Located in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles stands a collection of oddly magnificent towers, single-handedly created by Simon Rodia. Three imposing towers, the tallest of which rises nearly 100 feet into the air, are surrounded by a cluster of smaller towers, birdbaths, fountains, and patios.
Simon Rodia was born in Italy in 1879, moved to the States when he was 14, and traveled the West Coast while holding various odd jobs. In 1921, Rodia purchased a small lot in Watts (which was then its own city, later annexed by the City of Los Angeles in 1926), and began his 34 year project.
The magnificent Watts Towers are comprised of steel reinforced with cement and chicken wire, and laden with Rodia’s hand-selected medley of shells, glass, tiles, marbles, and other random, found objects. Rodia passionately devoted his time to the Watts Towers, spending his nights and weekends constructing and decorating these most unique icons. The mosaic encrusted towers have been compared to the work of Antoni Gaudi created decades before Rodia’s Watts Towers, but appears to be just coincidence as Rodia had never seen Gaudi’s work prior to his own creation.
In 1955, Simon Rodia deeded his land to a neighbor and spent his remaining days in Martinez, California where he died in 1965. Rodia rarely spoke publicly about the Watts Towers, and much is left to conjecture as to why he abandoned the project, or even his desire to build the towers in the first place. Two young men purchased Rodia’s property in 1959, and in hopes of saving the Watts Towers, and formed the Committee for Simon Rodia’s Towers in Watts. The committee oversaw a stress test performed in 1959, after the City of Los Angeles deemed the towers hazardous. The towers were stronger than the equipment used to test them, and the city allowed them to remain.
The committee dedicated an enormous amount of time, energy, and money into restoring the towers, but when money ran out, it deeded the Watts Towers to the City of Los Angeles in 1975, who in turn deeded the property to the State of California in 1978. Today, the Watts Towers are both a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM #15) and a National Historic Landmark.
Pudleaux Tourism offers a variety of architectural and sightseeing tours of Los Angeles. Each LA tour offers a unique way to experience this vast metropolis and learn about Los Angeles’ fascinating architectural history. These guided tours visit a medley of areas in and around Los Angeles, including: Downtown LA, Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Santa Monica, and Venice, to see and discuss the work of architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, John Lautner, Charles Eames, and Frank Gehry among others.
The Samuel and Harriet Freeman House was built in Hollywood between 1923 and 1924. All four of Frank Lloyd Wright’s concrete textile block houses were built between 1923 and 1924, including the John Storer House and Charles Ennis House. The Freeman House employs Wright’s concrete textile block construction method with its own unique geometric patterns for style. The concrete relief patterns recall floral forms -perhaps a reference to the abundance of flowers in the Hollywood Hills, the setting for the Freeman House.
The Freeman’s were the only permanent inhabitants of this piece of architecture. They adored their house and had many artistic and avant-garde visitors throughout the more than 60 years they lived in their Frank Lloyd Wright house. Though it is the smallest of the concrete textile block houses at about 1,200 square feet, it has an open and airy feel to it, exacerbated by the corner windows. R.M. Schindler designed and built many of the furniture pieces for the Freeman House interior. Wright’s eldest son, Lloyd Wright supervised the construction of the house and oversaw the landscaping. Harriet Freeman recognized the architectural significance of her house and arranged for it to be gifted to the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, and it came into their possession in 1986.
Nestled, almost hidden on Rodeo Drive between Dayton Way and Brighton Way in the heart of Beverly Hills, is Frank Lloyd Wright’s last built project in the Los Angeles area. The Anderton Court Shops is a small shopping center with four levels of various boutiques, whose advertisements somewhat detract from the smooth surfaces of painted concrete. To visit the upper floors, one travels on an exposed, angular ramp that climbs up the building. Wright would later dramatize the ramp concept in the interiors of the VC Morris Gift Shop in San Francisco and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Near the top of the ramp, visitors meet an open courtyard. Large, circular windows contrast with the sharply angled lines of the rest of the building. The concrete floor has a diamond pattern that Wright used frequently in his Usonian Houses.
From here, the geometric mast can be seen up close. Wright used masts like this in a number of his later projects. The mast has a science fiction essence to it, and parallels the Googie architecture seen in Los Angeles from the late 1940’s through the mid 1960’s.
