Mar 21, 2022
- Dave D
2535 E Chevy Chase Dr, Glendale, CA, USA
From the listing for the house, on the market for $3,295,000. Listed by Aaron Leider •DRE #01211739 • The Agency Listed by Elham Shaoulian •DRE #02003789 • The Agency Presenting one of Lloyd Wright's strongest achievements, the Derby House. Built in 1926, this well-preserved and system upgraded residence showcases his genius of integrating nature and building. the pre-cast concrete ornamentation adorning this home is of Mayan inspiration. The garage & fireplace grates, French door grills, and closets are abstract renderings of the yucca plants growing on the surrounding hills. The Derby House is on the National Register of Historic Places. A double-storied living room features a fireplace with eight-foot-high wrought iron gates & the light dances through the blocks which overlook the mature oak trees in the garden. The hexagonal dining room boasts a floor-to-ceiling fireplace and a large bay window with seating area. Four adjacent lots bring the total lot size to 1.5 acres and are included in the purchase price. Rare opportunity to own a piece of American Architectural significance. Can be bought furnished.
2535 E Chevy Chase Dr, Glendale, CA, USA
From the listing for the house, on the market for $3,295,000. Listed by Aaron Leider •DRE #01211739 • The Agency Listed by Elham Shaoulian •DRE #02003789 • The Agency Presenting one of Lloyd Wright's strongest achievements, the Derby House. Built in 1926, this well-preserved and system upgraded residence showcases his genius of integrating nature and building. the pre-cast concrete ornamentation adorning this home is of Mayan inspiration. The garage & fireplace grates, French door grills, and closets are abstract renderings of the yucca plants growing on the surrounding hills. The Derby House is on the National Register of Historic Places. A double-storied living room features a fireplace with eight-foot-high wrought iron gates & the light dances through the blocks which overlook the mature oak trees in the garden. The hexagonal dining room boasts a floor-to-ceiling fireplace and a large bay window with seating area. Four adjacent lots bring the total lot size to 1.5 acres and are included in the purchase price. Rare opportunity to own a piece of American Architectural significance. Can be bought furnished.
Mar 21, 2022
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Oct 29, 1993
Oct 29, 1993
- Dave D
Hats Off to Derby House : The landmark home in Glendale was designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1926.
Hats Off to Derby House : The landmark home in Glendale was designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1926. By Susan Vaughn OCT. 29, 1993 12 AM PT GLENDALE — The Derby House is a child’s dream castle--stacks of dark blocks reaching skyward. Its hulk is enshrouded in foliage. Its facade is massive and forbidding. One half-expects Mayan ghosts to surge from its bowels, spears outstretched in greeting. Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, built the house in 1926 for businessman James Derby, his wife and two sons. The Derbys separated prior to the home’s completion; only Mrs. Derby and the children eventually lived within its mysterious walls. The Derby House’s rock-pile form is dauntingly archetypal. It resembles the ancient fortresses and temples erected centuries ago in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and medieval Europe. These structures seemed to sprout from the earth like geological blooms, evincing the strength, durability, and power of their builders. Such is the allure of Lloyd Wright’s Derby House, which has been called by UCLA historian Thomas Hines one of Wright’s “strongest achievements.” The house’s paradoxical qualities--massive but airy, organic but otherworldly, simply contoured but elementally complex--make it a delight to behold. Wright created the Derby House from concrete textile block, wood and stucco. He designed plant-like patterns in the concrete blocks, similar to designs of the Southwest American Indians. When struck by light, the blocks produce a kaleidoscope of lively light shapes and shadows upon walls, floors and other surfaces. There is constant movement within the cavernous house and upon its facade, as the sun, in its journey across the sky, leaves indecipherable, changing hieroglyphics in its wake. A concrete staircase encircles the Derby House’s girth, leading up to an imposing second-story entrance. Inside is a double-height living room, as bold and dramatic as the nave of a Gothic church. Floor-to-ceiling windows welcome sunlight into the space; a second-story balcony and monumental chimney and fireplace of carved blocks add to the room’s grandeur. The Derby’s current owners, Michael and Carole Dougherty, a retired lawyer and Southern California Historical Society employee, have decorated the Derby’s interior in unpretentious 1920s style. Since they bought the five-bedroom house in 1974, they have meticulously attended to its preservation. “For some people, it could be overwhelming,” says Carole Dougherty, who was intimidated by the Derby’s “fortress-like” appearance prior to moving in. “It’s a very dramatic house. I was worried about its structure, maintaining it, restoring it, but it’s worked out well, and we’ve loved living here.” The Doughertys’ master bedroom is at once vast and embryonically insular. Its dramatic cathedral-style windows permit columns of sunlight to slither across the floor. A double-height ceiling and balcony loft above the bedroom area emphasize the room’s sweeping vertical nature. The courtyard proves historians’ contention that Lloyd Wright was a brilliant landscaper. The Derbys’ crew-cut lawn is surrounded by a veritable garden of delights that includes mountain lilac, sage, pear cactus, poppy, California holly, eucalyptus, myrtle, iris and otherworldly Century plants. Viewing the house from this vista accents the Derby’s Oz-like ambience. In his lifetime, Lloyd Wright was overwhelmed by his internationally famous father, but his dramatic creations aptly illustrated his flair for innovation and daring design. “Lloyd Wright was extremely versatile, much more so than his father,” says architectural historian David Gebhard. “And he was a meticulous craftsman. In some ways, his concrete-block designs have held up better through the years than his father’s better-known work. The unusual house at 2535 E. Chevy Chase Drive, now a designated Historic Landmark, bears testimony to Lloyd Wright’s virtuosity and genius. Where and When What: The Derby House, a designated Historic Landmark. Location: 2535 E. Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale. Drive by only; the house is a private residence and occupants should not be disturbed. Photo from: https://exhibitview.info/post/183598320716/derby-house-frank-lloyd-wright-1926-glendale-ca
Hats Off to Derby House : The landmark home in Glendale was designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1926.
