HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. (March 31, 1890 – May 31, 1978), commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, active primarily in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
and
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
. He was a
landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...
for various Los Angeles projects (1922–1924), provided the shells for the Hollywood Bowl (1926–1928), and produced the Swedenborg Memorial Chapel (or Wayfarers Chapel) at Rancho Palos Verdes, California (1946–1971). His name is frequently confused with that of his more famous father,
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
.


Early years

Born on March 31, 1890, Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. was the eldest son of renowned architect
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
and Wright's first wife, Catherine Lee "Kitty" Tobin Wright. He spent his early years at his father's home and studio in
Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 26th-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 54,318 as of the 2020 census. Oak Park was first se ...
. Wright briefly attended the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
in Madison for two years of coursework in
agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...
and
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
before traveling extensively through Europe after his father moved to Italy in 1909. In 1911, Wright joined the landscape firm Olmsted and Olmsted in
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, where he specialized in
botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
and
horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
. Wright would be later sent to
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
to assist with the landscape design of the 1915 Panama–California Exposition with architects Bertram Goodhue, Carleton Winslow, and Irving Gill. The exposition's principal buildings and gardens still remain in Balboa Park. Landscape design led him to work with Los Angeles architect William J. Dodd, and in San Diego with Irving Gill, the latter another master architect and mentor to his design career. In the mid-1910s, Wright formed a landscape partnership with Paul Thiene, a colleague from the Olmsted firm, before opening his own practice in 1916. Beginning in 1919, his father, working in Japan on the Imperial Hotel, delegated some of the responsibilities to him and architect Rudolf Schindler to supervise construction of the Hollyhock House, while Wright worked on the Imperial Hotel in Japan. The house was commissioned by the oil heiress and philanthropist Aline Barnsdall. Wright began his independent career in 1920. In 1922, he was a production designer at
Paramount Studios Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production and distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio i ...
, responsible for the extensive castle and 12th-century village sets for the
Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckler film, swashbu ...
version of
Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...
. In December 1922, Wright prepared plans for the Henry Bollman House in Hollywood that included a repeated pattern of concrete blocks, a precursor to his father's more famous "textile block" houses in the Los Angeles area. From 1923 through 1926, the younger Wright was drawn into the realization of these four houses, and the ambitious attempt to evolve the "textile block" system into a patented construction technique. The first was the 1923 Millard House in
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...
where Lloyd designed the grounds, and contributed an adjacent studio building in 1926. Lloyd served as construction manager for the other three: the Storer House (1923), the Samuel Freeman House (1923), and the Ennis House (1924). By all accounts Lloyd's work was difficult as he shuttled back and forth between sites, communicating with his father via telegram, and receiving little constructive support from
Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...
.


Independent work

Wright designed and built a number of houses in the Hollywood and Los Feliz districts of Los Angeles in the mid- to late 1920s. Lloyd Wright's first residential commission, the Taggart House was built for the mother of his second wife, Helen Taggart, a registered Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument located next to the city's Griffith Park. Another significant project was the hillside house for the manager of film star Ramón Novarro, and then a renovation and enlargement when Novarro himself acquired the residence. He also designed and built his own home with a ground floor studio and second floor residence, using concrete blocks, in West Hollywood in the 1920s. He also designed the second and third band shells at the Hollywood Bowl. The original 1926 shell, designed by the Allied Architects group, was considered unacceptable both visually and acoustically. Wright's 1927 shell had a pyramidal shape and a design reminiscent of southwest Native American architecture. According to Charles Willard Moore, it was built from leftovers from the ''Robin Hood'' production. Its acoustics generally were regarded as the best of any shell in Bowl history. But its appearance was considered too avant-garde, or perhaps only ugly, and it was demolished at the end of the season. His 1928 wooden shell had the now-familiar concentric ring motif, covered a 120-degree arc, and was designed to be easily dismantled. Unfortunately it was neglected and ruined by water damage, making way for the 1929 Allied Architects shell, which stood until the end of the 2003 season. In 1927, Wright built a residence for himself, made of two units – one for living and one for work. The 2,413 square feet (224.17 square meter) of living space has an upstairs residence with a living room, a fireplace and wooden floors. Interlocking blocks with a stylized
Joshua tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' (also known as the Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca) is a plant species belonging to the genus '' Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names. This monocotyledonous tre ...
design overlay some of the windows. The
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
stalled Wright's firm as he was reaching his artistic and professional peak. As for many architects, remodellings, rather than total designs, were the scope of 1930s work. His post-war designs became more expressionistic and less aligned to previous modernist architectural themes. He also promoted the word Usonia. The largest collection of Lloyd Wright buildings in the United States was built in phases (1946–1957) for the Institute of Mentalphysics, located on a large
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
site next to the town of
Joshua Tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' (also known as the Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca) is a plant species belonging to the genus '' Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names. This monocotyledonous tre ...
, to the east of
Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, US National Park located in southeastern California, straddling north-central Riverside County, California, Riverside County and part of southern San Bernardino County, ...
.


