After exploring Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, I wanted to revisit the famous building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles: Hollyhock House. Commissioned by Aline Barnsdall and named after her favorite flower, it was constructed between 1919 and 1921.
Living Room. Japanese screen
Donated to the City of Los Angeles in 1927, it still stands in Hollywood’s Barnsdall Park. I had been there with my photography teacher Edmund Teske in 1976, when it first opened to the public, and again in 1986, while writing and photographing an article about Los Angeles architecture for the Italian newsweekly Epoca, but I was eager to see it again after the latest renovation, completed in 2019, when this architectural wonder was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Dining Room
Admission for seniors is $6, much lower than the $44 you have to pay for the short tour at Taliesin West. So, if you live in Los Angeles, you should definitely experience it yourself. Otherwise you can take a look at my photographs here and read some into from the online guide and virtual tour.
Dining Room chair
As you enter, you are invited to step left into the dining room, with its hexagonal table and high backed chairs, also designed by Wright, since the architect liked to create all the furniture, as he did for the numerous Prairie-Style houses that he built in the Midwest.
Living Room
To the right you see the dramatic living room with sofas and tables made of oak wood, large Japanese screens on the walls, a bas-relief sculpture above the fireplace.
Living Room, fireplace
As you continue through this open floor plan you notice a reading alcove
Reading alcove
a loggia, with the Roman relief “Three Dancing Nymphs,”
Loggia
and a study filled with bookshelves.
Study
The pergola, a long hallway remodeled by Wright’s son Lloyd between 1946 and 1948 under his father’s supervision,
Pergola
echoes the patio, the enclosed courtyard,
Patio
in the mirroring of indoor and outdoor spaces that is typical of this architectural style.
Buddhist sculpture
A Buddhist sculpture of Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, is placed at the end of the hallway, that leads to another room and to
Sun porch
a sun porch, where you may admire the art glass windows that Lloyd designed.
Art stone
On the outside an art sculpture that is an abstraction of the hollyhock plant evokes Maya architecture.
All photos (c) Elisa Leonelli 2025
Click here for my article on Taliesin West in Cultural Daily.