Today I felt like a true tourist as I held my digital camera in front of me, focusing in on the iconic Hollywood sign hoisted up in the famous Hills. Having officially resided on the corners of Olympic and Fairfax for only four nights has left me eager with anxiety to explore the seemingly endless city that I currently feel lost in.
The trip to the Hollyhock House gave me the opportunity to gawk at the lanky palm trees and desert terrain exploding from the Hills. The monotonous lines of the midwest cornstalks can't compare to this. As we toured the house, I paid particular attention Frank Lloyd Wright's manipulation of space. I was fascinated by his ability to turn nature into architecture and vice versa. I see how important the landscape was to him as he used it precisely to frame his structures, structures that were constructed to blend seamlessly from man-made to natural. I've never before been exposed to a structure with such a relationship with nature.
Wright's attention to detail is intense as he has put all his effort into manipulating the space all around us to guide our direction. Because of that, as we moved through the house, I couldn't help but note how the space changed. The tour through the Hollyhock house really was more of a journey, a narrative. I just wish that more of it would have been renovated. It would be interesting to go back once the intended renovations take place. I appreciated the tour because in all honesty, it is a place that I probably would not have gotten to on my own.
-Jaclyn Emerick