Wright demonstrated a mastery of concrete over his 70-plus year career. His first major expression of concrete was in the Unity Temple of Oak Park (1905), where Wright lived and worked for the first twenty years of his career. His last major expression of concrete was in the Guggenheim Museum, completed in 1959, a few months after the architect’s death.
Hey there, welcome to the Regency Shop Furniture Showroom! I’m your guide for today’s tour, and I can’t wait to show you around our fabulous space.
As we step inside, take a moment to soak in the atmosphere. Our showroom is like a treasure trove of luxury furnishings, each piece carefully curated to create an unforgettable experience.
First, let’s glide over to the Cloud Couch. Picture yourself sinking into its sumptuous cushions, surrounded by an aura of relaxation. It’s like being enveloped in a cozy cocoon, where every stress and worry simply melts away. Trust me, once you’ve experienced the Cloud Couch, you’ll never want to leave!
Next, let’s make our way to the Chesterfield Sofa. Ah, the epitome of timeless elegance! With its tufted upholstery and classic silhouette, this sofa exudes sophistication from every angle. Imagine lounging here with a good book or entertaining guests in style. It’s the perfect blend of old-world charm and modern comfort.
As we continue our tour, you’ll discover even more treasures awaiting you. From sleek modern designs to classic pieces that stand the test of time, our showroom has something for every taste and style.
So, what do you say? Are you ready to immerse yourself in the world of luxury furnishings? Let’s explore together and find the perfect pieces to elevate your home to new heights of elegance and comfort!
Guests have the opportunity to get an up close and personal look at the Anderton Court Shops on the LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour.
The LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour is offered as a private tour.
The LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour is a 3-hour tour of Los Angeles that offers a comprehensive overview of Frank Lloyd Wright’s California architecture. This modern architecture tour examines the exterior of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Hollywood and three of the architect’s concrete textile block houses of the 1920’s in the Hollywood Hills. The tour also views a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. while touring the Hollywood Hills. On the tour we drive from location to location and exit the vehicle at each stop to view/discuss each property, as well as take advantage of great photo ops. The tour focuses on these specific buildings while placing them in the larger context of Wright’s architectural portfolio and biography. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a more detailed tour itinerary and photos of the buildings seen on the LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour.
The unique design of Frank Lloyd Wright’s California architecture is specific to the region, and demonstrative of Wright’s genius in the period of time following his mastery of the Prairie School and nearly half a decade spent in Japan for the Imperial Hotel commission. Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture in Los Angeles introduced concrete as a beautiful and expressive material, and characterizes a fascinating period in the architect’s career. This Los Angeles architecture tour examines Wright’s philosophy and explores how his work fits into the architectural history of LA.
The tour begins and ends at Barnsdall Park in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Guests of the LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour enjoy a personalized tour experience with a private tour guide. The cost of the tour includes private transportation in a town car or SUV, depending on the size of your group, but guests are responsible for making their way to Barnsdall Park (hotel pickups can be arranged for an additional fee). Please note that the houses seen on this tour are privately owned and viewed and discussed from the exterior, however, you are able to view the interior of the Hollyhock House (located at Barnsdall Park) on a self-guided tour (generally open Thursday-Sunday 11:00am-3:30pm). Many guests choose to stay behind and do the interior of the Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Park when the LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour concludes.
Most of the cost of the tour goes toward the overhead cost of private transportation for the tour. If you have your own vehicle (personal car, rental car, etc), you have the option of hiring a “step on” guide in which case the tour guide joins you in your vehicle and directs the driver while conducting the tour. It’s the same tour, but a less expensive and more personalized option. See rates below.
Cost, if you have your own vehicle and want to hire a “Step On” Guide:
“Step On” Guide for up to 2 people: $125 total
“Step On” Guide for up to 4 people: $175 total
“Step On” Guide for up to 6 People: $225 total
“Step On” Guide for more than 6 People: $30 per person
Special rates are available for student groups and field trips.
LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour Itinerary
The LA Frank Lloyd Wright Tour begins with a meet and greet with your guide, George, and and in-depth exploration of Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood -the site of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House. Barnsdall was a patroness of the arts and envisioned an entire arts complex for the property. In part because of the tumultuous relationship between Wright and Barnsdall, the theater itself was never realized, but Wright did design several structures on the property, including artist residences and what is arguably his most famous building in California -the Hollyhock House. The landscape architecture is credited to Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr.), who oversaw the construction of the complex while Frank Lloyd Wright was overseas monitoring the progress of the Imperial Hotel in construction at the same time.
