LA MINIATURA (Click on thumbnail for full image)

Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, is a textile block house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1923 in Pasadena, California. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

La Miniatura is three stories, measuring 2,400 square feet in total with nearly an acre of gardens. The first floor has the kitchen, dining room and maid’s room, and the dining room opens to a terrace with a reflecting pool that connects the house with the outdoors.

The main entrance is located on the second floor along with a guest room and a large two-story living room with a beautiful concrete block fireplace. A balcony at the third story overlooks the living room below, and the third floor also hosts what was Millard’s bedroom and a beautiful outdoor terrace.

While the load-bearing walls are constructed of concrete blocks, the interior walls consist of wooden studs and plaster. The floors are 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.

He turned to concrete as his new building material in 1906 when Alice Millard commissioned him to construct her second home on a lush green site located in Pasadena.

To build the blocks, Wright took sand, gravel and minerals found on the property to create earth-toned concrete that would help the building blend with the natural landscape. Wright aligned both the method of building and the aesthetic of La Miniatura with his lifelong love of natural materials and his belief that buildings should belong to their surroundings.

It was in disrepair with a leaky roof and overgrown landscaping when the Gamble House lecture series was able to organize a tour.

David Zander took to restoring the property with the help of architects Marmol Radziner.