a 3 to 4 page architecture essay, contact me only if you good at architecture major

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Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, and Olive Hill, 1914-1924 Author(s): Kathryn Smith Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Mar., 1979), pp. 15-33

Published by: on behalf of the University of California Press Society of Architectural Historians

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Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, and Olive Hill, 1914-1924

KATHRYN SMITH Los Angeles, California

The decade 1914-1924 was crucial in the career of Frank

Lloyd Wright. He was at work on two major projects, the

Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Barnsdall commission for Olive Hill in Los Angeles. The Imperial Hotel, although vast and impressive in its grandeur as a finished building super- vised closely by Wright, is not as revealing as the Barnsdall commission of the process of transition that these years rep- resent. During the decade Aline Barnsdall called upon Wright to design for her 45 buildings, of which 2 were major theaters (one for Chicago, one for Olive Hill); 2 were her own residences (one for Olive Hill, one for Beverly Hills); .6 were stores; 21 were houses; I was an apartment build- ing; I an entrance pavilion; I a motion picture theater; and r a playhouse-kindergarten. In addition, he designed a mas- ter plan for her property that included the majority of these buildings and anticipated his later theories of planning as developed in Broadacre City. These buildings span the range of Wright's designs from the late Prairie House to the fully worked out textile block system for concrete.

HOLLYHOCK HOUSE (Fig. I) was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a residence in Los Angeles for Aline Barnsdall. In construction between 1919 and 1921, the history of the

building spans a decade in Wright's life, 1914-1924, and is crucial in the evolution of his career as architect. Lodged between the creative Prairie years and the consolidation and renewal that led to his second and longest period of profes- sional activity, Wright during this transitional decade was

testing his ability to survive and grow as an architect in a world that was changing rapidly around him. More than the other major building of this decade, the Imperial Hotel, Hollyhock House is related in form and content to work in

Chicago and prefigures the well-known Los Angeles con- crete block houses that immediately follow.

The importance of Hollyhock House is generally acknowl-

edged, although detailed scholarly analysis and history have

yet to be published. Moreover, the original Barnsdall com- mission for Olive Hill-the creation and design of an art

community-of which Hollyhock House was only a part, is little studied and less understood.1 Yet the meaning and

importance of Hollyhock House in Wright's work of the

decade, 1914-1924, is found in this context.2

i. First-hand accounts can be found in F. LI. Wright, An Auto- biography, New York, 1943 (expanded version of 1932 edition) and N. Bel Geddes, Miracle in the Evening, New York, 1960. For the most authoritative history, consult H.-R. Hitchcock, In the Nature of Materials, The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 1942. Hollyhock House is also mentioned in the following works: V. Scully, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1960; P. Blake, The Master Builders, New York, I960; N. K. Smith, Frank Lloyd Wright: A Study in Architectural Content, Englewood, NJ, 1966; and R. C. Twombley, Frank Lloyd Wright: An Interpretive Biography, New York, I973. Olive Hill has been mentioned in D. Gebhard and H. von Breton, Lloyd Wright, Architect, Santa Barbara, CA, 1971 and D. Gebhard, Schindler, New York, 1971. Early photographs of Hollyhock House appeared in H. T. Wijdeveld, ed., The Life Work of the American Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, Santpoort, Holland, 1925. Drawings pertaining to Hollyhock House and Olive Hill have been published in the last-cited reference and in A. Drexler, ed., The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, I96z, pls. 58-63; Drawings for a Living Architecture, New York, 1959, pls. io8, III, 114, iz6, and 131; and A. Izzo and C. Gubi- tosi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Desseins, r887-1959, Paris, 1977, pls. 43-47.

2. The principal source consulted for this paper was the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AR (draw- ings, correspondence, photographs). The following illustrations should read: Fig. z6 Copyright ? Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1979. Figs. 8 9, Io, 13 Copyright ? Frank Lloyd Wright Founda- tion 1965. Figs. 5, 7, 14, 16, 17, 18, z3, z4, z5 Copyright ? Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1979. All rights reserved. The last cited group of drawings are the property of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and are currently in the possession of the City of Los Angeles. Also consulted were the City of Los Angeles, Depart- ment of Parks and Recreation and the Municipal Art Department (drawings and blueprints); Chicago Historical Society (docu- ments and miscellaneous items); the R. M. Schindler Architectural Collection, UCSB Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (drawings and correspondence); the Richard Neutra Col- lection, Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles

15

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16

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Fig. I. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, Hollywood, 1919-1921, aerial view (Historical Collections, Security Pacific National Bank, Los Angeles).

In the life and career of Frank Lloyd Wright (Fig. z), the decade began with personal tragedy and professional crisis and ended in a return to both domestic and professional commitment. During it, Wright was exile and gypsy. The

Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, required his presence there off and on from 1917-I9zz; of equal importance is the work he undertook in Los Angeles for the oil heiress, Aline Barns- dall (Fig. 3).

At the end of 1914, Wright had completed work on Mid-

way Gardens, begun in 1913, and was in the initial stages of

design on the Imperial Hotel. After his many years as a sub-

urbanite, for the first time he now both lived and worked in the city while rebuilding his country home, Taliesin, after a fire and the tragic death of his companion, Mamah Borth- wick Cheney, some months earlier. No longer surrounded by the staff of the Oak Park Studio years, his stationery listed his eldest sons, Lloyd and John, along with a former Oak Park draftsman, Harry F. Robinson, as associates.4

Wright lived in Chicago during an upsurge of creativity in the arts. The focus of this activity was the Fine Arts Building, where Wright had had an office during 1908 and in 1910-

(drawings); Bruce Torrence Historical Collection, Pacific Federal of Hollywood (early photographs). I would especially like to thank Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer for their generous cooperation in making the Taliesin Archives avail- able to me. In addition I wish to thank all those who helped at each of the above places and Ellen Van Volkenburg, H.-R. Hitch- cock, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Leonard Eaton, and Esther McCoy. I owe special gratitude and would like to dedicate this paper to two individuals who not only provided information, but also something of more value-an insight into the idealistic spirit of the people, the project, and the time: with great affection and respect to Lloyd Wright and to the memory of Pauline Schindler. This study was supported in part by a grant from the Women's Architectural League of Pasadena. I read a preliminary version of this paper at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Architec- tural Historians in February 1977.

3. On 14 August 1914, Wright's companion, Mamah Cheney, with whom he was living counter to his family and convention, was killed in a tragic incident that also destroyed his home. In addition, the scandal of the years 1909-1914 had seriously affected

his architectural activity. By the end of 19z4, however, Wright announced that he would return from California to Chicago where he planned to open an office with Ix draftsmen effective January i9z5. Wright's last wife, Olga (Olgivanna) Milanoff, with whom he would live for the next 30 years until his death, was in residence at Taliesin by the beginning of the same year. Twombley, Frank Lloyd Wright, 143-145.

4. The letterhead reads "Frank Lloyd Wright Orchestra Hall Chicago / Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. Landscape John Lloyd Wright Harry F. Robinson." Wright to Monroe, zo April 1914, Harriet Monroe Correspondence, Special Collections, Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Chicago.

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17

I F 14A 1-w

L'i

Fig. z. Frank Lloyd Wright, ca. 1920 (R. M. Schindler Architec- tural Collection, UCSB Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara).

