Millard House

The Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, is a historic residence in Pasadena, California, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923. It is considered the first of four so-called textile-block houses that Wright planned in Los Angeles County in the early 1920s. At the time, the architect deliberately turned away from the Prairie Style and experimented with concrete blocks as a new building material. The exterior of these walls was patterned with designs resembling brocade fabric, while the interior surfaces were smooth, which gave the style its name. Wright's goal was to create an architecture that was both democratic and aesthetically varied, one that ordinary people could afford, by combining decoration with function and by building in modular fashion with prefabricated blocks.

In designing the house, Wright placed great importance on harmony with the natural surroundings. The lot was steeply sloped, so the house was set among the trees. The concrete blocks were made from sand, gravel, and stones found right on the building site, echoing the earthy tones of the landscape. The building, about 2,400 square feet, spreads across three floors. The ground floor holds the kitchen, a servant's room, and a dining room with access to a terrace and a reflecting pool. The second floor contains the main entrance, a guest room, and the two-story living room with an open fireplace. The third floor housed the bedroom of the client, Alice Millard, with a balcony and an outdoor terrace.

Although the project far exceeded the client's budget and architecture critics initially mocked the house for using ordinary building materials for an expensive residence, its reputation has since changed. Today the Millard House is regarded as one of Wright's finest works and counts among the most important architectural landmarks in Los Angeles. Visitors can admire the distinctive structure of the textile-block walls and see how Wright turned his vision of an organic architecture, one that fuses building and landscape, into reality.