Lloyd Wright’s c1922 Bollman House, $3.2M

by Philip Ferrato

Architect Lloyd Wright [1890-1978] was the son of the great (also difficult and demanding) architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a tough act to follow, but the younger Wright had a good start—originally training in landscape design and botany and working for Olmsted Brothers, moving to San Diego to work with Irving Gill and then alongside Rudolph Schindler on the Hollyhock House while his father was in Tokyo building the Imperial Hotel. He worked on sets for Paramount Studios before moving on to private practice, primarily working on residential projects in Los Angeles in a style best called Mesoamerican Revival.

It was a time where the fantasies of cinema and a boom in everything “Storybook”– Tudor turrets, Spanish Revival, Nantucket cottage—coexisted with a highly skilled workforce that migrated between film sets and building sites. And although the vaguely Mayan-Aztec Mesoamerican never caught on (except with Wright clients, it seems) the elder Wright was dogmatic and vocal in his hatred of European styles, bent on developing what he felt was a uniquely American style built with precast blocks, best seen in residences like the Ennis house and La Miniatura. Together, father and son developed Wright’s signature Textile Block– the beginnings of which can be seen in the Bollman House.

What We Love: Unlike many other homes in the Storybook tradition, Wright’s interior details reflect his Mesoamerican aesthetic, and much of his original landscape design survives intact. But no design ever escapes its time. There remain resolute echoes of Streamline Moderne and its parent, Art Deco.

Below, a modern but period-perfect bath.

More: Go to the listing for additional images and details. An outstanding opportunity to own a piece of LA’s design history, represented by architecture specialist Nate Cole of Modern California House and Dalton Gomez of Christie’s International Real Estate.