Homes Built by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank

edited by David Barth, 14 March 2010
Courtesy LA Curbed, a real estate publication and
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. (March 30, 1890, Oak Park, Illinois – May 31, 1978, Santa Monica, California), commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American landscape architect and architect, most active in Southern California. His mother was Catherine Lee "Kitty" Tobin and he was fathered by, overshadowed by, and frequently is confused with Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright went to Michigan as a landscape architect. He had been trained by the Olmsted brothers. He worked at the Panama-California Exposition (1915), which also is known as the San Diego World's Fair of 1915.

In the mid-1910s, his father delegated to him some of the responsibilities for designing the Hollyhock House for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall in Hollywood, California along with Rudolf Schindler. This was the second California project built by the elder Wright. Later, Lloyd Wright would supervise the 1946 renovation of the Hollyhock House, when it was temporarily converted into a USO facility.

In 1924 he served as his father's construction manager for three simultaneous, and difficult, Los Angeles-area projects. Wright helped in the development of the distinctive concrete textile-blocks used on those structures:

• Storer House
  
  Storer House 8161 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California
• Ennis House
  
  Ennis House at 2005-2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles, California
• Freeman House
  
  Samuel Freeman House in Hollywood, California

Lloyd Wright shuttled among the three sites with equipment and materials, dashing off telegrams to his father as crisis followed crisis, but receiving no real constructive support or suggestions from Taliesin.

Wright designed and built a number of houses in Hollywood in the late 1920s:

• a house for the manager of silent film star Ramon Novarro and a subsequent renovation and enlargement when Novarro acquired the house
• the Taggart House
• the Mayan-looking Sowden House that is often stated to be his best work
• Wright's own studio-residence in West Hollywood

He also is well-known as the designer of the second and third shells at Hollywood Bowl. The original shell, built by the Allied Architects group as part of the 1926 regrade of the Bowl, was considered unacceptable both visually and acoustically. Wright's 1927 shell had a pyramidal shape and a design reminiscent of southwest American Indian architecture. (According to Charles Moore, it was a leftover from Wright's sets for the silent film version of Robin Hood.) Its acoustics generally were regarded as the best of any shell in Bowl history, but its appearance was considered too avant-garde for its time, or perhaps only ugly, and it was demolished at the end of the season. His 1928 shell had the now-familiar concentric ring motif, but it was made of wood, covered a 120-degree arc, and was designed to be easily dismantled and stored between seasons. It was left out in the rain after one season, and rotted, making way for the 1929 Allied Architects shell, which stood until the end of the 2003 season.


The Hollywood Bowl

The largest collection of Lloyd Wright buildings is the 1946 Institute for Mental Physics in Palm Springs, California.

His most famous solo work probably is the 1951 Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. This structure reveals his training as a landscape architect. The most prominent feature of the chapel, for instance, is the bower of redwood trees that is integral to the effect of the building.









Wayfarer Chapel in Palos Verdes, California

Among Lloyd Wright's later projects was the 1963 "Bird of Paradise" House in Palos Verdes, California. In 2009 the house hit the market with a $2.5 million asking price. The house, also known as the Bowler House, was built in 1963 of concrete and Santa Maria stone. It has a steeply pitched roof. The furniture, also designed by Lloyd Wright, was in a separate sale, and was listed as "on display" in the house.























Bird of Paradise House in Palos Verdes, California

The Bird of Paradise house sold in January 2009 for considerably less than the original asking price, at $1.895 million, and did not include the furniture which was also designed by Lloyd Wright. The furniture, auctioned off in April 2009 by Bonhams & Butterfields, included the following:

• hexagonal walnut dining table (est. $3,000/5,000)
• twelve velvet and brass dining chairs (est. $2,500/3,500)
• pairs of club chairs
• an ottoman (est. $1,500/2,500)
• various side tables and coffee tables

A later project was a shopping center at the corner of Warner and Springdale in Huntington Beach in 1970.

In Palos Verdes, California is the Doc Moore house.











Doc Moore house Palos Verdes, California

Other large homes in Palos Verdes, not built by Lloyd Wright include:













In 1949, Lloyd Wright designed a home on Morada Place in Altadena. In 2009 this house went up for sale and shortly after, the seller was asking for back-up offers for the selling price of $749,000.

Altedena house at Morada Place in Altadena, California


John Sowden House 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, California

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