Hats Off to Derby House : The landmark home in Glendale was designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1926. By Susan Vaughn OCT. 29, 1993 12 AM PT GLENDALE — The Derby House is a child’s dream castle--stacks of dark blocks reaching skyward. Its hulk is enshrouded in foliage. Its facade is massive and forbidding. One half-expects Mayan ghosts to surge from its bowels, spears outstretched in greeting. Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, built the house in 1926 for businessman James Derby, his wife and two sons. The Derbys separated prior to the home’s completion; only Mrs. Derby and the children eventually lived within its mysterious walls. The Derby House’s rock-pile form is dauntingly archetypal. It resembles the ancient fortresses and temples erected centuries ago in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and medieval Europe. These structures seemed to sprout from the earth like geological blooms, evincing the strength, durability, and power of their builders. Such is the allure of Lloyd Wright’s Derby House, which has been called by UCLA historian Thomas Hines one of Wright’s “strongest achievements.” The house’s paradoxical qualities--massive but airy, organic but otherworldly, simply contoured but elementally complex--make it a delight to behold. Wright created the Derby House from concrete textile block, wood and stucco. He designed plant-like patterns in the concrete blocks, similar to designs of the Southwest American Indians. When struck by light, the blocks produce a kaleidoscope of lively light shapes and shadows upon walls, floors and other surfaces. There is constant movement within the cavernous house and upon its facade, as the sun, in its journey across the sky, leaves indecipherable, changing hieroglyphics in its wake. A concrete staircase encircles the Derby House’s girth, leading up to an imposing second-story entrance. Inside is a double-height living room, as bold and dramatic as the nave of a Gothic church. Floor-to-ceiling windows welcome sunlight into the space; a second-story balcony and monumental chimney and fireplace of carved blocks add to the room’s grandeur. The Derby’s current owners, Michael and Carole Dougherty, a retired lawyer and Southern California Historical Society employee, have decorated the Derby’s interior in unpretentious 1920s style. Since they bought the five-bedroom house in 1974, they have meticulously attended to its preservation. “For some people, it could be overwhelming,” says Carole Dougherty, who was intimidated by the Derby’s “fortress-like” appearance prior to moving in. “It’s a very dramatic house. I was worried about its structure, maintaining it, restoring it, but it’s worked out well, and we’ve loved living here.” The Doughertys’ master bedroom is at once vast and embryonically insular. Its dramatic cathedral-style windows permit columns of sunlight to slither across the floor. A double-height ceiling and balcony loft above the bedroom area emphasize the room’s sweeping vertical nature. The courtyard proves historians’ contention that Lloyd Wright was a brilliant landscaper. The Derbys’ crew-cut lawn is surrounded by a veritable garden of delights that includes mountain lilac, sage, pear cactus, poppy, California holly, eucalyptus, myrtle, iris and otherworldly Century plants. Viewing the house from this vista accents the Derby’s Oz-like ambience. In his lifetime, Lloyd Wright was overwhelmed by his internationally famous father, but his dramatic creations aptly illustrated his flair for innovation and daring design. “Lloyd Wright was extremely versatile, much more so than his father,” says architectural historian David Gebhard. “And he was a meticulous craftsman. In some ways, his concrete-block designs have held up better through the years than his father’s better-known work. The unusual house at 2535 E. Chevy Chase Drive, now a designated Historic Landmark, bears testimony to Lloyd Wright’s virtuosity and genius. Where and When What: The Derby House, a designated Historic Landmark. Location: 2535 E. Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale. Drive by only; the house is a private residence and occupants should not be disturbed. Photo from: https://exhibitview.info/post/183598320716/derby-house-frank-lloyd-wright-1926-glendale-ca
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Dec 14, 1978
- Charmaine Bantugan
James Daniel Derby House - National Register of Historic Places
