Diversions : Taking a Spin Around the Concrete Block : Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs stand out on the Southern California landscape. Some of his buildings are open to admirers.

In 1919, a triumphant Frank Lloyd Wright completed Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. He returned to Chicago, expecting to be besieged with commissions and heralded as a world-class architect. Instead, he found no work.

So Wright packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles, a town of movie sets, exotic buildings and rampant land development. He hoped for new inspiration, but there was no love at first sight.

“All was flatulent or fraudulent with a cheap opulence,” Wright grumbled in “An Autobiography.” “Tawdry Spanish medievalism was now rampant.”

Wright--who designed more than 800 buildings and built 400 during his 72-year career--rebelled by using Southern California’s landscape to create several startlingly original buildings here. Some are open to the public. Others, though privately owned, are visible from the street.

The Hollyhock House (4808 Hollywood Blvd., 1919) was Wright’s first commission in Los Angeles. Designed for wealthy oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, Hollyhock was to be a 36-acre complex of courtyards, gardens, pergolas, bridges, hidden recesses, shadowed corners and relatively few windows. Wright envisioned it as a sanctuary for Barnsdall, who would live there “like a princess in aristocratic seclusion” amid great masses of pines and eucalyptuses.

But the architect/client relationship soured during construction when Barnsdall and Wright entered a war of blueprint revisions.

“She would drop suggestions as a war plane drops bombs and sails away into the blue,” lamented Wright. Nonetheless, Hollyhock House was completed.

Over the years, Hollyhock has undergone a number of changes, and today is open to the public as a “House Museum.” Interior restoration is ongoing; it is estimated that re-creation of the furniture alone may cost more than $1 million.

For tour information, call (213) 662-7272.

Wright’s next commission came from heiress Alice Millard of Chicago, who longed for a fireproof haven for her extensive collection of objets d’art , Gothic texts, Renaissance sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, antiques and rare books.

Wright searched for a building material that would please Millard and flatter Southern California’s climate and landscape: something that could retain warmth in winter, coolness in summer. Something inexpensive, durable and strong.

“What about the concrete block?” Wright asked in his autobiography. “It was the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world. It lived mostly in the architectural gutter. . . .”

Wright set the Millard House, also known as La Miniatura (645 Prospect Court, Pasadena, 1923), near a jungle-like ravine, flanked by eucalyptus trees and tan-gold foothills, and sculpted it as a crocheted structure of textured concrete blocks.

But several setbacks frustrated Wright’s plans. A contractor hired by Millard allegedly absconded with Millard’s money; Wright put in $6,000 of his own to complete the project. And when La Miniatura was finally completed, heavy rains gushed through its interior, covering the dining room floor, terraces and basement with water, burying La Miniatura’s heaters beneath solid mud.

La Miniatura is privately owned and not open to the public.

From 1923 to 1924, Wright experimented further with the concrete block construction. He modified La Miniatura’s design by precasting 16-inch-square geometric-patterned blocks and running horizontal and vertical steel tie rods through their structures. Wright’s next home, the Storer House (8161 Hollywood Blvd., 1923), commissioned by Dr. John Storer, was the first textile block construction in the United States. It was a two-story edifice, with columns running floor to ceiling, and an expansive second floor living room bathed by light.

The Storer House endured a succession of owners over the next 60 years and fell into harsh disrepair. In 1984, it was purchased by producer/director Joel Silver (“Die Hard,” “Lethal Weapon”), who hired Eric Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandson, to supervise the extensive work.

“You walk in a Wright house and it’s different from any other house you’ve ever been in,” says Silver, who also owns Auldbrass, a Yenessee, S.C., estate built by Frank Lloyd Wright for a wealthy industrialist.

The Storer House is not open to the public.

By mid-1923, Wright’s concrete block designs had gained public recognition. Harriet Freeman, a dancer and arts patron, was intrigued. She and husband Samuel, a retired jeweler, commissioned Wright to build the Freeman House (1962 Glencoe Way, 1924) in Hollywood.

Wright chose a site overlooking the Los Angeles basin. He cantilevered the house’s corners and designed two-story mitered glass windows for breathtaking views of the cityscape. Lastly, Wright angled his trademark textile blocks so that lattice beams of light would pour into the house’s interior.

Harriet Freeman deeded the Freeman House to the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. The house is open to the public. Tours are by appointment. Admission: $10. (213) 851-0671.

The Ennis House (2607 Glendower, Los Angeles, 1924) was Frank Lloyd Wright’s final Southern California concrete block house, which critics variously called a mausoleum, fortress, Tibetan monument, Mayan temple and palace.

The house rests on a steep slope, supported by retaining walls. Wright used decomposed granite from a nearby hillside to create the house’s elegant geometric-patterned blocks. The house is known for its powerful interior and breathtaking vista. It is open to the public the second Saturday of every odd month, by appointment. Admission: $10. (213) 660-0607.

Frank Lloyd Wright had hoped his marvelous new creations would bring him work, but Southern California commissions eluded him. Los Angeles developers of the 1920s were seeking ostentatious, ornate homesteads--mock-Spanish villas, Arabian mosques, sprawling Victorian mansions.

“He just couldn’t get anywhere with the powers that be,” reflects Eric Lloyd Wright of his grandfather’s days in California. “He finally said to my father (Lloyd Wright), ‘You’re young enough, you can take it. I’m going back to Chicago.’ ”

In 1924, Frank Lloyd Wright abandoned Los Angeles and returned to his home in Chicago. He did return to Southern California three times before his death in 1959.

In 1939, he built the Sturges House (449 Skyewiay Road, Brentwood), an 870-square-foot rakishly-cantilevered wood house for owner Frank Sturges. The house rises from a red-brick shaft, appearing windowless from the street. Yet all its major rooms open to a sunny glass-doored terrace.

The Sturges House is privately owned and not open to the public.

In 1940, Wright was commissioned by horror filmmaker Arch Oboler to create a Malibu mountaintop aerie, Eaglefeather.

Oboler drove to the Arizona desert to hand-pick the stones that would one day frame his house, but Eaglefeather was never built. Between 1940 and 1946, Oboler had suffered serious financial setbacks. While waiting to amass monies for Eaglefeather, Oboler commissioned Wright to build two smaller buildings on the 105-acre lot. The result: the Gatehouse and Eleanor’s Retreat at the Oboler Property (32436 Mulholland Drive, Malibu). Both are in disrepair. The property, although not open to the public, is for sale.

Wright’s final Los Angeles project was Anderton Court (328 Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, 1953), a storefront complex commissioned by Nina Anderton, an ex-showgirl and widow of a wealthy East Coast textile manufacturer.

According to Aaron Green, superintendent of construction for the project, Anderton planned to erect a shop for a talented young couturier she was sponsoring. Anderton Court was to have boasted copper ceilings and spires and other Wright-inspired accouterments. But high costs, personal intrigue (the couturier turned out to be married) and design conflicts caused Anderton to lose interest in the project.

The Anderton Court Building was completed, but was not built according to Wright’s original specifications. Later owners repainted Wright’s soft-beige buildings black-and-white. A mezzanine floor was added, dividing Wright’s long-lined windows.

Anderton Court remains a shopping complex, open to the public.

An exhibition of drawings and models documenting some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work--including his textile block system--is being held at the Schindler House, 835 N . Kings Road, West Hollywood. The exhibition is open to the public, Saturday and Sunday, 1-4 p.m., and other times by appointment, until July 7. Admission is $5; $4 for students. (213) 651-1510.

Vaughn is a Los Angeles free-lance writer.