Frank Lloyd Wright built a house here, and so did his son and Richard Neutra.
What Los Feliz looks like
Griffith Park runs along the north edge of Los Feliz, though it counts as its own separate neighborhood, observatory included. South of the park, the neighborhood is flat blocks of apartment buildings from the 1920s built around courtyards with tile roofs and stucco walls. , on Franklin Avenue, was built in 1928 and landmarked by the city. , an Anglo-Catholic church on Finley Avenue, dates from 1930.
The hills above have some of Los Angeles's best known houses. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the on Glendower Avenue in 1924, built from patterned concrete blocks in what Wright called his textile block method. His son Lloyd Wright used the same method two years later on the , on Franklin Avenue, with a stepped pyramid shaped entrance. Richard Neutra built the on Dundee Drive in 1929, one of the first steel frame houses in the country. Neutra also acted as the house's contractor.
Bungalow courts and Spanish courtyard apartments line the residential streets near Franklin and Kingsley, each building arranged around a shared walkway or garden. On Los Feliz Boulevard, cedar trees run the length of the road. The Blackburn Residence stands behind a lawn of queen palms and clipped hedges. On Sunset Drive, the 's marquee runs the length of its front over a single screen auditorium that reopened in 2023.
Shot in Los Feliz
Three architect designed houses in the hills above Los Feliz have been used in film and television for decades. A single screen theater on Sunset Drive has its own separate run of credits.
Blade Runner, 1982
The Blade Runner house
Played Deckard's world in a dystopian Los Angeles
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Ennis House for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, built from patterned concrete blocks in what Wright called his textile block method. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation counts more than eighty film, television and commercial appearances. People still call it the Blade Runner house, after the 1982 film. A swimming pool was built on the grounds for Female in 1933, and Black Rain added a matte backdrop of a high rise for its 1989 scenes here.
L.A. Confidential, 1997
The Black Dahlia house
Played Pierce Patchett's party and Dudley Smith's kitchen
Lloyd Wright built the Sowden House in 1926 for the artist John Sowden, the last Mayan Revival textile block house the Wrights built. From 1945 to 1950 it belonged to Dr. George Hodel. His son later wrote a book arguing his father killed Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia, in the house's basement. L.A. Confidential shot a living room dance scene and a kitchen scene between Vincennes and Dudley Smith here in 1997. The TNT series I Am the Night, based on the Hodel family's own story, used the actual house again in 2019.
L.A. Confidential, 1997
The Lovell Health House, Dundee Drive
Played Pierce Patchett's mansion
Richard Neutra built the Lovell House for physician Philip Lovell between 1927 and 1929, one of the first steel frame houses built in the United States. L.A. Confidential used both the interior and exterior as the home of vice lord Pierce Patchett in 1997, and Beginners used it again in 2010 as the house where Oliver's father Hal lived.
What Los Feliz can double for
Palm Springs in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs has the country's densest concentration of midcentury modern houses, several of them by Richard Neutra, the same architect who built the Lovell House here. They have flat rooflines and glass walls opening onto outdoor terraces. Palm Springs sits flat in open desert rather than on a canyon hillside, so a wide shot that includes the surrounding terrain gives the switch away and a tighter shot on the house itself holds the match better. Try searching midcentury modern desert house now.
Coral Gables in Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables was built in the 1920s around stucco courtyard apartments with red tile roofs and arched loggias, the same Spanish Revival vocabulary as the courtyard buildings on Franklin and Kingsley here. Coral Gables' streets are wider and its lots are larger, with royal palms rather than the tighter courtyards here, so a close shot on one building works better than a street level wide shot. Try searching Spanish courtyard apartment building now.
Lakeview in Chicago, Illinois
The Music Box Theatre in Lakeview is a 1929 movie palace, the same kind of building as the Vista Theatre here. Its original single screen auditorium still runs as an independent art house cinema, though two more screens have since been added elsewhere in the building. The Music Box has a painted night sky ceiling inside, so an interior shot needs careful framing to keep the ceiling out of frame, while the exterior marquee is generic enough to pass for either city. Try searching single screen movie palace now.
