FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
IN PASADENA
W
alking around
Pasadena’s Prospect Park
neighborhood one day, I
peeked through an iron
gate. Past a lily pond stood what looked
to be a house from a science-fiction
movie – and in fact, once appeared as
just that in a
Star Trek
episode. It was
La Miniatura, built in 1923 as the first
of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “textile block”
houses in Southern California.
Wright had the blocks cast of
concrete, which he called “the cheapest
(and ugliest) thing in the building world.
Why not see what could be done with
that gutter-rat?”
He was in the mood to experiment,
turning his back on European tradition
to produce an architecture that was
distinctly of the Americas. (In its wooded
ravine,
La Miniatura
calls to mind a Maya
temple in the jungle.) Luckily, Wright’s
client, rare-book dealer Alice Millard,
wanted something daring.
I got the opportunity to explore
the property only because it was on
the market. (It has now been sold.) The
2,400-square-foot main house had three
levels – a dining room and kitchen below,
a two-story living room and guest room
on the second level, and the master
bedroom on the third. A separate studio,
designed by Wright’s son Lloyd in 1926,
was connected by a bridge.
In the main house, I climbed the stairs
to a balcony overlooking the living room.
PASADENA
56
summer
|
fall
