In 1926, Lloyd Wright, son of America’s greatest architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, built the Sowden House for friend and photographer John Sowden. The home utilized Wright’s philosophies as a landscape architect to emphasize the elements of nature by a floor plan where all rooms opened to a central courtyard. Hand cast, sand-colored concrete blocks emblazoned with images of harvest, water, clouds, and sun were stacked together in such a way that the house became an homage to the pyramids of ancient Mayan civilization, while the pillared courtyard with multiple entries made clear architectural reference to such Yucatec Mayan temples as Sayil and Uxmal. 

In his book, “The Visionary State”, author Erik Davis speaks of the Wright family’s “Mesoamerican palaces” that were built in a number of Southern California locations.  He goes on to say that “the home that Lloyd Wright built on Franklin Avenue ... is easily the wildest of the lot, an Expressionist temple whose primeval exotica makes the visionary aspirations of the Southland’s neo-Mayan architecture clear.

“The Sowdens were artsy Hollywood folks who liked to party, and Lloyd Wright, who had spent a year or so designing sets for Paramount, indulged their desire for theater. The windowless entranceway lies below a canted cyclopean mass of zigzag rock that hangs like the roof of some antediluvian cave. After climbing a dark stairway, visitors enter the inner sanctum: a long outdoor courtyard lined with concrete columns whose weathered motifs of waves and twining vines deepen the sense that elemental powers are being invoked. Two massive freestanding water organs once stood on the far end of the courtyard like murmuring Deco-pagan stelae.” (They were destroyed in a 1930’s earthquake)

“Today the courtyard is taken up with a large pool, part of a thorough renovation of the house by designer/owner Xorin Balbes, who enhanced the building’s air of almost savage spectacle with an elevated jacuzzi and an altar-like heater. In 2003, Balbes hosted an “interspecies dance ritual” (by composer/choreographer Jim Berenholtz) called “The Temple of the Cosmic Serpent”, which featured fire dancers .. and pas de deux between human beings and boa constrictors.”

Beyond the purely theatrical, the Sowden House, in its modern incarnation, has served as the set for countless films, TV shows, and commercials. Among these are Martin Scorcese’s “Aviator” about the high drama life of Howard Hughes, various episodes of “America’s Next Top Model”, and an American Express commercial featuring Ellen DeGeneres in deep meditation. The house was also referenced in some rather dark-themed articles in the Los Angeles Times in 2004 as the former home of the notorious Dr. George Hodel, who may have been responsible for the even more notorious Black Dahlia murders; at least according to his son and private investigator George Hodel, author of “Black Dahlia Avenger”.

Whatever the truth, there is no question that the Sowden House is a magnificent tribute to the interplay of shadow and light, much as are the ancient Mayan temples that inspired it. Steeped in Hollywood history, it continues to reveal new facets of its relationship to drama and stardom, while at the same time taking on new life as a center for creativity and healing. In restoring the Sowden, Xorin Balbes has honored Lloyd Wright’s intention to merge architecture and landscape by making this home a living temple environment where sacred space is evident at every turn.