill, Wright and Barnsdall worked together to develop a plan that included a home for Barnsdall and her young daughter, two secondary residences, a theater, a director’s house, a dormitory for actors, studios for artists, shops and a motion picture theater.

But because of financial and artistic differences, only the main home and two secondary residences were built. The secondary structures include Residence A (extant) and Residence B (demolished to make way for apartments in 1948).

Hollyhock House takes its name from Aline Barnsdall’s favorite flower. At her request, hollyhocks were incorporated into the decorative program of the house, and stylized representations of the flower are found on the roofline, walls, columns planters and furnishings.

In 1927, Aline Barnsdall gave Hollyhock House and eleven surrounding acres to the City of Los Angeles for use as a public art park in memory of her father, Theodore Barnsdall.

Today, surrounded by a modern theater and art galleries, Hollyhock House comes closer to realizing its original purpose as the centerpiece of a functioning arts complex.  Project Restore oversaw a major restoration of Hollyhock House that was completed in February 2015, when the house reopened after several years, with significant contributions from the City of Los Angeles and the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation. The house’s original garage was outfitted as a brand new visitors center and museum store and archive.

Now the Barnsdall Art Park Foundation is planning and fundraising to restore the Motor Court and Pet Pergola as the next major capital project for this historic structure.