1911.5 Here in 1912 Maurice Browne and Ellen Van Volken-

burg founded the Chicago Little Theatre in a small play- house on the fourth floor. This venture, one of the first little theaters in America, was dedicated to experimental drama and avant-garde European theory, presenting some of the

first Chicago dramatizations of Ibsen and plays from the

Irish Abbey Theatre, as well as modern versions of classical

Greek drama. Also located in the building were the offices of The Little Review, an avant-garde literary magazine, first

published in 1914 by Margaret Anderson. Wright contrib-

uted money and articles to this venture during these years.6

A-P

WN

Fig. 3. Aline Barnsdall (Los Angeles Public Library).

The Little Review became one of the most important so- called little magazines in modern literature through the edi- torial guidance of Ezra Pound and Jane Heap. A principal achievement some years later, was the serialization of James Joyce's Ulysses when no other means of publication was even dared. In another part of the city, Harriet Monroe's

Poetry Magazine, founded in October 1912, was printing the

imagist poets-T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound-and Chicago's Vachel Lindsay, Carl Sandburg, and Edgar Lee Masters. These activities, known as the "Chicago Renaissance," had direct and indirect links with Europe in all fields-poetry, drama, painting, music, architecture, and social thought. Yet this movement was principally a regional development, and it began to disintegrate just prior to World War I. 5. G. Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright to 19io, The First Golden

Age, New York, 1958, Appendix B, s15. During this period, Wright designed three interiors for the Fine Arts Building: Browne's Bookstore (1908), W. Scott Thurber art gallery (I9o09), and the S. H. Mori oriental art studio (1914). Hitchcock, In the Nature of Materials, 117, 118, iz1.

6. In its first years of publication, Frank Lloyd Wright contrib- uted $ioo to The Little Review, which adopted the subtitle, "A Magazine of the Arts, Making No Compromise with the Public Taste." One article, "Word for Real Art" (September 1916, 25)

and two translations with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Goethe's "Hymn to Nature" (February 1915, 30-3z) and Romain Rolland

(October 1915, zz-30) were published. M. Anderson, My Thirty Years War, An Autobiography, New York, 193o, 69. R. Sweeney, Frank Lloyd Wright, An Annotated Bibliography, Los Angeles, 1978.

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18

Wright and Aline Barnsdall first met sometime between late 1914 and early 1915 within this milieu.7 She emerged in

Chicago in the middle of 1914 as co-director with Arthur Bissell of the Players Producing Company centered at the Fine Arts Building. Beginning in November, their produc- tions were staged in the main auditorium of that building. The company presented four plays during the 1914-1915 season and one was so successful that it was taken to New York for a run there.8 Also Barnsdall was known to and be- came interested in the Chicago Little Theatre and The Little Review.

How she and Wright first met is not known, although by 1915 they had a number of mutual acquaintances. Wright recalled many years later in his autobiography,

... I met Miss Barnsdall shortly after the tragedy at Taliesin, while I was still in Chicago at the Cedar Street house. Henry Sell brought her to see me in connection with a project for a theatre in which she was interested in Los Angeles...9

Possibly Sell first introduced the two, but Ellen Van Vol-

kenburg recalled another reason for Aline Barnsdall's first approach to Wright. Barnsdall was interested in the produc- tions of the Little Theatre from her first arrival at the Fine Arts Building. This was a minimal operation that depended from season to season on the support of subscribers to sur- vive. The playhouse, formerly a storage room, had been inexpensively converted to seat an audience of under ioo. Aline Barnsdall offered to finance the design and building of a larger and more modern theater for them in Chicago;

she first approached Frank Lloyd Wright with this project.10 The undertaking was short-lived, although Ellen Van Volk- enburg does recall at least one meeting between Aline Barns- dall, Maurice Browne, Wright, and herself. Some prelimi- nary sketches were possibly made at this time."

During 1915, Aline Barnsdall returned from a visit to California with new plans.2 The trip to Los Angeles inspired her to persuade the Chicago Little Theatre to relocate in the West. Ellen Van Volkenburg recalled that she and her hus- band declined this offer because they did not want to become pioneers a second time. As a result of their decision, Aline Barnsdall decided to go ahead with the new theater on her own, changing the site to Los Angeles and retaining Wright as her architect. Her decision to establish the Chicago proto- type elsewhere was part of a wider movement as Maurice Browne explained it some years later:

Meanwhile, though our doings stirred scarce a ripple on Chi- cago's indifferent surface, a tidal-wave was sweeping America. At the end of 9giz there were two Little Theatres in the country; five years later there were said to be more than thirty within a radius of fifty miles from Times Square, more than three hundred beyond it; by 19zo there were thousands.I3

At the time of World War I, Chicago declined as an inno- vative cultural center. The Little Review moved to New York in March 1917. Poetry Magazine continues publica- tion, yet its history-making years were between I912 and 1917. The Chicago Little Theatre closed in i918, as did Wright's cultural-entertainment center, Midway Gardens.

Aline Barnsdall remained in Chicago throughout 1915 and into 1916, continuing her association at the Fine Arts Theatre. Wright was devoting himself to the drawings for the Imperial Hotel, several residential commissions, and the 7.

Born Louise Aline Barnsdall in Bradford, PA, I April 1882, she was the granddaughter of William Barnsdall, an oil pioneer before the Civil War. Her father, Theodore, expanded the family business creating a substantial fortune. She had one sister. She spent time in Europe prior to 1914 pursuing her interests in the- ater and music. H. Sutherland, "Strange Saga of Barnsdall Park," Los Angeles Times, 15 March 1970.

8. Playbills Collection, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago. Barnsdall to Gerstenberg, 27 January 1915. Alice Gerstenberg Papers, Special Collections, Newberry Library, Chicago. Letter- head reads, "Aline Barnsdall Arthur Bissell Players Producing Company Lessee of Fine Arts Theatre . . ." A. Gerstenberg, "Hope of the Little Theatre in Chicago," Townsfolk, xxxvII, 1948, I6.

9. Wright, An Autobiography, 224. Henry Blackman Sell, later editor of Harper's Bazaar, was a young journalist and publicist who was drawn to Chicago in 1913 by the presence of Maurice Browne and the Little Theatre. In 1914, he began work part-time as a publicist for the Fine Arts Building. Sell authored two publi- cations which relate to his involvement with the little theater and architecture. What is it all about? An explanation of the New Theatre Movement that Explains, Chicago, 1914. On Wright's Midway Gardens, "Interpretation Not Imitation," International Studio, LV, 1915, 79-83. J. Leckie, A Talent for Living, The Study of Henry Sell, an American Original, New York, 1970, 27-30.

io. Ellen Van Volkenburg to author, i8 April 1974. ii. One drawing dated 7 February 1915 filed under "Barnsdall

Theatre" in the Archives of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AR, could possibly be related to this project.

12. Ellen Van Volkenburg to author, I8 April 1974 recalled that during Aline Barnsdall's visit to California in 1915 she had seen a site in Los Angeles that persuaded her to move the theater project there. However, the Archives of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation revealed in a letter from Barnsdall in Mill Valley, CA, to Wright, 27 July 1916, that she had not as yet found property and she wondered if Wright could go ahead with the plans without a specific site. Aline Barnsdall had a life-long inter- est in world travel and it is likely that her trip west was on the occasion of the Panama-California Exposition at San Diego and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco which opened I January and zo February 1915 respectively.