After a tour through Barnsdall Park to view and discuss the Hollyhock House and other Wright-designed elements, this Frank Lloyd Wright tour then heads into the hills of Los Feliz for an exterior tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House. Perched high above Hollywood, the Ennis House, dubbed the “little palace” by Wright, was the last, the largest, and the most complex of Wright’s concrete block houses.This architecture tour discusses the history of the Ennis House, as well as the extensive restoration that is currently taking place at the site. You may recognize Wright’s Ennis House from the film Bladerunner.
Before we leave the Los Feliz neighborhood, the tour stops in Griffith Park to view a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s architect son, Lloyd Wright. The Taggart House is a stunning example of modern architecture from the 1920’s. Lloyd Wright’s architecture was very much a product of his father’s training, but maintains a distinction from the master. Lloyd Wright was also well known as a landscape architect, as seen in his stunning vegetation features.
We then enjoy the view of LA from above as this Frank Lloyd Wright tour of Los Angeles heads west along the Hollywood Hills to see and discuss two more of the concrete-textile block houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, with an exterior tour of the Samuel Freeman House, owned by the University of Southern California, and an exterior tour of the John Storer House, a private residence in the Hollywood Hills. These concrete block houses represent Wright’s attempt to develop an organic architecture for California, much as he did for the Midwest with his Prairie Houses. The tour covers three of the four concrete block houses designed by Wright with an explanation of the underlying architectural philosophy.
The tour comes full-circle and ends at Barnsdall Park, where guests then have the option to do a self-guided interior tour of the recently restored Hollyhock House if they wish to do so. If you plan to stay and do the interior tour, keep in mind that the Hollyhock House is generally open Thursday-Sunday, from 11:00am-3:30pm, and closed on most holidays.There are many dining options in the nearby the park if you are thinking of getting lunch or dinner after the tour -feel free to ask George for recommendations. Tour guests are responsible for making their own transportation to and from Barnsdall Park, but it’s an easy area to catch an Uber/Lyft or Taxi. Hotel pickups and drop-offs can be arranged for an additional fee, please inquire within.
Since 2010, I’ve been on a quest to visit, study, and photograph as many buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as possible, and I eventually I hope to see all of the architect’s completed projects across the United States (and the few projects he did outside of the US). So far, I’ve seen over 150 buildings in a dozen states. As a tour guide and fan of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, it has been a tremendous learning experience and a lot of fun. I’m in the process of organizing my photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and posting them on this blog with information about Frank Lloyd Wright and occasional, personal anecdotes.
I hope you enjoy the photographs that I’ve taken from my Wright journeys and that the information provided may be of some value to you. Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are the intellectual property of George Pudlo. Please feel free to use my photographs for online articles about Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, just be sure to include a link back to this website. Please send me a message if you are interested in using any of the images for commercial reproduction.
The Aline Barnsdall House, commonly referred to as the Hollyhock House (by Wright himself), is perhaps the most widely known Frank Lloyd Wright structure on the West Coast. It is an icon of California Architecture, and an icon of Wright’s architecture. The Hollyhock House was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first major realization of an organic architecture in California. Though this was his second executed California project, the previous George Stewart House of 1909 in Montecito, Santa Barbara was essentially a Prairie House transplanted from the Midwest with a bit of Californication. The eccentricity of the Hollyhock House reflects not only the architect, but the client -oil heiress and patroness of the arts, Miss Aline Barnsdall.
Frank Lloyd Wright remembered meeting Miss Barnsdall in his apartment on Cedar Street in Chicago, though Miss Barnsdall recalled meeting Wright a few blocks north in the garage of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer’s garage. The Palmers were of Chicago’s wealthiest elite, and Mrs. Palmer was the the Queen Bee of Chicago socialites. Her priceless collection of Impressionist paintings make up a large part of the Art Institute’s renowned Impressionist collection.
Regardless of the location of their meeting, the year was as early as late 1914, and plans for a theatre designed for Miss Barnsdall came as early as 1916. Wright and Barnsdall had similar aspirations concerning the West Coast. While Wright thought the theatre for Miss Barnsdall would be built in Chicago, Miss Barnsdall decided on Los Angeles, where she sought to fulfill her desire of forming a new theatre company. This was a blessing for Wright, along with the commission for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, as Wright was able to distance himself from the Midwest following the Taliesin Tragedy, and develop an organic architecture for California, then still sparsely inhabited.
