In 1906 Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home for Alice Millard, a rare-book dealer, and her husband in Highland Park, Illinois. After her husband’s death Alice moved to Los Angeles County where in 1923 she commissioned Wright to design another house.

In 1926 Lloyd Wright designed the detached book studio and guest house.

Residence

The site is in good condition and was renovated in 2000. The concrete blocks do react with the local air pollution which has lead to some premature decay.

Wright designed the Millard House to sit along a steep ravine located on the tree covered property. In addition, the fabricated concrete blocks use sand from the property thus further integrating the house with the surrounding natural environment. Wright created the new textile block construction system stating. “We would take that despised outcast of the building industry- the concrete block…find hitherto unsuspected soul in it- make it live as a thing of beauty- textured like the trees.” Even though Wright waived his fee for the house the final cost was 70% ($7,000) over the strict $10,000 budget. The three story house is 2,400 square feet in total. The first floor has the kitchen, dining room and maid’s room. The dining room opens to a terrace with a reflecting pool further connecting the house with its landscape. The main entrance is located on the second floor along with a guest room and large two-story living room with a concrete block fireplace and a balcony overlooking from the third story. On the third floor Wright placed Millard’s bedroom with an outdoor terrace. While the load bearing perimeter walls are constructed of concrete blocks the interior walls are wooden studs with plaster. The floors were either concrete or wood and the ceilings are plaster or exposed redwood. In 1926, Lloyd Wright, Wright’s son, designed a separate studio and guest house.

1923

Wright employed modular construction to build the three story Millard House. The textured concrete block was a new experimental material in modular housing. The concrete blocks were poured onsite using wooden molds. The blocks were constructed with a tongue and groove system and reinforced with conventional mortar. Unlike the Millard House, Wright’s later three textile block houses within the Los Angeles area used rebar reinforced blocks. Since the Millard House does not contain metal reinforcement within the concrete the blocks have remained in a suitable condition. The additional rebar on Wright’s other textile block houses provides a catalyst for the cracking and breaking of the original concrete. For example, if moisture seeps into the concrete block and comes in contact with the rebar the metal will rust. This rust, along with the freeze-thaw cycle, causes chunks of concrete to pop off from the original block. At the Millard House the blocks are richly textured and patterned on one side. The pattern is a modernized pre-Columbian motif of a central cross and a square in each corner. The walls are two blocks thick with an air gap to provide insulation. Some of the blocks are solid while others are perforated to allow filtered light through the cross. In his autobiography Wright wrote that he chose concrete blocks since they were “the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world,” and he wanted to see what he could accomplish.

The Millard House is a result of Wright reinventing himself. it was an attempt to go beyond the Prairie Style and develop a new flexible building system. Wright incorporated and developed techniques, materials and designs that fused aestheticism and practicality. His architectural designs, especially the Millard House, are connected with nature. They have an open, minimalist, avant-garde design combined with stiffness, functionality and strength. While the initial response to the Millard House was negative it is now known around the world as one of the most significant structures in the Los Angeles area.

The Millard House (La Miniatura) was inspired by pre-Columbian motifs. The use of pre-Columbian motifs were employed throughout the 1920s and 1930s to create a sense of the exotic, a place of escape. These designs focused on a pre-industrial cultural, one that was considered close to nature and its surroundings. As a result, pre-Columbian motifs were fitting for Wright to employ at the Millard House which is nestled among the trees. Evidence of Mesoamerican designs are seen in the heavy massing of the Millard House, its flat roofs, geometric arrangement of spaces and the concrete block pattern. When designing his concrete block technique Wright used a standardized block as the basic design unit. The blocks created a grid like geometric pattern yet the small scale of the unit allowed for an adaptable and organic design that could closely follow the landscape.

To expand his architectural vision beyond the Prairie Style Wright created a new technique using concrete blocks as the main building material. The block’s rough texture and earth toned color allows the house to blend in and connect with the surrounding landscape. To further integrate the house with its landscape sand and gravel from the property were used to construct the concrete blocks.

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