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Photography

January 2011

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Tuesday, January 4, 2011 – Hollywood Mayan

Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011

There are three Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the neighborhood – the 1921 Hollyhock House right off Hollywood Boulevard and the 1923 Stoner House in the hills just above the Sunset Strip, and this – Ennis House – the largest of Wright's textile block designs, constructed primarily of interlocking pre-cast concrete block. Wright was going through a Mayan phase, and here, in 1924, the design is most clearly based on ancient Mayan temples.

Mayan Revival architecture may work best out here in Los Angeles. Wright didn’t build such things elsewhere. This one sits on a ridge between the Griffith Park Observatory above it to the north, and far below it, Los Feliz and Hollywood, and the city of Los Angeles far off in the distance.

And now it's a ruin. Decomposed granite from the site was used to color the textile blocks and that introduced natural impurities into the concrete mix, and there is our air pollution – all that caused premature decay. And a previous owner applied a protective coating to the tiles, a sealant that trapped moisture inside – so the pre-cast concrete blocks crumbled and the steel reinforcing bars rusted away. And then there was the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the record-setting 2004-2005 rainy season. It's a wonder the place is still standing. But it's on the National Register of Historic Places and a California Historic Landmark – and architects love the thing – see these notes from Architect Studio 3D – so there are ongoing attempts to keep Ennis House from collapsing in a heap of rubble.

And here it is after two weeks of rain. On June 19, 2009, the Ennis House Foundation announced that the house was being offered for sale – for fifteen million dollars. Now they'll accept seven million. It's a fixer-upper.

Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 Ennis House, 2607 Glendower Avenue, Los Angeles (Los Feliz) - photographed Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Additional photographs this date – 1924 Windows and Wright Ruins

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back to this site.

Technical Note:

These photographs were taken with a Nikon D200 – the lenses used were AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto. The high-resolution photography here was modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 software.

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All text and photos unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 - Alan M. Pavlik

[January 2011] [Winter Suns] [The Exotic] [Cats and Dogs] [American Junk] [Sinister Eyes] [Hollywood Mayan] [1924 Windows] [Wright Ruins] [Luminosity] [Word] [Masons Fail] [Words and Symbols] [Tough Times] [Scare the Kids] [Dark Morning] [Winter Palms] [Sunset Cats] [In Echo Park] [Dark Day Walls] [Hidden Friends] [Imagining Venice] [Not Grime] [LA Kids] [Public Space] [The Light Itself] [Eye Circus] [Old News] [Garden Shadows] [Burnt Orange] [Western Peace] [Spray-On Ethics] [Nightmare Alleys] [Fake Stuff] [A Storm Coming] [Provocateurs] [Empty Spaces] [The Malibu Sun] [Wave Forms] [The Shorebirds] [Walking Hollywood] [Hollywood Angles] [Complete Sun] [It Gets Old] [Sunny Fluff] [Breakwater] [Watching You] [In the Sky] [That Sign] [The Local Bear] [Looking South] [Absinthe] [About Itself] [Cultural Residue] [Morning Somewhere] [High Contrast] [Obedience] [Asserting LA] [Random Message]

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