Aline Barnsdall purchased Olive Hill in 1919, where the theater and also a house for herself were to be built. However, because of Wright’s Imperial Hotel commission, he was often out of the country, spending less than a year in the States between 1918 and 1922. This, coupled with Miss Barnsdall’s insatiable need to travel, made the Hollyhock House a slow moving project, to the client’s dismay.
Wright was slow with his drawings, but the final product was a novel design, not only for Los Angeles, but also for Wright. Hollyhock House, named for the requested floral motif by Miss Barnsdall seen throughout the structure, is a house of monumental proportions. The house is often mistaken as built in concrete, but it is actually mostly hollow terra cotta tiles faced with a smooth stucco exterior fashioned to look like concrete, with actual concrete detailing. This was one of Wright’s last uses of art glass, even here the art glass is minimal, replaced with a focus on the “art stone”, a combination of cement and gravel. The art stone was stylized using molds to create a geometric abstraction of the hollyhock flower and used for window sills, planters, capitals, and was both ornamental and somewhat structural.
Unusual for Wright was that the house was built on the top of Olive Hill. Wright once said “You should never build on top of anything directly -if you build on top of the hill, you lose the hill. If you build one on the side of the top then you have the hill and the eminence you desire.” The heavy, almost stoic appearance of the house undoubtedly reflects Wright’s heavy heart after the Taliesin Tragedy.
The layout of the house is open and flowing, as with most of Wright’s work. However, it encompasses a greater use of outdoor space, not seen as frequently in his earlier Midwestern work, which more so demonstrated shelter from the harsh elements. The Hollyhock House contains a number of indoor/outdoor spaces, and an extensive series of terraces covers the roof. Rather than having a low hipped roof, the roof is flat and indented, while the top of the exterior walls act as uninterrupted parapets. The interior was fully designed by Wright as well, with excruciating attention paid to details and furniture.
Because of Wright’s frequent absence from Los Angeles, much of the supervision and working drawings were left to Rudolph Schindler and Wright’s son Lloyd Wright. Schindler handled the Hollyhock House itself, along with Residences A and B, which were designed as guest houses. Lloyd Wright handled the landscape design. It is an understatement to think of the Barnsdall project as simply a house -the entire project also included the aforementioned Residences A and B, a theater, animal houses, and a kindergarten. Only the Hollyhock House, Residences A and B, the animal houses and a pergola were fully realized.
The Hollyhock House was finished enough for habitation by 1921. However, for all the drama that went into the execution of Wright and Barnsdall’s vision, Miss Barnsdall only lived in the house with her daughter Sugartop for a few years. During this time, Wright actually used Residence B as a studio for his Los Angeles work through early 1924. In 1927, Aline Barnsdall gave the Hollyhock House and all of Olive Hill to the City of Los Angeles on the condition that it remain open as a public art park.
In the years since it has been in the hands of the City of Los Angeles, Olive Hill has since been renamed Barnsdall Art Park, and a number of other structures were built in the second half of the 20th Century that today house the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, and the Junior Arts Center.
Farmer’s Markets are frequently held in Barnsdall Art Park, and there are outdoor movie showings throughout the year.
The Hollyhock House is open for interior tours as of February 13th, 2015.
The Mini Frank Lloyd Wright Tour is a 60-minute walking tour of Los Angeles that examines two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most iconic designs: the Hollyhock House and the Ennis House. The tour begins at Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood for a tour of the multi-building complex that Wright designed. The signature structure at Barnsdall Park is the Hollyhock House, which was the first project that Wright built in LA. The Hollyhock House was built on Olive Hill for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall in the early 1920’s and was part of a larger vision that included an avant-garde theater and artist colony. The complex was only partially realized, and Barnsdall only lived in the Hollyhock House for a few years before deeding the property to the City of Los Angeles on the condition that the property remain open to the public as an art park.