Later work

His best-known project is the
Wayfarers Chapel Wayfarers Chapel, or "The Glass Church" is a disassembled chapel designed by Lloyd Wright and originally located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The chapel had unique organic architecture sited on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean. Affiliate ...
, also known as "The Glass Church", an indoor/outdoor structure made almost entirely of glass and built in 1951 for the
Swedenborgian The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) can refer to any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed under the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). The Swedenborgian tradition is considered to ...
church, overlooking the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
on the
Palos Verdes Peninsula The Palos Verdes Peninsula () is a peninsular subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located within southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is often called simply "Palos Verdes", and is made up of a group of cities in the Palos ...
. The site planning and planting design express his talent and experience as a landscape architect. He had an embracing grove of Redwoods (
Sequoia sempervirens ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995: 606–607 is the sole living species of the genus ''Sequoia (genus), Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast ...
) planted to achieve this. The Wayfarer's Chapel is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
When the trees that surround the Chapel grow up, they will become the framework, become a part of the tree forms and branches that inevitably arise from the growing trees adjacent to it. I used the glass so that the natural growth, the sky, and sea beyond became the definition of their environment. This is done to give the congregation protection in services and at the same time to create the sense of outer as well as inner space.
Among his last projects was the 1963 John P. Bowler house, known as the "Bird of Paradise" House, in Rancho Palos Verdes using blue fiberglass for projecting roof fins, and the master plan and building designs for a 1970 shopping center in Huntington Beach, at Warner and Springdale streets south of
Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...
.


Personal life

In 1922 Wright married the actress and artist Elaine Hyman (known as Kyra Markham). They divorced in 1925. The following year, Wright married Helen Taggart, the daughter of a client (Her then seven-year-old son, Rupert Pole, would later marry Anaïs Nin). In 1929, Lloyd and Helen became the parents of architect Eric Lloyd Wright, who has consulted on the restoration of many of his father's and grandfather's works, as well as being independently creative. Lloyd Wright died in 1978 in Santa Monica, California. A comprehensive monograph on Lloyd Wright and his work, "Lloyd Wright, the Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.", has extensive vintage and contemporary photographic documentation of his projects.


Selected works

* 1921, William Weber House, 3923 West 9th Street,
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
* 1922, Otto Bollman House, 2200 Broadview Terrace, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California * 1922–1924, Martha Taggart House, 5423 Black Oak Drive, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California * 1923, Henry Bollman House, 1530 N. Ogden Drive, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California * 1923, landscape design for Millard House, 645 Prospect Crescent,
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...
* 1923–1925, Oasis Hotel, 139 South Palm Canyon Drive,
Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
(partially razed) * 1925, Harry and Alice Carr House, 3202 Lowry Road, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California * 1925, Herbert Howe House, 513 Roxbury Drive,
Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...
* 1926, John Sowden House, 5121 Franklin Avenue
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
* 1926, Millard House Studio, 645 Prospect Crescent,
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...
* 1926, Farrell House, 3209 Lowry Road, Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California * 1927, Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, 858 North Doheny Drive,
West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. History Most historical writing ...
* 1928, Samuel-Novarro House, 2255 Verde Oak Drive,
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
* 1926–1928, Hollywood Bowl Shells, 2301 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California (destroyed) * 1935,
Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, born Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/ show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway theater, Broadway productions dur ...
residence, 615 North Faring Road, Beverly Hills (razed) * 1942, Ramona Gardens, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California (with others) * 1946, renovation of the Hollyhock House, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, East Hollywood, Los Angeles, California * 1946–1957, Joshua Tree Retreat Center, 59700 Twentynine Palms Highway,
Joshua Tree, California Joshua Tree is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 6,489 at the 2020 census. At approximately above sea level, Joshua Tree and its surrounding communities are located in the Hig ...
* 1948, Jascha Heifetz House and Teaching Studio,
Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...
the studio reconstructed as part of the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles * 1949, Dorland House, 1370 Mirada Place,
Altadena, California Altadena () is an unincorporated area, and census-designated place in the San Gabriel Valley and the Verdugos regions of Los Angeles County, California. Directly north of Pasadena, California, Pasadena, it is located approximately from Downtow ...
* 1951,
Wayfarers Chapel Wayfarers Chapel, or "The Glass Church" is a disassembled chapel designed by Lloyd Wright and originally located in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The chapel had unique organic architecture sited on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean. Affiliate ...
, 5755 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes, California * 1951, Swedenborgian Church,
El Cerrito, California El Cerrito (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...
* 1959, Moore House, Palos Verdes Estates, California (demolished, 2012)


References


Bibliography

* Weintraub, Alan; Hines, Thomas; and Wright, Eric Lloyd: ''Lloyd Wright, the Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.''; United Kingdom publisher: Thames and Hudson, 1998; and United States publisher: Harry N. Abrahms, 1998. 595 illustrations, 275 pages, ()


External links


laokay: Directory of L.A. region project locations.Institute of Mentalphysics
for much on Wright's early relationships with his first wife Kirah Markham, Reginald Pole, Beatrice Wood, William J. Dodd and others.

for much on Wright's early projects for Otto and Harry Bollman and connections with Tina Modotti.

for much on Lloyd Wright's early mentorship by Irving Gill and William J. Dodd. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Lloyd American landscape and garden designers Architects from Los Angeles California people in design 1890 births 1978 deaths American interior designers American landscape architects Art Deco architects Art Deco designers Modernist architects from the United States Artists from Oak Park, Illinois Modernist architecture in California Frank Lloyd Wright 20th-century American architects