Frank Lloyd Wright's Textile Block Houses

"What about the concrete block? It was the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world. It lived mostly in the architectural gutter as an imitation of rock-faced stone. Why not see what could be done with that gutter rat? Steel rods cast inside the joints of the blocks themselves and the whole brought into some broad, practical scheme of general treatment, why would it not be fit for a new phase of our modern architecture? It might be permanent, noble beautiful." -Frank Lloyd Wright

“The textile block method of construction consisted of stacking concrete blocks three inches thick, cast in molds, next to and atop one another without visible mortar joints. In all but the Millard House, thin concrete and steel reinforcing rods were run horizontally and vertically in edge reveals 'knitting' the whole together. A double wythe was common, held together by steel cross ties, the cavity air space serving as insulation.” - William Allin Storrer. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog

Millard House – 1923
645 Prospect Crescent
Pasadena

Storer House - 1923
8161 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles

Freeman House - 1923
1962 Glencoe Way
Los Angeles

Ennis House - 1924
2607 Glendower Avenue
Los Angeles

The first of four textile-block houses constructed in Southern California. Its two-story high living room is delicately lit by pierced, patterned block and overlooks a lovely pool surrounded by lush gardens deep in the ravine-traversed site.

The second of the four. The lowest story contains a variety of work spaces. The second floor features a two-story-high living room, textile block throughout. One side opens from the hillside perch to a full view of Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the San Bernardino Valley.

The living room has been called one of FLW’s best rooms. The Freemans made their house a center of avant-garde artistic and political activity in Los Angeles. Harriet Freeman gave the house to the USC School of Architecture to protect and preserve .

The last of the four LA textile-block houses, and the most monumental. Along Vermont Avenue, looking north, one sees it completing its ridge on the southern reaches of the Santa Monica Mountains. The textile block pattern is almost symmetrical along the diagonal.