Frank Lloyd Wright in Hollywood

This is a small aspect of an architect’s life lived large — below is the exterior of another of the textile block houses that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in the Los Angeles area — there are four; the Millard House – otherwise known as La Miniatura, the Ennis House, the Storer House — and the Samuel Freeman House in West Hollywood (1924):

He also designed a house for Aline Barnsdall, an oil heiress… Wait, before I go any further I have to interject. Wright took a lot of architectural commissions from very wealthy people. His buildings were expensive in all aspects, from construction to routine maintenance. Buildings that were bid at a certain price at the outset were often ten times that amount on completion. Ms. Barnsdall, reeling at the cost of her hilltop house a scant six years after it was built deeded it to the city. Here’s Hollyhock House:

Mr. Wright liked to deliver a completely controlled package to his clients, designing the furniture, and sometimes angling the walls so you couldn’t mar his spaces by hanging pictures. Interior Hollyhock house:

Mr. Wright’s son designed several intriguing houses in Los Angeles which we’ll save for another post. In closing, a picture of Mr. Wright with his grand-daughter, Anne Baxter: