Barnsdall Olive Grove history

In his 2014 article entitled, “When East Hollywood's Barnsdall Art Park Was an Olive Orchard,” for his KCET Lost LA series, Nathan Masters writes, “Before the Hollyhock House, there were olive trees—a veritable army of them, some 1,225, each spaced 20 feet apart, marching up the hillside in an orderly grid formation.” Masters explains how Joseph H. Spires established the commercial orchard in the 1890s, in order to earn revenue while he developed his unrealized plans for a grand hotel atop the site. His property became known as Olive Hill. “In 1916, the hill stood in for Jerusalem's Mount of Olives in D.W. Griffith's ‘Intolerance.’ Four years later, on April 4, 1920, an estimated crowd of 10,000 assembled around Olive Hill for Hollywood's first Easter sunrise service with the Los Angeles Philharmonic—a tradition that moved the following year to the Hollywood Bowl,” Masters explains.

Aline Barnsdall purchased the 36-acre tract from Spires’ widow. Barnsdall’s goal was to use the site for her home and an ambitious theatrical arts complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The existing olive grove was preserved and incorporated into Wright’s landscape plans, which he created with his son, Lloyd Wright.

After her death in 1946, Barnsdall’s property was subdivided into several commercial and residential parcels. By 1992, only 90 olive trees remained.

The 1995 Barnsdall Park Master Plan, created by Peter Walker William Johnson and Partners, Lehrer Architects, Levin & Associates Architects, and Kosmont Associates, proposed adding 1,376 new olive trees. Many dimensions of that comprehensive landscape plan were completed in 2003—including the addition of 315 olive trees.

REFLECTIONS

Peter Walker and I always relished the challenge of projects where historic recall was central to the task. And the Barnsdall restoration was unique...one of a kind. What a privilege it was to be part of the team. Sustaining the Vision is a worthy endeavor. Even though the plans were put together more than 25 years ago, it seems like only yesterday. But the highlight for me remains vivid...the enthusiasm of the local stakeholders. Our work session participants were open to ideas and energetic about them. The earliest sketch versions of the renderings were roughly drawn on-the-spot during the planning sessions! The source of the stakeholder excitement, in my mind, was the idea that by sustaining a vibrant history like the Barnsdall story, it can honor the past while shaping the future! What a bargain!

— William Johnson, FASLA | Co-Founder and Principal, Peter Walker William Johnson and Partners | 1995 Barnsdall Art Park Master Plan Team

Barnsdall Park, nee Olive Hill, as conceived and as restored, is an apotheosis of that very rare project in architectural history where building and landscape are an inseparable singularity. One without the other is incomplete and unexceptional. Together, they become the sublime: building completes landscape, landscape completes building.

The Renaissance Villa Lante, north of Rome, is another rare exemplar of this.

For the better part of their almost century of existence, both building and landscape were in disrepair. Only with its restored landscape, has the recently restored building realized its unique glory. Together they have warranted their UNESCO world heritage status. Fully restored, their evermore increasing magnificence is assured.

Once again, this is the Hollywood “Romanza”, the culture acropolis that Frank Lloyd Wright and Lloyd Wright conceived for their client, the doyenne of Hollywood (g)literati, Aline Barnsdall.

The future will be the continued perfecting of this masterpiece.

In childhood, I played there. At the end of junior high, I took my first Life Drawing class in the Director’s House. Early in practice, Mayor Tom Bradley appointed me (1989) to his first Barnsdall Board of Overseers; it was the first time all institutions on or related to the Park—The Municipal Art Gallery, the Junior Art Center, the (run down) Hollyhock House, and the diminished landscape and site, were ever in singular, reasonably coherent conversation. In 1991, the Planning and Development Committee of that Board (USC Architecture Dean Bob Harris, myself, and others) determined that there needed to be a comprehensive Master Plan, and that there would be no new buildings on the site, but rather a fully restored landscape. 

In 1993, the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Department of Cultural Affairs, under the direction of Al Nodal, put forth a competitive RFP for the Master Plan. 28 teams competed, only one was led by a Landscape Architect.  After a rigorous process of research, intense community engagement and vetting, the team selected—led by Peter Walker William Johnson Landscape Architects, Lehrer Architects as Urban Designer, Brenda Levin and Associates as Historical Report consultants, and Kathryn Smith as Architectural Historian—produced the Barnsdall Park Master Plan which laid out the restoration and dramatic enhancement of the Park and its reconnection to the City.

The moniker of Parkmaking in the City, Citymaking with the Park drove the Masterplan.

With funding for the Masterplan and site reconstruction coming from the 6 years-long construction of the Metrorail subway line (which goes under the northerly edge of the Park) the landscape was reconstructed and restored. The Hollyhock House was restored several years later.

The Olive Grove occupying the north slope was rebuilt and restored, as was the Pine Tree bosque, which once again effectively doubles the perceived height of the Hill. The great lawn was rebuilt and restored, and the driveway was minimally improved.

While we take for granted its current restored state with its attendant beauty, it is in fact NEW and unprecedented in our lives. The continued restoration and improvement of this secular sacred landscape remains the ongoing work.

— Michael B. Lehrer, FAIA | President, Lehrer Architects LA | 1995 Barnsdall Art Park Master Plan Team

Please support the revitalization and expansion of the Barnsdall Olive Grove with an online, tax-deductible donation.