Statement of Significance: The following was written by Esther Mcdoy, author, architectural historian, and correspondent for Progressive Architecture. The’ quotations are taken from a letter by Alson Clark, librarian of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library of the University of Southern California and have been added to Mrs. McCoy's material. The Derby House built-in 1926 is one of six houses designed by Lloyd Wright or his father, Frank Lloyd Wright, in a system called KnitBlock. Concrete blocks were cast in a mold of an abstract design drawn from nature, the design either embossed or pierced; the blocks were knitted together with steel rods, "...the first house using reinforced concrete blocks was built by Lloyd Wright, and the senior f Wright acknowledged the fact that the idea came from his son." The material and system were judged by the Wrights to suitable for a semiarid climate - essentially a mud form pierced and opened up for light. The textured concrete block period lasted less than ten years with the Wrights. The sunscreens were used by Wright in this house "at least four years before Le Corbusier proposed them for buildings in Algiers, and thirty - yeas before Edward D. Stone popularized them ..." The library/balcony which runs diagonally across the living room "is undoubtedly the prototype for the living rooms in Frank Lloyd Wright's famous unbuilt Saint Mark’s Tower' project in New York three years later." Lloyd Wright’s houses differ from his fathers in several respects; one, the concentration of ornament rather than an overall texture; two, Lloyd used ornament as a counterpoint to large areas of plain walls. The extensive use of planar surfaces in Lloyd's work shows the influence of Irving Gill, in whose San Diego office he worked as a draftsman as a young man. (Gill's houses were undecorated cubes.) Lloyd's skill in creating dramatic (often theatrical) spaces and forms IS a contribution too little recognized. Lloyd's houses are unique in the grandeur of their scale, (even for a structure of limited size); they are self-contained in their scale, seldom establishing a benchmark from which they can be measured but instead simply being objects in space. Some of this scaleless tendency may come from the German Expressionists, but Lloyd's interest in the theater gives to his houses a certain kinship with the stage or movie set. Lloyd was one of the few who could combine a livable plan with high drama. The general scheme of Lloyd's outdoor spaces reflects his years in the office of landscape architects and land planners, Olmsted and Olmsted; he worked with them on plans for Balboa Park, Palos Verdes and the City of Torrance. The siting of the house on the decomposed granite soil, the layout of the gardens shows a debt to the Olmsteds. The Derby House "is one of the landmarks of modern architecture in Southern California."
James Daniel Derby House - National Register of Historic Places
Statement of Significance: The following was written by Esther Mcdoy, author, architectural historian, and correspondent for Progressive Architecture. The’ quotations are taken from a letter by Alson Clark, librarian of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library of the University of Southern California and have been added to Mrs. McCoy's material. The Derby House built-in 1926 is one of six houses designed by Lloyd Wright or his father, Frank Lloyd Wright, in a system called KnitBlock. Concrete blocks were cast in a mold of an abstract design drawn from nature, the design either embossed or pierced; the blocks were knitted together with steel rods, "...the first house using reinforced concrete blocks was built by Lloyd Wright, and the senior f Wright acknowledged the fact that the idea came from his son." The material and system were judged by the Wrights to suitable for a semiarid climate - essentially a mud form pierced and opened up for light. The textured concrete block period lasted less than ten years with the Wrights. The sunscreens were used by Wright in this house "at least four years before Le Corbusier proposed them for buildings in Algiers, and thirty - yeas before Edward D. Stone popularized them ..." The library/balcony which runs diagonally across the living room "is undoubtedly the prototype for the living rooms in Frank Lloyd Wright's famous unbuilt Saint Mark’s Tower' project in New York three years later." Lloyd Wright’s houses differ from his fathers in several respects; one, the concentration of ornament rather than an overall texture; two, Lloyd used ornament as a counterpoint to large areas of plain walls. The extensive use of planar surfaces in Lloyd's work shows the influence of Irving Gill, in whose San Diego office he worked as a draftsman as a young man. (Gill's houses were undecorated cubes.) Lloyd's skill in creating dramatic (often theatrical) spaces and forms IS a contribution too little recognized. Lloyd's houses are unique in the grandeur of their scale, (even for a structure of limited size); they are self-contained in their scale, seldom establishing a benchmark from which they can be measured but instead simply being objects in space. Some of this scaleless tendency may come from the German Expressionists, but Lloyd's interest in the theater gives to his houses a certain kinship with the stage or movie set. Lloyd was one of the few who could combine a livable plan with high drama. The general scheme of Lloyd's outdoor spaces reflects his years in the office of landscape architects and land planners, Olmsted and Olmsted; he worked with them on plans for Balboa Park, Palos Verdes and the City of Torrance. The siting of the house on the decomposed granite soil, the layout of the gardens shows a debt to the Olmsteds. The Derby House "is one of the landmarks of modern architecture in Southern California."
Dec 14, 1978
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