No. 33 - Barnsdall Arts Center (Residence 'A')

Barnsdall Arts Center (Residence ‘A’)
1920 – Frank Lloyd Wright
4800 Hollywood Boulevard – map
Declared: 2/26/65

Just a bit more than two years after declaring the Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Art Park a city monument (see this earlier post on HCM No. 12), the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission gave landmark status to another building in the park, Residence ‘A’, as well as to the eleven-acre park itself.

First is Residence 'A'.

Residence ‘A’ was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a guest home for Aline Barnsdall, the woman who proposed the art complex on her Olive Hill land in Hollywood and who briefly used the Hollyhock House as her home. Barnsdall donated the park, including Residence 'A', to the city in 1927.

When the Commission declared the building a landmark in 1965, it was the Barnsdall Playground Arts and Crafts Center (see the shot above). In fact, the structure got its designation as the Arts and Crafts Building. I can’t find any evidence of the Residence ‘A’ actually having been used as a residence. (Residence ‘B’, on the other hand, was used on and off by Wright during park construction. Later, it became the permanent home of Aline Barnsdall and her daughter once she tired of living in the Hollyhock House. It was torn down long ago.)

So if you took the EXIT to the right, wouldn't that put you in violation of the ONE WAY to your left?

This zig-zaggy artwork is Jesus Y. Dominguez's "Kaleidoscope" from 1971.

I’ve found places on the web alternately noting Residence ‘A’ as an arts center or arts gallery. Unfortunately, the building hasn’t been open for years, and, as it awaits restoration, there are currently no plans for its re-opening. (If it were me, I’d sell it. I’d much rather see it being used than lying dormant.)

Up next: Barnsdall Art Park