For sale: Lloyd Wright's Bollman House - Hollywood, CA

[DavidC]

Lloyd Wright’s Henry Bollman Residence on the market for $3M


David

[Paul Ringstrom]

I've got an idea: "Let's paint everything inside white."

[SDR]

Well . . . would you like . . . GOLD ?



Heh-heh. When Alan Weintraub photographed the house for his Lloyd Wright monograph published in 1998, the house was painted . . . differently.
The author refers to this treatment with admirable tact -- as briefly as possible, and with the perpetrator's name recorded for posterity:

"Interior designer Mimi London has . . . contributed her own sensibility to the house."

[Roderick Grant]

When Mimi London put the house on the market in 2014, the interior was as SDR shows it above. The gold (pre-Mimi) worked. The white doesn't. The price Mimi asked was about $1.5M. $3M is over the top, even for Los Angeles.

What an owner previous to Mimi (a FLW enthusiast named Rollins) did was to build a large square room nestled into the "L" of the house, obliterating the yard (last photo). Mimi got rid of that room, which ought to have reduced the value, not double it. Now the next owner must redo the interiors to bring back appropriate hues.

This is one Lloyd Wright house I could settle into easily. Do you think I could set up a Go Fund Me site to get the 3 million?

[Roderick Grant]

It should also be mentioned that the only "textile block" with rebar on the house as built was the trim on the redesigned street side balcony seen in the B&W photo #3 above. The main parts of the house were standard concrete block.

[SDR]

I wondered about that. Compare new photo to the right-hand black-and-white one above.

[Roderick Grant]

The original blocks, which were strapped to the wood framing of the balcony with rebar, failed a long time ago, and the patchwork was an attempt to give it a hint of what it had been.

What I find unfortunate is the change from the three glass doors on the west façade to an entry and a square bay. Apparently Bollman was not convinced by the main entrance on the north side of the house, and wanted a door facing the street. Though it was obviously designed by Lloyd, the alteration (as well as the simplification of the balcony) did not help the design.

[SDR]

There are so many differences between what was drawn and what was built -- the first time ? -- that we could almost be looking at two different houses . . .

The corbeled supports to the balconies do not appear on the elevation drawings; the C-shaped balcony parapet construction/decoration does not appear on the building --
except possibly, in modified form, below windows on the garden side of the house, seen in the article's last photo ?

SDR

[Roderick Grant]

The entire opus might easily be bifurcated into Scheme #1 (project) and Scheme#2 (as built). Nevertheless, it is a fine piece of work as is.

[DavidC]

Lloyd Wright’s Blocky Bollman House in Hollywood Angles For $3.2 Million

For Sale: The Bollman Residence, Lloyd Wright (1922)


David

[Roderick Grant]

Again with the white paint!!

[DavidC]

Lloyd Wright's Cultural Historic Monument No. 235 for Sale - (0:50)


David

[DavidC]

Lloyd Wright’s Second Commissioned Home Seeks $3.2M in L.A.


David

[SDR]

Painted masonry is comparable to sand in the salad: outrageous and inexcusable.

S

[eranhammer]

In the study, some of the blocks to drywall transitions have a molding decoration. The molding looks to be in much newer condition than all other trim work in the room. Since there are no interior photos of the house available prior to 1987 (the first AD article), it is impossible to know when these were added. I am trying to determine if they are original to the house or added later. I can't seem to find any other FLW or LW transition from blocks to drywall or plaster - it's usually all the way up to the ceiling or full transition to wood.

Thoughts?