Andy Chase

It Only Took 12 Years
Originally uploaded by Usonian

Back in 1998, I became a docent at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House in Los Angeles. I built the first proper web site for the house, and as a token of appreciation I was given this block tile - while not a reproduction of the actual blocks used for construction, it’s a full-size, fully accurate representation of the pattern repeated throughout the house.

This thing has spent the last 12 years leaning in various places - mostly in dusty corners and occasionally on shelves, and I’m quite pleased to finally have a place to hang it.

I’m still obsessed with Wright’s textile block houses. I swear I’m going to build a folly using the technique someday.

Franklin Avenue
Hollywood, California

Lloyd Wright, Architect 1926

Although his father ultimately abandoned textile block construction, Lloyd Wright employed patterned concrete blocks in a number of his own designs.

This is a detail of the cavelike front entrance of the house.

Franklin Avenue
Hollywood, California

Lloyd Wright, Architect 1926

The fortess-like exterior of the Sowden house hides a private courtyard which can be glimpsed very briefly during a party scene in L.A. Confidential