LA’s only UNESCO World Heritage site, Hollyhock House
Address: 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Since 2024, Terremoto has been collaborating with Barnsdall Art Park—home to LA’s only UNESCO World Heritage site, Hollyhock House—to reimagine the site’s California-inspired landscape.
Terremoto is guiding several new test plots in the park, which will incorporate community stewardship into care of the landscape. These ecological interventions support water conservation, fire resilience, and biodiversity, bringing Barnsdall Art Park into a new era of landcare, aligned with Aline Barnsdall’s original vision for the park as a community center—rooted in art and the beauty of California’s native landscape.
SCHINDLER TERRACE TEST PLOT
In 1925, Aline Barnsdall commissioned Rudolph M. Schindler to design a terrace garden here on the west slope of Olive Hill. One of the earliest modern landscapes in Los Angeles, Schindler Terrace remains today as a ruin, severely damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake and therefore not generally open to the public. In 2025, Terremoto and Test Plot began collaborating with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) to reanimate this landmark. The experimental landscape features California native plants inspired by Schindler’s original planting scheme. Instead of lawn, a native meadow has been seeded and planted.The current planting palette includes California coffeeberry, firecracker penstemon, deergrass, California morning glory, clustered field sedge, white yarrow, creeping wild rye, farewell to spring, California goldfields, tidy tips, lupine, California poppies, and checkerblooms (or California hollyhocks).
One-hundred years after its original design, Schindler Terrace is still a site of artistry and experimentation. The test plot here will evolve and expand over time through the care and engagement of our local community.
JUNIOR ARTS CENTER TEST PLOT
Planted in spring 2026, the Junior Arts Center test plot was designed to be a resource for the Arts Centers community, including students of all ages, instructors, and staff.
The approach incorporates a cutting garden of herbs and native wildflowers as well as medicinal and ceremonial plants, including mugwort, sages, yarrow and sagebrush. The garden is meant to be enjoyed and used for the Center’s art programming..
This test plot builds on previous community garden efforts for the Arts Center and enlivens a main thoroughfare through Barnsdall Art Park.