13. M. Browne, Too Late To Lament, An Autobiography, Lon- don, 1935, r99-zoo.

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19

:' a- ?~~_

*~: ?,r:?? ,.;"? -.

Fig. 4. Olive Hill, center right, ca. 900oo (California Historical

Society / Title Insurance and Trust Co. Collection).

rebuilding of Taliesin. By the spring of 1916, Barnsdall was

beginning to formulate ideas about her project in Los An-

geles: a permanent company dedicated to the development of the American theater. At this time she asked Norman Bel

Geddes, then relatively unknown, to leave the midwest and come to California as her scenic designer.

Her first theatrical season in Los Angeles, 1916-1917, was

also her last. She took over and remodeled an existing the-

ater, retaining the name, Players Producing Company. In addition to Bel Geddes, the company included Richard

Ordynski, artistic director, and Kira Markham, formerly with the Chicago Little Theatre.'4 In their five productions, the choice of material was similar to that of the Chicago Little Theatre; their staging, experimental; their critical ac-

ceptance, enthusiastic. Despite these factors, Aline Barnsdall released all members from contract shortly after the end of the last play. Financial, personal, and professional reasons have been offered to explain this decision.

During Aline Barnsdall's stay in Los Angeles, changes in her personal life began to affect plans made earlier. In 1917 her father died. In a letter to Wright dated 4 January 1917 (presumably a New Year's error in dating), she states that the theater project must be postponed because estate taxes

prevent building from going forward.'" The death of her

father, which left her heiress to a multimillion-dollar for-

tune, also brought with it the responsibilities and disadvan-

tages of wealth in the United States. She also began an

increasingly closer personal relationship with Richard Or-

dynski. Some feel that this contributed more than anything else to her disillusionment with the theater.'16 Also in 1917, she gave birth to a daughter, Aline Elizabeth, whom she nicknamed "Sugar Top."

From 1917 until 1919, encompassing the period of World War I, only preliminary designs were made for the Barnsdall

project.17 Various factors are responsible for this. Wright, who had left the midwest in December 1916 to sail for

Japan on the first of six trips in as many years, was engrossed in the design and construction of the Imperial Hotel. Its scale and importance necessitated his very close personal attention, changes were made on site as building proceeded.

During these years, Aline Barnsdall continued her life-

long interest in travel. Letters to Wright are almost never addressed from the same place twice as she journeyed from

Beverly Hills to Oakland, to La Jolla, to Scottsdale, to

Seattle, to New York, with an ocean voyage to Japan in- cluded. Wright was more uprooted than at any other time in his life as he commuted between Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Taliesin:

I would hear from her when I was wandering about in the maze of the Imperial Hotel in Tokio in Japan while she was in Holly- wood. She would get my telegram or letters in Spain when I eventually got to Hollywood. And I would hear from her in New York while I was in Chicago or San Francisco. Or hear from her from some remote piney mountain retreat in the Rockies when I was sea-sick out on the Pacific Ocean.18

By I919 this restlessness subsided, and Barnsdall initiated the first in a series of steps toward her previously announced

goal. On 23 June she purchased Olive Hill, a 36-acre tract

14. Through Aline Barnsdall's circle, the actress Elaine Hyman, whose stage name was Kira Markham, was introduced to and married Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright's eldest son, who had originally come to Los Angeles from San Diego while in the office of architect Irving Gill. Gebhard and Von Breton, Lloyd Wright, 2z3.

15. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AR. In a letter dated 30 May 1918 from Seattle, Aline Barnsdall reiterates that it is necessary to wait until the estate is settled. She adds that she is considering moving the project to Seattle.

16. Bel Geddes, Miracle in the Evening, 174: "As I saw it the downfall of Aline's Los Angeles project was primarily due to her involvement with Richard Ordynski."

17. Of the many buildings eventually planned for Olive Hill, the only two which were in the preliminary drawing stage be- tween 1917 and 1919 were the theater, which Wright in retrospect called the "New Theater," and the Barnsdall residence.

18. Wright, An Autobiography, 227.

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20

IC,

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Fig. 5. Frank Lloyd Wright, Olive Hill, Hollywood, I919-I921, elevations of Hollywood Boulevard, Vermont Avenue, and Sunset Boulevard (top to bottom), conceptual sketches by Frank Lloyd Wright (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

between Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, Edgemont Street and Vermont Avenue, from Mary H. Spires for the reported sum of $300,000. The site was a conspicuous and notable one in the neighborhood, a natural hill, landscaped, in the midst of a rapidly developing residential area. The property had been owned by J. H. Spires, who had purchased it in the

189os, laid out roadways for cultivation, and planted olive

trees, at that time considered exotic in Los Angeles (Fig. 4).19 Singled out as a local landmark, residents held Easter sunrise services there, before the use of the Hollywood Bowl, taking advantage of the magnificent view:

It overlooks on one side, vast areas that stretch to the rugged foothills of the Sierra Nevadas; over the Pacific on another side; and on a third, one can see the skyscrapers of this modern coast city-a panorama which caused Irvin Cobb to liken it to the enchanted creations of Maxfield Parrish.20

Olive Hill was uncommon, and Wright probably found it of special interest. Although in a rapidly developing area, the hill retained a rural character. It formed a superblock

in the surrounding neighborhood, because it was not sub-

divided by a grid street pattern. Its existing roadways were

irregular and conformed to the topography. An announce-

ment of the sale appeared in the papers within a few weeks

and was met with speculation as to eventual plans for the

Hill which had seemed like an obvious location for a future

city park.21 Within a few days, Barnsdall made public her intentions

for Olive Hill. They involved the creation of a center for

artistic drama, and her architect for these plans would be

Frank Lloyd Wright. The program as it was announced to

the press was for an ambitious art community on Olive Hill:

Olive Hill... will become the site of one of the most exquisite theaters the world has ever seen. The theater will stand on the lower level, facing Vermont avenue. (It) will accommodate about i25o persons, the size now generally accepted. . . . It will be of the most careful designing, with supreme attention to acoustics and visual properties, and in all its equipment will provide exceptional comfort both for audience and players.

The building will extend back from the street to the first ter- race, and backing up against this will afford opportunities for promenades among the olive groves and beautiful gardens which are to surround the edifice. The upper story will be made into a roof garden, where tea in the afternoon and after theater sup- pers will be provided in a beautiful environment. ...

But the theater is only one portion of the complete unit of enterprises Miss Barnsdall plans. Her own residence is to sur- mount the hill and be surrounded with gardens of extensive and beautiful design....

The big estate of thirty-six acres will yield many more beautiful building locations on which the new owner purposes [sic] to erect at various points apartment houses, individual residences, pic- turesque cottages and other forms of abode which the graceful contours of the hill may dictate.22

When asked of Wright's conception for her house, Barns-

dall replied,

"Mr. Wright believes that a California house should be half house and half garden and I am strongly of the same opinion."23

When asked about the style of the house, she retorted that it

would be up to the architect to create a new type for the

area. She did add one curious comment considering Wright's

position toward the new architecture soon to emerge in

Europe:

"So far," laughed Miss Barnsdall, "Mr. Wright and I have differed on only one point. He wants my house to be white, and I think a white house is too glaring for Southern California. So no matter what he says my house will not be white."24

19. Sutherland, "Strange Saga." zo. F. W. Vreeland, "A New Art Centre for The Pacific Coast,"

Arts & Decoration, xxvIII, 1917, 64-65.

zr. Holly Leaves, 5 July I919, 15. 22. F. Lawrence, "Eminence to be Made Rare Beauty Spot,"

Los Angeles Examiner, 6 July r919. 23. Lawrence, "Eminence."

