Interior of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, Los Feliz.

Oil heiress Aline Barnsdall commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design this hilltop arts complex and residence in 1919. With its central courtyard, porches and pergolas, the residence is seen as a transitory moment in the architect's style, which evolved into a more open-plan, indoor-outdoor style that would help define modern Southern Californian living. The building's aesthetic evokes Mayan temple architecture – popular at the time – while its abstract imagery of the hollyhock is a nod to Aline’s preferred flower.

Due to Lloyd Wright being based in Tokyo at the time, the project was mostly overseen by the architect's son, Lloyd Wright, followed by Wright’s assistant at the time, Rudolph Schindler. Frequent battles with Lloyd Wright over the project's costs and delays led a frustrated Barnsdall to offer the property to the City of Los Angeles in 1923, a donation accepted by the city four years later.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Barnsdall Art Park

0.03 MILES

This promontory of a park, with views northwest to the Hollywood sign and northeast to the Griffith Observatory, makes a fine urban sunbathing spot. The…

2. Griffith Observatory

1.3 MILES

With eyes on both the galaxy above and palm-flanked boulevards below, the Griffith Observatory hovers above LA like a hulking spacecraft. This is one of…

3. Sunset Bronson Studios

1.4 MILES

Jack Warner founded Sunset Bronson in 1919, building his studio on old farmland. It was here that Warner and Zanuck shot Rin Tin Tin (1924), the film's…

4. Sunset Gower Studios

1.65 MILES

When Nestor Film Company moved to the corner of Sunset and Gower in 1911 it became the Sunset Gower Studios, which birthed Columbia Pictures when the Cohn…

5. Hollywood Forever Cemetery

1.66 MILES

Paradisiacal landscaping, vainglorious tombstones and epic mausoleums set an appropriate resting place for some of Hollywood's most iconic dearly departed…

6. Pantages Theatre

1.87 MILES

Scottish architect Benjamin Marcus Priteca designed this 1930 survivor, the last theater commissioned by Greek-born theater magnate Alexander Pantages…

7. Neutra VDL House

1.89 MILES

Built in 1932, burnt to a crisp in 1963 then subsequently rebuilt, the light-washed former home and laboratory of modernist architect Richard Neutra is a…

8. Capitol Records Tower

1.91 MILES

You’ll have no trouble recognizing this iconic 1956 tower, one of LA’s great mid-century buildings. Designed by Welton Becket, it resembles a stack of…