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Photo, Print, Drawing [Resort ("Doheny Ranch") for Edward L. Doheny, Beverly Hills, California. Resort showing landscaping and textile block buildings]

[ digital file from original ]

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[ digital file from color film copy transparency ]

Full online access to this resource is only available at the Library of Congress.

[ digital file from b&w film copy neg. ]

Full online access to this resource is only available at the Library of Congress.

About this Item

Title

  • [Resort ("Doheny Ranch") for Edward L. Doheny, Beverly Hills, California. Resort showing landscaping and textile block buildings]

Names

  • Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959, architect

Created / Published

  • [1923]

Headings

  • -  Housing developments--California--Beverly Hills--1920-1930

Format Headings

  • Architectural drawings--1920-1930.
  • Conjectural works--1920-1930.
  • Perspective projections--1920-1930.

Genre

  • Conjectural works--1920-1930
  • Architectural drawings--1920-1930
  • Perspective projections--1920-1930

Notes

  • -  Caption label from exhibit "Frank Lloyd Wright: Designs for an American Landscape": Preliminary perspective records Wright's shaping of the development, with monumental clusters of plantings and connected building forms used as compositional elements. Attempting to reestablish practice in Los Angeles in 1922, Wright found himself challenged to propose new, more positive approaches than those being adopted by developers. He focused on one of the most enticing sectors of the large, undeveloped plots that skirted the city: the 411-acre Doheny Ranch, located in what is now Beverly Hills and later developed as the Trousdale Estates. The land was owned by Edward Laurence Doheny (1856-1935), then one of America's wealthiest citizens. How understandable for Wright to have sought Doheny as a client, and to have proposed a residential development of unparalleled scale. No records have been discovered to document any contact between Wright and Doheny, who quite possibly never met. It therefore seems that Wright prepared his design in the hope of interesting Doheny rather than in response to any actual commission. Few drawings survive, and they are largely pictorial; evidence suggests that all were completed during the early months of 1923. The proposal, unencumbered by the realities of an actual programme, suggests a prototype for a new type of Southern California suburb. Ample precedents for Doheny exist in Wright's own work-for instance his design for the Sherman M. Booth house (unbuilt; Glencoe, Illinois, 1911). The new elements of massiveness, textured masonry, and walled gardens seem partly inspired by Italian vernacular buildings, which Wright came to admire following a prolonged visit to Italy in 1910. During his stays in Japan, he discovered landscapes that joined buildings and plantings into one composition. From his fascination with pre-Columbian architecture-arguably a natural source for the indigenous expression he sought in California-came a renewed awareness of large-scale composition. Yet ultimately the conception of the Doheny Ranch was his. Fixity and mobility were to be joined in a single composition that anticipated, in both scale and function, more recent, adventurous approaches to the problems of the suburb.
  • -  Title devised by Library staff.
  • -  Forms part of: Visual materials from Donald D. Walker collection.
  • -  Exhibited: "Frank Lloyd Wright: Designs for an American Landscape, 1922-1932" at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., November 1996-February 1997.
  • -  Exhibited (1st venue): "The Imperial Hotel at 100 : Frank Lloyd Wright and the World" at theToyota Municipal Museum of Art (Toyota City, Aichi), October 21, 2023 - December 2023.
  • -  Exhibited (2nd venue): "The Imperial Hotel at 100 : Frank Lloyd Wright and the World" at the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art (Minato-ku, Tokyo), January 11 or 13 - March 10, 2024.
  • -  Exhibited (3rd venue): "The Imperial Hotel at 100 : Frank Lloyd Wright and the World" at the Aomori Museum of Art (Aomori City, Aomori), March 20 - May 12, 2024.

Medium

  • 1 drawing : graphite on Japanese paper ; sheet 35 x 89.5 cm, mount 86.5 x 122.1 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • ADE - UNIT 2952, no. 1 (E size) [P&P]

Repository

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 98512303

Reproduction Number

  • LC-DIG-ppmsca-84877 (digital file from original) LC-USZC4-1878 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZ62-121672 (b&w film copy neg.)

Rights Advisory

Access Advisory

  • Original materials served by appointment only.

Online Format

  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: Publication may be restricted. For information see "Frank Lloyd Wright" (http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/res/259_wrig.html)
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-84877 (digital file from original) LC-USZC4-1878 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZ62-121672 (b&w film copy neg.)
  • Call Number: ADE - UNIT 2952, no. 1 (E size) [P&P]
  • Access Advisory: Original materials served by appointment only.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Wright, Frank Lloyd, Architect. Resort "Doheny Ranch" for Edward L. Doheny, Beverly Hills, California. Resort showing landscaping and textile block buildings. Beverly Hills California, 1923. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/98512303/.

APA citation style:

Wright, F. L. (1923) Resort "Doheny Ranch" for Edward L. Doheny, Beverly Hills, California. Resort showing landscaping and textile block buildings. Beverly Hills California, 1923. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/98512303/.

MLA citation style:

Wright, Frank Lloyd, Architect. Resort "Doheny Ranch" for Edward L. Doheny, Beverly Hills, California. Resort showing landscaping and textile block buildings. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/98512303/>.