24. Lawrence, "Eminence."

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2.1

i J ,?-

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Fig. 6. Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin II, Spring Green,

Wisconsin, 1914-19z5.

Wright's earliest schemes for Olive Hill show the basic elements much as they would appear in later plans. In a

conceptual sketch (Fig. 5) drawn on brown wrapping paper, the three major elevations (top to bottom) appear-Holly- wood Boulevard, Vermont Avenue, and Sunset Boulevard.25 On the Vermont elevation, the theater is placed in a central

position, flanked on either side by secondary buildings. A series of small buildings, presumably shops, are placed along Hollywood Boulevard, flanked on either side by larger build-

ings, with the main residence on the crown of the hill facing west. Sunset Boulevard was to be left undeveloped with the

profile of the two most important buildings-the theater and main residence-silhouetted against the landscaping.

Wright was no doubt struck by the rural and exotic char- acter of Olive Hill, comparable to sites which he had chosen for his own residences. His house in Oak Park had been built on a lot selected for its romantic landscaped garden of exotic plants and trees. The rural site at Taliesin featured

a prominent hill (Fig. 6). Wright himself noted the associa- tion between Olive Hill and Taliesin. On the early concep- tual sketch, he jotted the names, "TANYDERI TALIESIN."

Tanyderi is the small house that Wright had designed in

1907 for his sister, Jane, over the hill to the north of his own

residence, Taliesin, on the family property in Wisconsin. The

most obvious relationship Wright could be making is with

domestically scaled buildings on a naturally landscaped hill-

side terrain. No correspondence exists between the physical

plan of the Taliesin property and Olive Hill. More impor- tantly, Wright may have been making a further association with the program-a privately created community in a land-

scaped setting. Plans were still in the preliminary stage. Barnsdall men-

tioned that she would be sailing for Japan on 14 July to confer with the architect, whom she hoped would return and supervise construction the following winter for an open- ing in 19z3. Even at this early date she had an insight into the long-range difficulties and gives perhaps one clue why her plans were never realized.

"I don't want to do it," she says. "I know it will take time, agony of spirit and all that liberty which my gypsy soul adores, but it is something I simply have to do. Whether it's a success or a failure, the responsibility of the effort lies with me, and cannot be evaded. Personally, I prefer to vagabond through the world amusing myself with my friends, my studies and my love for the out of doors. I have struggled with this inborn conviction without avail. I seem forced to try, at least, to create a domicile fitting for the taste and ideals of the world, and I shall put every ounce of energy and experience and thought I have in the doing."26

zs. This conceptual sketch is related to a published drawing, pl. 58, in The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright. The published drawing corresponds to the central portion of this conceptual sketch which depicts the Vermont Avenue elevation with the theater in the center of the axis and not the elevation of Holly- hock House as noted in the published caption. 26. Lawrence, "Eminence."

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2.2

HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD

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C"%.. L. '1' W. w LO SU SE OU EV R 1 9 GENEAL ONSR~rION PLA FO PROERT OFA BRN9AI- HOLYWOD CLIFRNI FRNK LOY WRGHT ARCHTEC 3CN-E1 4 Vt~ll M"

Fig. 7. Frank Lloyd Wright, general construction plan for Olive Hill, 19zo (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

By the fall of 1919, construction began on the first build-

ing on Olive Hill with Lloyd Wright as superintendent.27 He supervised the grading of the site, the construction of

the foundations, and the laying out of the gardens and pools for the main residence. By the beginning of 19zo, R. M.

Schindler, who had joined Wright's midwest studio two

years earlier, was at work rendering the working drawings for this structure subsequently known as Hollyhock House, named by Aline Barnsdall for her favorite flower, which

was growing wild on the site at the time of purchase.2"

The plans for the overall community were moving along

simultaneously with work on the house. By the end of 1x9o, a general construction plan (Fig. 7) had been drawn up for Olive Hill. It contained the nucleus of a self-contained art

community founded on the drama. The program had been worked out to include a three-story theater on the lower

level of the hill on Vermont, flanked to the north by an entrance pavilion for the public and to the south by a small

residence for the company's artistic director (Fig. 8). A row of cottage-shops or "terrace-stores," as they were known, were planned for Hollywood Boulevard (Fig. 9). They were

intended to provide ground-level retail shops with pedes- trian and automobile access for artists and artisans, who

were to live in 16 houses planned for the terraces above. Each of these houses was to contain six rooms and a bath. To the east side of the terrace-stores was to be an apartment house, known as the Actors Abode, and a motion picture theater on the northwest corner. On the crown of the hill

was Aline Barnsdall's own residence already in construction

(Fig. io), and to the east and west of that were two smaller

houses, subsequently known as Residence A and B, and two

small cottages, one for the gardener. All of the houses, in-

27. In August i919 a new Los Angeles firm, Walker & Eisen, had drawn up plans for a large one-story patio-style residence in Spanish colonial revival for Aline Barnsdall on Olive Hill. This building was never built, although the plans are known. No ref- erence to this residence could be found in the correspondence. Architect & Engineer, August 1919, 116.

z8. The building permit was not published until 7 May 19zo: "S. G. H. Robinson will superintend the erection of a part one story and part two story residence on Olive Hill at Vermont Ave- nue and Hollywood Boulevard for Aline Barnsdall. The house will contain 17 living and sleeping rooms and have 7 bathrooms. The first story will be frame and stucco. The estimated cost is $50,000. Frank Lloyd Wright is the architect." Southwest Builder and Contractor, 7 May 19zo, 1z.

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23

ALr? q' JF I

JV1

/F.b

Fig. 8. Frank Lloyd Wright, Vermont Avenue elevation (left

to right, Director's Residence, Barnsdall Theater, Entrance

Pavilion), Olive Hill, Hollywood, 1919-I921, presentation drawing

of second plan (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation).

Fig. 9. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollywood Boulevard elevation

(left to right, Actors Abode, Terrace-Stores, motion picture

theater; in background, Residence A, Hollyhock House,

Residence B), i919-i92i, presentation drawing (Frank

Lloyd Wright Foundation).

Fig. io. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, I9I5-192, presentation drawing (Frank

Lloyd Wright Foundation).

cluding Hollyhock House, were to be of hollow tile con- struction with plaster exterior, while the shops were to be of reinforced concrete with cast stone trimming.

Wright's plan for Olive Hill is strongly axial with the

major axis running east-west bisecting the site and connect-

ing the theater and owner's residence. The minor axis along Vermont crosses it at the theater and connects the director's residence with the entrance pavilion and apartment building. In contrast to this ordered geometry was a highly imagina- tive and romantic landscaping plan designed to work with the existing planting. As much as possible of the orchard was included, and the dominant formal landscaping, a stand of pines in front of a taller stand of eucalyptus, was placed directly behind the house in order to establish a backdrop when it was viewed from the west, and to hide it from

public view when seen from Vermont Avenue or the east side. But the use of water in several pools determined the land-

scaping character of Olive Hill. Starting in the front square pool, the water flowed under the house to a pool surround-

ing the living room fireplace, where the flames were to re- flect in the water, and then underground to a stream which flowed through the patio-garden and emptied into a circular

fountain-pool and semicircular band of lily pond. This sys- tem was connected to a swimming pool, which was never

built, and then to a fountain head on the lower level to the

south. From this source, water cascaded down the hillside, channelled underneath the roadway and emerged between the director's residence and the theater. From here it flowed into an artificial lake directly in front of the theater on Ver-

mont, which reflected in it.

