Living with famous architecture

Having seen a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Wisconsin, I thought it would be fun to see some of the buildings he built here in Los Angeles. The only building that is available for public viewing is the Hollyhock House. Everything else he built here in L.A. is either a private residence, or damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and not safe for public viewing.

They would not let us take pictures of the house on the inside so here are a few pictures of the house from the outside:








The house is in a location with beautiful views. I can only imagine how wonderful it was when it was originally built before the urban sprawl surrounded it on all sides. It was built before the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatories-- two prominent icons you can see from inside of the house.

Does the house represent So. Cal. living like Wright intended? Not even close. The woman who had the house built, Aline Barnsdall, disliked the house so much that she didn't live in it and had a second home built. Though there is some wonderful craftsmanship and detailing inside the house, it feels very heavy. Plus, like every other Wright house that I have seen, it leaks bucketloads of water when it rains. And for true impracticality, the master bedroom was intentionally built where you were supposed to sleep on a fold-away futon in the corner of the room (in a multi-million dollar home in the early 1900's ?!?!). It's definitely a house for looks not for living.

The ego of architecture trumping the function of a building makes me think of my current workspace at the California Nanosystems Institute building at UCLA. It was profiled by the LA Times (read here) as innovative architecture. I have to say that some of it is beautiful to look at, but it lacks some basic function. The building is epitomized by the 'signature' cross-the-building ramping staircases that require you to cross the building while going between floors:


The staircases are great for art, but not so great for living. Not only do we have to go outside the building to use the staircases (which hang over the parking garage), but the metal stairs are shallow and already rusting in some places. The stairs aren't so bad when there are other simple stairwells available to move between floors. But unfortunately this isn't always the case and we're stuck with those 'iconic' stairs.

Truthfully, in the case of a fire or earthquake, the outdoor stairs in the building are its death trap. I would rather have a simple house with the gorgeous views than the Wright designed concrete block. And I'd rather have a simple ugly laboratory building with properly functioning A/C than the architectural icon that I work in.