Summary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Houses in Los Angeles
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Los Angeles houses are must-see gems in the famous metropolis of Los Angeles. You can tour only one of them. The rest are private homes not open to the public, but that won’t stop you from driving by and admiring the architecture from the street. You can see all of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Los Angeles houses in a well-planned day.
Some of the homes are perched atop the Hollywood Hills, showcasing magnificent views of the city below. Others are located in an elegant area of Pasadena that any architecture lover will enjoy visiting.
Hollyhock House
Address: 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027-5302, USA
Phone: +1 323-913-4030
If you only have a couple of hours to spare and you want to see a Frank Lloyd Wright home, opt for the Hollyhock House, where you can take a guided tour. Built between 1919 and 1921, it represents Wright’s efforts to develop a style of architecture for Southern California.
Named after original owner Aline Barnsdall’s favorite flower, Hollyhock House was part of a living and arts complex set on 36 acres. It was Wright’s first commission in Los Angeles and one of his first open floor plans.
Today, the house is recognized by the American Institute of Architects as one of the seventeen Wright buildings that are representative of his contribution to American culture. The main house is open for tours, and three other buildings still stand on the site: the main house, the garage and chauffeur’s quarters, and the so-called Residence A, which was built for artists’ living quarters.
Anderton Court Shops
Address: 332 N Rodeo Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
The Rodeo Drive shops called Anderton Court is a lesser-known Wright design and is not widely recognized as one of his better works. Multiple modifications obscure the original facade, yet you can still see hints of the tower designs he repeated in other structures.
Decorative elements include piers that taper downward and chevron patterns on the central spire and edges of the roofline. Today it is home to a few small offices and a salon.
Ennis House
Ennis House is located at 2607 Glendower Ave, Los Angeles. This large and lovely home is on the National Register of Historic Places. Furthermore, it is also a Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Monument and a California State Landmark. After some devastating damage and a long search for the right buyer, the house was sold and was under renovation.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, which served as a location for films such as “Blade Runner,” has recently been sold to billionaire Ron Burkle, founder of the Burkle Foundation and a trustee of the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy.
After the project is complete, Ennis House is expected to be open to the public a few days per year.
Samuel Freeman House
The Freeman House, located at 1962 Glencoe Way in Los Angeles, is one of three textile block houses Wright designed in the Hollywood Hills during the 1920s.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and has been recognized as a California Historical Landmark and as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
The textile block design homes exemplify Wright’s pre-Columbian-inspired or early Modernist architecture. In 1986, the Freeman House was bequeathed to the USC School of Architecture. Following renovations, the university plans to use it as a residence for distinguished visitors, as well as a venue for seminars and meetings. It is not open to the public.
John Storer House
The Storer House located at 8161 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles is known for its dramatic design. Although Wright believed in designing structures that blended seamlessly into their natural surroundings, this 3,000-square-foot house does anything but.
One of the four textile block Wright houses in this pre-Columbian-inspired style in the Los Angeles area, the Storer House stands out due to its four-block designs.
The Storer House was built on a steep hillside in the Hollywood Hills. Dramatic for the era, the house was compared to a Pompeiian villa. It was surrounded by lush jungle-like landscaping, creating the illusion of a hidden Mayan ruin. The Storer house functions as a private residence and is not open to the public.
Arch Oboler Gatehouse and Eleanor’s Retreat
Address: 32436 Mulholland Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265-2428, USA
Located at 32436 West Mulholland Highway in Malibu, this complex suffered severe damage during the Woolsey Fire in late 2018, leaving its fate uncertain.
It began as the grand “Eagle Feather” project intended to include a studio, house, stables, and more designed for radio personality and early television director/professor Arch Oboler and his wife Eleanor.
However, only a gatehouse and a small studio were actually constructed. The Arch Oboler Gatehouse and Eleanor’s Retreat buildings exemplify desert rubblestone construction, akin to the style Wright employed at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. The builders sourced materials from the surrounding area to create a sense of integration with the desert, hence the term “rubblestone.”
Sturges House
Address: 499 N Skyewiay Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90049-2844, USA
The Sturges House, located at 449 N. Skyewiay Road in Brentwood Heights, is acclaimed as a masterpiece of American design, often compared to Wright’s legendary Fallingwater in southwest Pennsylvania.
This was Wright’s first Usonian-style structure on the West Coast, with a design that seems to grow out of the hillside. Usonian was a term Wright coined for modest, middle-American homes.
The one-story home is relatively small at 1,200 square feet, but the outdoor space greatly compensates for it. The concrete, steel, brick, and redwood home features a 21-foot panoramic deck.
The home is not open to the public.
Millard House
The Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, is located at 645 Prospect Crescent in Pasadena. It sits on an acre of gardens and offers beautiful views. This house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is the first of the textile block houses designed by Wright, who was experimenting with concrete building materials and using Mayan and Aztec symbols and designs for decoration at the time.
Wright was commissioned to build the Millard House by Alice Millard, a rare-book dealer, after having built a home for her in Illinois twenty years prior.
The home was built in 1923 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is not open to the public.