Just as plans were moving ahead on the larger scheme for Olive Hill, tension developed on the construction site. In a letter dated zz October 1920 from Aline Barnsdall in Los

Angeles to Wright in Spring Green, she informed him that work on the house had been halted. What the exact nature of the problem was may never be known, even the surviving correspondence is not explicit. The disagreements seemed

to involve the contractor, Robertson; the superintendent, Lloyd Wright; and Aline Barnsdall's business manager, Clar- ence Thomas; as well as Aline Barnsdall and Wright. In

December, however, R. M. Schindler arrived from the mid-

west to take over supervision of the construction from Lloyd Wright. It was also at the end of this month that building permits were taken out for the two smaller residences, A and B.29

29. Building permit for Residence A dated 29 December 190zo, $18,ooo; Residence B, same date, $zi,ooo. Hitchcock, In The Na- ture of Materials, 123. Correct addresses for these buildings are 1645 Vermont Avenue and 16oo Edgemont Street, respectively.

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24

: "T~z~F

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Fig. ii. Olive Hill (Hollyhock House, center; Residence A, upper left; Residence B, lower left), Hollywood, 192z (Bruce Torrence Historical Collection, Pacific Federal of Hollywood).

On Z4 January 1911 in a letter from Aline Barnsdall in

New York to Wright, she states that she is going to Europe until the house is finished. Whether she sailed and did stay

away, it is impossible to say, but in March announcements

appeared in the local papers regarding plans for Olive Hill

which indicated that intentions were shifting. The theater

which was originally to seat Iz50o had been reduced to a

capacity of several hundred. Also plans for Aline Barnsdall's

own repertory company had been abandoned in favor of an

offer to the Hollywood Community Theater to occupy and use the building. In addition the stores for Hollywood Boule- vard once intended for artists and artisans are now described

as "small exclusive shops" with an additional group planned for Vermont Avenue.30

In a letter dated 27 June 1921 from Wright at Taliesin to

Aline Barnsdall, it becomes evident that a disagreement has

arisen between client and architect. In seven, single-spaced pages, Wright outlines his grievances, asking his client, "Why have you prevented me from doing my work?" In a tone

similar to the account in his autobiography, Wright points to members of Aline Barnsdall's staff and coterie as respon- sible for changes in the building. Wright remembered it some

years later,

So, the building about half done-a fortuitous decision. "They" should build the house. Now this is where I should have left Hollyhock House forever....

So, on the eve of sailing for the ninth time on the Pacific as far as Tokio, I consented to hang on by way of my affable super- intendent Schindler and my son Lloyd, plainly seeing nevertheless

*a

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;_~e~~~Jb r

Fig. iz. Aline Barnsdall and daughter, Betty, ca. 19zz (Los An- geles Public Library).

that my client as well as I would finally have to take the conse- quences of her insurance brigade and eventually of the usual conspiracy. .. .31

In his letter, Wright adds that he will be sailing for Japan on 30 July and expects to spend the two-week period prior to that overseeing the completion of Hollyhock House. It can be assumed that by the late summer of 1921, Hollyhock House and Residences A and B were substantially complete (Fig. I1I).32

30. "New Residence Tract Opening," Los Angeles Times, 13 March 19zi. "Improving Olive Hill," Holly Leaves, 19 March

19z2. "More Stores at Vermont," Holly Leaves, 14 May 1917.

31. Wright, An Autobiography, zz9. 32. Schindler, iz June 19z1, writing to his friend Richard Neu-

tra in Europe, states, "Times here are not the best, and in case plans do not go ahead immediately even Wright has nothing to do here. (The first group of buildings will be finished in July.)" E. McCoy, "Letters between R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, 1914-19Z4," JSAH, xxxiii, 1974, zz4. In a letter from Louis Sulli- van, zo September 1921, to Schindler he acknowledges that the Barnsdall buildings have been completed: "I am gratified that the buildings have turned out successfully ... " E. McCoy, ed., "Let- ters from Louis H. Sullivan to R. M. Schindler," JSAH, xx, i96i, 183.

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25

Hollyhock House sits on the crown of the hill facing west with its back to the public areas. Originally conceived as the centerpiece of a self-contained private community, the

building now served as the home where Aline Barnsdall was to raise her young child (Fig. iz). Planned for a household of several servants, including a child's nurse, it contained

17 living and sleeping rooms plus 7 bathrooms. One wing housed public spaces; one, service spaces; and two, bedroom

spaces (the south, guest quarters; the east, nursery and ser-

vants on the ground floor, owner's rooms on the upper floor). With one important difference, it is related to the

earlier Prairie houses in its formal arrangement and types of rooms. The formal dining room, which gave the Prairie house its family orientation, has been eclipsed by rooms for culture-primarily music and literature-befitting Aline Barnsdall's role as the central figure in a private art com-

munity. In plan (Fig. 13), the house is organized around an inte-

rior garden court that is connected to the living room by a

loggia, to the guest wing by a glass-enclosed pergola, to the service wing by a colonnade, and to a roof terrace by a small

stairway just off the colonnade. The house is extended on the east by a series of animal pens, a menagerie for "Sugar Top," that connects the house to the garage and chauffeur's quar- ters. The major axis on line with the theater bisects the house and two minor axes cross at the front and rear. The cross-axial or modified cruciform plan differs from the ear- lier Prairie houses in one major respect. In the Prairie house, the axes crossed at the central and most important feature-

the fireplace mass. By having two minor axes which define the interior garden, the center is shifted from the fireplace to the patio, reflecting Wright's recognition of climatic and

symbolic differences between the southwest and midwest.

Spatially the house occupies one plane except for the en-

trance. This consists of an open trellised walkway leading to an enclosed passage that constricts the space. The door consists of two solid cast concrete panels on hinges, each

pierced by a narrow glass-filled slit. The confinement of the

passage is relieved by emerging into the entry where the

space extends in several directions. The low ceiling of the

entry leads past a wooden screen separating the music room, right and then left, where the space expands into the double

Fig. 13. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, first floor

plan, 19zo (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation).

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2.6

?i '~I;?? ;" ,N: ii"s

a i ~?

i, ~:d "i '\? I

,?_ ?,?GR?,i;? iV1' :?? r i_

~?c ~~: I: 1 i?,;?. ?,?. d;%~F --' ar3ldB;Ylb~- ~*l~?~*(~jl~pBr~-:~lCci~E~~ :~ r ;_;i;

i?:~ :I

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.~Lc~t ?II.~

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Fig. 14. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 1915-1921, con- ceptual sketch of west elevation (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

i, fa:

dl?AL -: 4r7 1

Fig. 15. Frank Lloyd Wright, E. D. Brigham house, Glencoe, Illi- nois, 1915, unsupervised (Thomas A. Heinz).

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Fig. 16. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, i915-192z, con- ceptual sketch of west elevation (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

f-n-- ~~141-i :"~" :a~i~j?

~E:x~i??, a

~i -iiC~iA~?~'

~ibl~ -

Fig. T7. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 1915-192.T, con-

ceptual sketch of west elevation (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

height of the living room. In addition, Wright provided a

loggia that separates the living room from the garden court

by a pair of full-length plate-glass folding doors. When these

doors are completely pulled back, the outside flows inside and the loggia acts as a transitional area partaking of both.

These doors served much the same function as today's slid-

ing glass doors, and may have been the first use of this

approach in modern architecture in California. The modified cross-axial plan belongs to the earlier Oak

Park period, such as the Willitts (1900-T9o0), Martin (1904), Isabel Roberts (19o8), and Baker (o909) houses, with some

correspondence to the more inward-looking U-shaped plans of the next period, such as Midway Gardens (1913-1914), the Imperial Hotel (1915-1917), and the earlier McCormick

residence (19o7).33 In fact, the links to Wright's previous work are many, as

a review of the preliminary sketches for Hollyhock House

reveal. The first drawing (Fig. 14) exhibits the same basic

plan as the one that was built, a cruciform with two lateral

wings receding and meeting a two-story wing perpendicu-

larly. The front elevation is strongly suggestive of an ear-

lier Wright house in Glencoe, Illinois, the E. D. Brigham residence of 1915 (Fig. 15). Both have a central two-story

volume, flanked by one-story wings; in both, the central

two-story volume has solid corner piers, a band of windows

on the first and second floors, and is basically square in plan; both have plain surfaces and red tile roofs. The second re-

lated drawing (Fig. 16), like the first, has the same basic

plan and elevation as the present building. The major dif-

ference is in the roof treatment, which has been altered to

eliminate the second story and replace the hip roof with an

ornamental frieze surmounted by a high-pitched roof set within the walls. The third drawing (Fig. 17), which con-

forms generally to the final design, also has alterations in

roof treatment. The high-pitched roof has been replaced by a canted roof containing an ornamental freize in the center

and smaller details along the remainder.

The evolution revealed in these drawings, from the Brig- ham house to Hollyhock House, is one from the articulation

of a late Prairie house to the more plastic character of poured concrete. The Brigham house, itself of poured concrete, is

related to the Evans house (1908) in Chicago, also of poured concrete. In both, a basic square extends into a cruciform with an open porch to the left and a porte-cochere on the

right. Within the square on the ground floor, unpartitioned space flows around the fireplace mass that acts as a divider

between the living and dining rooms, much as in the 190o6

33. I am indebted to Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. who suggested the

latter parallel to me.

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17

I:I .: .? i r~-ai~ a

~;:??~p?~i~ lasi~;; : i: ?:r: : ;

iib-?:"s: ?-i:-?;? ?:~~:: ?I-?-': ~:~~ i

.?j.a~;;s7i' ,?a;-Z":i_~

""~:~~ .E

9'. d i~l'8

'- '%??: - I~i

:isii;1'9"?'

i ";5?:-~~; ?:,i~I:f ::-::F :::?::i~:i?: ::; :?-'?":-?F:.:? ';id???

;i.~~z:;~-:.?-( ~BW:S?3 ii 5i;- I;

-"~:"~19-~?;c:c

;? i: ;""~ i~ils~ ::

: ;?Fi I??In:?-?~-l?

Fig. A8. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 1915-19zx, pre- sentation drawing of west elevation (City of Los Angeles, Depart- mentof Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

Fireproof House. The monolithic character of the Fireproof House is related to Wright's attempts to translate poured concrete as a material into architectural form. The task which he had set himself, and the one he kept returning to from 1906 until his discovery of the textile block system in the 19zos, was how to provide low-cost residential archi- tecture utilizing the means of the machine age. It is possible to speculate on the basis of the general impression of Holly- hock House (Fig. i8)-strongly one of mass with deep re- veals and flat, unadorned, uninterrupted surfaces-that

Wright intended to use poured concrete for it.34 The monolithic character of the exterior is made more

prominent by contrast with the interior. In the interior, the walls and ceilings are plaster finished with wood moulding used as bands to both simultaneously outline and provide continuity for the space. In the living room (Fig. 19), a

rectangle with the long end directed toward the monumental

fireplace, vertical grain oak moulding divides the ceiling and walls into panels that are painted in different tones to further

articulate the geometry of the space. The living room was

organized around two hexagonal sofas grouped together on

the diagonal facing the fireplace. All other furniture in the

room, desks and standards for indirect lighting, was either

built in to or arranged in relation to the sofas. The room was completed in a manner that had become characteristic

of Wright throughout the end of the Oak Park period. All the finishings-carpets, hangings, upholstery, and artworks -were designed to be integral with and contribute to the whole. The color scheme, unlike the somber earth tones of

the Prairie period, was light, rich, and regal, chosen to sug- gest the desert of the southwest-its mountains, sunsets, and

sands. The panels in the walls and ceiling were different tones of lavender. The window and door draperies were

dark tan velour used with gold and wisteria silks, the up- holstery golden brown velour, the carpet an unusual mauve

ground with green and gold geometric patterns at the edges. Into the walls were placed four Japanese screens of gold leaf

accented with green. Most of the doors and windows were art glass like that used in the playroom for "Sugar Top,"

adjacent to her bedroom, and a skylight over the fireplace in the living room. The fireplace mantel (Fig. zo), long

recognized as one of Wright's finest works of abstract sculp-

ture, is a highly complex mechanistic relief. It contains the

major geometric forms of the building-the square, the cir-

cle, and diamond (found in the art glass), as well as a con- ventionalization of the hollyhock motif. Its precise meaning is uncertain, its power as a work of art is unmistakable.3

The most ingenious feature of Hollyhock House, given its dual function as a residence and centerpiece for a theatri-

cal community, is the interior garden court (Fig. zi). Evi- dence suggests that it was originally designed to serve as an

open-air theater.36 The interior court, including the roof

terraces that acted as balconies on three sides, formed the

auditorium seating area. The elevated stage, approached by three steps serving as an inverted semi-circular apron, is framed by the proscenium-the cantilevered second floor as

it meets the piers of the first floor wings. On either side of the piers visible and concealed exits to and from the house

34. Every writer with the notable exception of Vincent Scully has described Hollyhock House as a poured concrete structure. Like Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower (1920) it suggests poured con- crete in form and materials. The only allusion Wright made to this point was in An Autobiography, z3z, ".... the architect had indulged himself again regardless of the task with the machine to which he had set himself." Various logical reasons can be offered as to why wood frame, hollow tile, and stucco were used, such as Aline Barnsdall's suspicion of costs, or the inexperience of the local building trade with concrete and their dependence on the standard building materials and techniques of the region.

35. Lloyd Wright maintains that it depicts Aline Barnsdall as an Indian princess, seated on her throne like a Queen (on the left), surveying her lands-the desert mesas. This, he says, is in spirit with his father's conception of the house as it reflects the Southwest, ". . . a mesa silhouette, terrace on terrace, character- ized and developed by Pueblo Indians." Many have seen a cor- respondence with Pre-Columbian architecture as well. For discus- sions of this aspect, see D. Tselos, "Exotic Influences in the Archi- tecture of Frank Lloyd Wright," Magazine of Art, XLVI, 1953, 16o-169 and V. Scully, Frank Lloyd Wright, 24-25.

36. The building was occupied by the California Art Club from

x927-194z, when they used the garden court as a patio-theater.

