Hollyhock House, UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hollywood, United States.
Hollyhock House is a residence in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall and completed in 1921. Its three wings wrap a central courtyard, with exterior walls of hollow clay tiles, wood frames and stucco that slope inward at the top. The facade carries a band of carved geometric ornaments and stylized hollyhock reliefs flanking the entrance.
Aline Barnsdall, an oil heiress from Pennsylvania, hired Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915 and bought Olive Hill in 1919 for a planned arts and theatre complex. The house and its outbuildings were completed in 1921, the only parts of the complex built; Wright was dismissed that year over cost overruns, and Rudolph Schindler and Lloyd Wright had overseen much of the work. Barnsdall donated the house to the city of Los Angeles in 1927, which leased it to the California Art Club for fifteen years.
The hollyhock, Aline Barnsdall's favourite flower, is the house's central motif: symmetrical decorations adapt the plant's shape, planters carry the motif and hold real hollyhocks, and Wright's leaded glass uses a stylised hollyhock pattern. The house was meant as part of an arts and live-theatre complex on Olive Hill, and its central courtyard has one open side forming a kind of stage, though it was never used as one.
The property is open for guided tours on specific days, allowing visitors to explore the rooms and gardens. It is helpful to wear comfortable shoes, as there is considerable walking and the grounds include uneven terrain.
The hollyhock was Aline Barnsdall's favorite flower, and Wright turned it into the house's central motif: symmetrical ornaments adapting the plant's form decorate the pots, which were filled with real hollyhocks, and his leaded glass carries a stylized hollyhock pattern. Look for the mitered glass corners in the windows, an early idea Wright later used at Fallingwater.
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