The weather was perfect today, Sir Narciso and I visited the Hollyhock House, which is in the Barnesdale art park. This is the first residential structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles. When I first visited it 30+ years ago it was wreck. Now, it has been beautifully restored, and is really worth a special trip.
We met the docent for our tour, near the front door. Her voice was somewhat piercing, but she was enthusiastic, and seemed to be very well-informed. After a brief introductory talk, we entered the house through a passageway that got progressively more and more narrow. The front doors of the Hollyhock House are made of cement, and are about 3 inches thick. They weigh several hundred pounds, but are so well hinged, that they will swing with the pressure of a fingertip.
Like many of the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, the ceilings crush and compress you. Famously, he once said something like anyone over 5'6" tall is a weed.
Once you step through the doorway, the house is a revelation. You have been compressed, in order to enter an exciting, and even explosive space. It's not bright. It's not walls of open class. Everything is controlled. And that's not a bad thing. The paneling and cabinets throughout the house are made from quarter sawn Oak. With detailing that is strange, and unique to this one building.
The Hollyhock House sits on top of Olive Hill, and has views that include the Hollywood sign and Griffith Park Observatory. The current conservators, have done an amazing job of restoring the furniture and finishes of this once abandoned, and nearly demolished icon of modern architecture in Los Angeles.
Ms. Barnesdale only occupy the home for four years. She found it dark and damp and somewhat confining. While that may be true in the bedrooms and bathrooms, the living room, the circulation pathways, the dining room, music room, and library, our magnificent. The House has also been enhanced by the addition of a very contemporary landscaping.
The structure was built, while Frank Lloyd Wright was preoccupied with the completion of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. There is an aesthetic connection between the two buildings, but the Hollyhock House had a deeply flawed roof design that led to nearly constant water damage. Great works of architecture are known to frequently be leaky, but this house was ridiculous. The conservators still haven't really figured out how to protect the interior so as a temporary measure they have installed rather ugly galvanized metal coverings over some of the original roof structure.
We had a nice visit, and it was particularly satisfying that we were allowed to see most of the rooms in the house. After taking the tour, it's worth driving up to the Ennis House, which is about 2 miles away up in the Hollywood Hills. The Ennis house, which I think is the largest of the textile block houses done by Wright, can only be viewed from outside, and even though it has suffered substantial damage due to flaws in the construction technology, you can see that it must have been like living in a fantastic temple. It has apparently been taken over by the state of California, and the exterior is partially restored.
Those two structures were a nice dose of architecture, and after our visit we were ready for a bite to eat. We wandered down the hill on a street called Hillhusrt, and found a nice outdoor café, called The Alcove. You order at the counter, which features a number of huge desserts, and it turns out that the food is excellent, colorful, fairly healthy, and the portions are rather large. The patios surrounding what was formerly a bungalow, are pleasantly landscaped, and feature an eclectic makes of garden furniture. The crowd at The Alcove is equally eclectic. Good food, decent service, and some interesting beers. Therefore, strongly recommended. Further up the block is a good mix of coffee houses, sushi bars, and a decent Italian restaurant called Farfalla.