Vreeland, "New Art Centre," 64-65.

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z8

;,i .~i

M:u~? ;:?ia-- 8,~ "

hK

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Fig. I9. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 1919-1921, living room interior (Lloyd Wright Studio Archives).

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Fig. zo. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 19!9- 1921,

living room fireplace mantel (Lloyd Wright Studio Archives).

Fig. z21. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 1919-1921, in- terior garden court, view toward garden.

are provided for the performers. A broad lawn forms the

stage floor, and the landscaping of pines and taller euca-

lyptus makes up the semicircular cyclorama. Separating the

stage from the auditorium was a fountain electrically op- erated to function as a curtain. Or for smaller performances, the arrangement could be reversed with the interior court

serving as the stage and informal seating provided in the exedra (Fig. zz).

Wright's conception of the garden court as a patio-theater was more than an ingenious feature of a special house, it was consistent with his revolutionary interpretation of space as he had developed it in the Barnsdall Theater.37 In that

building, Wright had attempted to break down the barriers between audience and stage by eliminating the conventions of the traditional picture frame proscenium, painted back-

drops, and stage scenery. In its place he united the audi- torium and stage under one ceiling, thereby destroying the two dimensional illusionism of the Victorian theater and

creating a modern three dimensional allusionism. The effect of the patio-theater succeeded on all these levels, and would have provided a parallel with the more formal theater on Vermont.

37. For a discussion of this building, see W. Cole, "The Thea- tre Projects of Frank Lloyd Wright," Educational Theatre jour- nal, XII, 1 96o, 86-93.

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29

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?:?

d rii?

:-%--~s~ "~-a r w

3? i " S ?:-'t` v

?i~r * r;

Fig. zz. Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, 19i9-19gz, in- terior garden court, view from exedra toward house.

Very little is known about the time Aline Barnsdall lived in the house. She established an experimental school on the property run by Mrs. Leah Lovell, sister-in-law of the Samuel Freemans, so that her daughter and several other children could attend.38 Wright returned from Japan per- manently at the end of 922zz, and by the beginning of the following year had opened a studio in West Hollywood with hopes of creating a practice designing for the foothills.39

He had received just such a commission from Aline Barns- dall. In the spring of 19z3, Wright was at work designing another residence for her, this time on a 24-acre site in

Beverly Hills adjoining "Picfair," the estate of movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.40 The Beverly Hills

i; ??: cl F " '-?r ~I ? !- ? ~1*i 't i " : .. r: - ???~ , ??:??? : ~ v

i? 2-1--1.-; .? ,?'. ~? - -*Tal;l-;-~YRYr~l t~ t IIMWtbr~lfLr--r :LShr~-p

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.... ?rH* un?.~pk ~. 1~1L1?~? ii. saxhr, rrm xrrr?i? c i-r-LO- ??r. i.?i I:?: ???-JI-,- I' ?; iS '~1 r;- 1 i~x~

Fig. 23. Frank Lloyd Wright, Barnsdall Residence, Beverly Hills, 1923, front elevation (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recrea- tion and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

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Fig. 24. Frank Lloyd Wright, Barnsdall Residence, Beverly Hills, 1923, main floor plan (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recrea- tion and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

house, a short-lived project, was a U-shaped plan, a series of pavilions organized around an interior courtyard (Figs. 23 and 24). In this house, Wright intended to use the textile block method of concrete construction, which he had per- fected for use in the Millard and Storer houses of the same year.

By mid-19z3, Aline Barnsdall was beginning to make plans to divest herself of parts or all of Olive Hill for reasons she attributed to tax considerations and her inability to settle

down.41 Her intentions vacillated between wanting to sell the property for commercial development and wanting to give a portion and sell the remainder to the city as a park. Her strongest inclination was to give the property as a city park, which was consistent with her original desires for an art center and community open to the public. She intended Olive Hill primarily for the children of Los Angeles so that they might enjoy the benefits of art and theater in a land- scaped setting. To this end, she asked Wright to design a

38. Mrs. Leah Press Lovell was the sister of Mrs. Harriet Press Freeman. Through Aline Barnsdall the two families met Frank Lloyd Wright, R. M. Schindler, Lloyd Wright, and eventually Richard Neutra. The Freeman house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and construction in the Hollywood Hills supervised by Lloyd Wright in 1924. Two of the most acclaimed modern houses were built for the Lovells: the Newport Beach house by Schindler in 1925-1926 and the Health house by Neutra in i929.

39. Holly Leaves, xii, 19z3, 34. His studio, a two-story shingle house at z1284 Harper Avenue, was located only six blocks from R. M. Schindler's concrete and redwood studio residence, de- signed and built 19r-192zz.

40. Holly Leaves, xIi, r923, z8. 41. Holly Leaves, xii, 1923, 50.

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30

wtt

-; -

41, Fig. 25. Frank Lloyd Wright, Barnsdall Playhouse, "The Little Dipper," Olive Hill, Hollywood,

19z3, floor plan (City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks and the Municipal Art Department).

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* ~:r - ::ais,,??j4~ ii ? r i r ?:?r j f-a ? o r !Ir:i::rfi:iifl?I I ,i ;i i, i .. 1. ?r

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r S;~i?:; i: :1

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Fig. z6. Frank Lloyd Wright, Barnsdall Playhouse, "The Little Dipper," Olive Hill, Hollywood, 1923, south elevation (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation).

children's playhouse, which had much the same program as the exquisite Coonley Playhouse (1912), and if completed would have proved as important.

The Community Playhouse (Figs. z5 and 26) was an

irregular square to be constructed in concrete block sur-

mounted by an elongated hexagonal lantern,42 and to be

located on a sloping hillside between Hollyhock House and Residence B. The school room consisted of an elongated hexagon that became an irregular square with the addition of two triangles at each of the long ends. A major axis bisected the triangles with the minor axis bisecting the

hexagon. The schoolroom was extended horizontally to the east by a partial hexagon, which housed services, and an entry extended on line to the street. The configuration of an irregular square with a long tail gave the building its

name, "The Little Dipper."

42. Drawings of the Community Playhouse, also known as "The Little Dipper," can be found in Drexler, Drawings, pl. 84; Living Architecture, pl. xo9; Desseins, pl. 6r.

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31

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Fig. 27. Frank Lloyd Wright, Residence B, "Oleanders," Olive Hill, Hollywood, 19zo20, west elevation (Lloyd Wright Studio Archives).

The playroom was closed on three sides with the east and west ends terminating in narrow vertical bands of

perforated concrete blocks and the north end in a fireplace with a triangular fireplace hood. The south end (Fig. z6)

opened through a wall of glass to a seating area and circular

playground complete with hexagonal pool penetrating a

square sand table. The intersection of the triangular prow of the playroom into the circular outdoor area recalls the

plan of the "Romeo and Juliet" windmill of 1897. Wright

specified no less than five different block patterns including plain for this building. The dominating geometry of the

plan-triangle, hexagon, and circle-establish it as one of the first of the crystalline plans of the next decade, the Nakoma

Country Club, San Marcos-in-the-Desert, Cudney House, and the Strong Planetarium. The Little Dipper, its double

height schoolroom receiving light that filtered through the

patterns of perforated block from the lantern floating above, contained a warm hearth on one side, and opposite this,

through the glass prow, it opened to sky and clouds above the outdoor play area. The term "playhouse" described it

perfectly, for as with the earlier building for the Coonleys, the Little Dipper was designed as both a playroom and an

informal theater. The circular steps served as seating, the per- formance, also out-of-doors, took place at the prow. As with

Hollyhock House, the Little Dipper carried out the theatri- cal theme which inspired the original Olive Hill plan.