After extensively exploring the grounds around Hollyhock House, you’ll follow the tour guide in your own vehicle for the 5-minute drive up to the Ennis House. There, you’ll get out to view and discuss this most monumental of houses as you walk around the exterior and learn about the current restoration of the Ennis House. Set above Hollywood and Los Feliz, the Ennis House is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous houses not only in LA, but in the world as it has been used as a filming location for several feature films, including Blade Runner. The Ennis House is one of only a handful of buildings that Wright designed in California known as the “concrete textile-block houses”. Wright designed a stylized pattern specifically for the Ennis House that is repeated throughout many of the building’s 27,000 blocks. Because of its unique position in the hills, the Ennis House is viewed from several different angles while on the tour, and is discussed in detail from an architectural and historical perspective.
This architectural walking tour is a fun way to view and learn about Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture in Los Angeles while also getting a cultural glimpse of an under-explored part of the city. The Mini Frank Lloyd Wright Tour begins at Barnsdall Art Park, and is available as a private tour or group tour.
Although the walking portion of the tour is not rigorous, do be aware that part of the route is uphill and includes a staircase. Also note that you will need your own vehicle for the 5-minute drive up to the Ennis House. Please note that this tour does not include an interior tour of the Hollyhock House.
The Capitol Records Building in Hollywood is an icon of an era, and built when music recording studios and television studios were replacing the movie studios of Hollywood. At 13 stories, the Capitol Records Building conformed to building height restrictions in Los Angeles that limited structures to 13 stories until 1956. The Capitol Records Building stands out architecturally as a symbol of the music industry, and could be described as programmatic architecture in that it reputedly resembles a stack of vinyl records, however it is a local myth that that was the intention of the architect, Welton Becket & Associates. Describing the Capitol Records Building as Googie architecture is also fair, especially with it’s angular antenna-spire that further accentuates the building’s height and appears to be hanging from the sky. If you drive by the building at night, you will see that the antenna-spire has a blinking red light that spells out “Hollywood” in Morse code.
One of the most atypical and memorable buildings in Los Angeles is the Chiat/Day Building, commonly referred to as the “Binoculars Building”, by Frank Gehry. It is a commercial building designed for the Chiat/Day advertising agency, located at 340 Main Street in Venice, just a few blocks away from the Pacific Ocean.
The exterior of the Chiat/Day building features three visual components: a white, ship-like structure to the north; a brown and abstract, forest-like structure to the south; and the massive binoculars sculpture in between that functions as the entrance. The binoculars were actually designed prior to the Chiat/Day commission as a collaborative, unrealized project with Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosje van Bruggen, known for their Pop Art sculptures. Gehry kept a model of the binoculars on his desk, and when unsure of how to complete the Chiat/Day building, he placed the binoculars on the project model between the white and brown buildings and so became the “Binoculars Building”.
The pedestrian entrance to the Chiat/Day building is behind and to the side of the binoculars, while the vehicle entrance is through the gap between the binoculars -an ode to the automobile in Los Angeles.
Pudleaux Tourism offers a variety of architectural and sightseeing tours of Los Angeles. Each LA tour offers a unique way to experience this vast metropolis and learn about Los Angeles’ fascinating architectural history. These guided tours visit a medley of areas in and around Los Angeles, including: Downtown LA, Silver Lake, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Santa Monica, and Venice, to see and discuss the work of architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, John Lautner, Charles Eames, and Frank Gehry among others.
La Miniatura was the first house to be built using Wright’s method of concrete textile block construction. Built in 1923, the house lies in a low ravine in the City of Pasadena. Alice Millard knew Wright from many years before when the architect built a house for Alice and her husband George in 1906 in Highland Park, Illinois.
The Millard’s were collectors and dealers of rare books. They moved to Pasadena in 1908, and after her husband’s death, Alice continued the book business. She commissioned Wright design her house and book studio. The house was constructed using stylized concrete blocks that were hollow. The concrete blocks were lined up and stacked upon one another. Outer and inner walls were created with an air space in between. Wright’s later concrete textile block houses used steel to reinforce the concrete blocks, furthering the idea of the architecture as textile.The primary design on the concrete blocks is an indented cross. Some of the blocks are highly stylized, some are plain, and some have glass inside that allow light into the building during the day, while whimsical light patterns exude from the house at night.
This new method of construction was used in many of Wright’s later Los Angeles houses, and the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. La Miniatura is very much connected to its site and blends in with the surrounding nature. The concrete blocks were created using sand from the site to blend the color scheme with that of the environment.
Wright originally designed the house with a book studio, but it was not built until 1926 and was largely carried out by Wright’s son Lloyd Wright.
