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. Hollyhock House is open Thursday through Sunday, from 11:00AM to 4:00 pm with the 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.

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.