Plans for the Little Dipper were being prepared in Wright's studio on Harper Avenue while he lived at Residence B, known as "Oleanders" (Fig. z7), on Olive Hill. Here he received the famous telegram notifying him of the survival of the Imperial Hotel in the Tokyo earthquake. Living in

T'Tr.

47' ab,

'Pt B

Lj?iiFk

Fig. z8. R. M. Schindler, fountain, pergola and wading pool, Olive Hill, Hollywood, 19z4, plan and section (Richard Neutra Collection, University of California, Los Angeles).

the other guest house at this time were Louise and Walter Conrad Arensberg, collectors of early zoth-century avant-

garde art.43 Walter Arensberg, who had been dubbed "le vrai dada de New York" before leaving the East, was both friend and collector of Marcel Duchamp. He had brought with him not only his Duchamps, but also his collection of Cubist and Fauve paintings and sculpture-Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, Gris, and Matisse.""

In December 19z3, Aline Barnsdall made public her offer to donate in memory of her father ten acres of Olive Hill

along with her own residence as a public park, library, and art center. Presumably work on the Little Dipper progressed in anticipation of the gift becoming official the following year. In the ensuing months, Aline Barnsdall and the city negotiated over the gift. In April it was announced that the

City would not accept the terms of the gift and had rejected Olive Hill as a park. At this time, no doubt, Aline Barnsdall called a halt to construction of the Little Dipper which was

only at the preliminary stage. This was the death blow to the Little Dipper and Aline Barnsdall's plans with Frank

Lloyd Wright. Although she continued to make minor alter- ations to her property until December 1926 when she was successful in deeding Hollyhock House and the crown of

43. I am indebted to Francis Nauman, Arensberg biographer, who provided me with this information.

44. It was at this time that the Fine Art Society was formed on Olive Hill. One of its goals was to produce "artistic literature" to distribute throughout the world. Its only known publication was authored by Frank Lloyd Wright, Experimenting With Human Lives, a pamphlet condemning skyscraper construction in the earthquake-prone Pacific basin which links Tokyo and Los Angeles. This essay seems to be the beginning of Wright's philosophy on low density development which culminate in his writing on Broadacre City.

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32

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Fig. 29. Richard Neutra, wading pool, Olive Hill, Hollywood, 1925, perspective (Richard Neutra Collection, University of Cali- fornia, Los Angeles).

the hill to Los Angeles, Wright no longer served as her

architect.

She now turned to Schindler to transform the site of the

Little Dipper into a park (Fig. z8). Schindler made the

circular playground into a terrace with seating; the sand table and pool into a fountain; and the remainder of the

site into a garden. Where Wright had planned a terrace and

pergola to the north of the building, Schindler placed a

pergola and children's wading pool. This project extended

into the next year when Richard Neutra joined Schindler

on Kings Road.45 Neutra, who had experience as a landscape

architect, prepared sketches for the structure (Fig. 29),

utilizing concrete blocks from the Little Dipper site; the

project was completed in August 1925 (Fig. 30).

By 1925, Wright had returned to the midwest abandoning the idea of establishing a practice in Los Angeles;46 he was

-~::~:::

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~a~. la~ek ~~? ??:3

?;$- ~ 1Zi; rr, ?1 L

P1,

Fig. 30. R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, wading pool and pergola, Olive Hill, Hollywood, 19z5 (Richard Neutra Collection, University of California, Los Angeles).

not the same Frank Lloyd Wright who had left a decade

before, but a renewed architect who had bridged a difficult

transition, one many of his contemporaries were unable to

make. For Wright, it had been preceded by the crisis of

1909-1914. Wright's abandonment of family and suburb

prior to World War I was a personal decision. But as with

much in his life, personal decisions were often reflections of

major social changes in society. Family as a 19th-century

institution was no longer a positive force for him, and the

suburb was being transformed by its popularity, bringing with it most of the disadvantages of urban life-congestion, noise, loss of privacy and individual freedom. His recogni- tion of the challenges to the American family and suburb

extended to his clientele; he retreated to Taliesin at the

height of his career as a Prairie architect, leaving it to others to play out the final years until the outbreak of war ended the era. With the family as a unit and institution no longer viable for him, Wright turned to a more ethereal realm for

a sense of belonging and as an outlet for his architecture.

Wright turned to Art. From his decision to abandon his Oak Park practice in order to seek national and interna- tional recognition through the Wasmuth portfolio, to his collaboration with Aline Barnsdall on the creation of an art community, Wright's perception of himself was that of an artist.

This was now the role he assumed in relation to society and it was reflected to a greater extent than ever before in his work: the Coonley Playhouse windows, murals and

sculpture at the Midway Gardens, the Imperial Hotel sculp- ture and china, the mantelpiece for Hollyhock House. As a

client, Aline Barnsdall was the ideal accompaniment to

Wright's need to act out his role as an artist. As much as

45. Richard Neutra came to the United States in 1924 with the assistance of his former Viennese school friend, Schindler. Neutra met Frank Lloyd Wright at Louis Sullivan's funeral in April and was invited to Taliesin at Schindler's urging. After a brief time in Wright's Studio, he left for Los Angeles. E. McCoy, "Letters, 1914-194," ] JSAH, 219-224. He joined Schindler at his Kings Road duplex where the close living situation led to an informal arrangement whereby Schindler and Neutra worked together on several of Schindler's commissions.

46. Wright was not the first architect to come from the mid- west hoping to get a new start in Southern California. He was preceded by Irving Gill, Myron Hunt, Elmer Grey, and his own sons, Lloyd and John. He was followed by Schindler and Neutra. Wright had originally come to live in the southwest as a result of the Barnsdall commission and he returned again and again in the following years until finally establishing his western head- quarters in Arizona in the 30s.

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33

she dedicated herself to anything at this period in her life, she dedicated herself to Art as a philosophical and spiritual foundation for life. And it was upon these concepts that she

sought to found an entire community, one which she turned over to Wright to design. Alienated from his own family to a large extent and from the greater society around him,

Wright sustained himself from 1914-1914 in a world that he understood and that understood him-the world of Art.

More than any other one place during these years, Olive Hill stood for that world.47 And more than any one client

during this decade, Aline Barnsdall provided him with a

variety of opportunities-no less than 45 buildings-to ex-

press himself as an artist. The Wright who returned to Taliesin in x9z25 may have been uncertain about his role as an architect in America, but he was secure in the knowledge that he was an artist.

47. The concept of Olive Hill was one that no doubt appealed to Wright. He, too, had been searching for an alternative com- munity as he had attempted to informally create his own extended family in his Oak Park Studio and at Taliesin. So it is not unusual

that although Aline Barnsdall was personally unable to develop the program of Olive Hill, Wright would carry it out when he founded the Taliesin Fellowship in I93z. The conception of a self-contained community united by a common interest and goal was no doubt Wright's as much as it was Aline Barnsdall's, but it is interesting to observe that regular features of Fellowship life included participation in and production of theatrical and musical performances, as well as presentation of motion pictures, in a theater designed to be an integral part of the community.

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