Monthly Update
An Ocatilla Evening :: Tickets Now On Sale
Join the Organic Architecture + Design Archives on Friday, November 6, 2026, for An Ocatilla Evening, OA+D’s annual fundraising celebration and an unforgettable evening devoted to Frank Lloyd Wright’s remarkable lost desert masterpiece.
Hosted at the Chandler Museum, this special event will invite guests to experience Ocatilla: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Lost Desert Masterpiece in a festive and intimate setting. Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, drinks, conversation with fellow admirers of architecture and design, and a silent auction featuring unique items and experiences.
At the center of the exhibition is a full-scale reconstruction of one of Wright’s 1929 Ocatilla cabins, accompanied by rare archival materials, historic photographs, original objects, drawings, and film footage. Together, these elements reveal how Wright’s brief desert encampment helped transform his ideas about architecture, landscape, and life in the American Southwest.
More than a memorable evening, this event is an opportunity to support the important work of OA+D. Proceeds will advance the organization’s ongoing efforts to preserve, protect, research, and share the history of organic architecture and design through archival stewardship, exhibitions, publications, and public programs.
Tickets are $75 per person, and availability is limited.
Friday, November 6, 2026
Tickets: $75 per person
Hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and silent auction included
Do not miss your chance to experience this landmark exhibition after hours, connect with others who share a passion for architecture and design, and help ensure that important stories and materials are preserved for future generations. Reserve your tickets today and become part of an evening, and a mission, that will leave a lasting legacy.
From the Archives: Chemosphere Rising
The OA+D Archives has acquired a rare vintage photograph capturing John Lautner’s celebrated Malin Residence, better known as the Chemosphere, while it was still under construction. The original 8-by-10-inch black-and-white gelatin silver print reveals the house before its exterior was completed, exposing the radial framing and structural ingenuity behind one of the most recognizable homes of the twentieth century. The reverse bears the stamp of the Southern California Gas Company Photographic Bureau and its original negative number.
Designed in 1960 for aerospace engineer Leonard Malin, the octagonal residence offered an ingenious solution for a steep Hollywood Hills site. Lautner elevated the home on a slender concrete column nearly 29 feet high, allowing it to hover dramatically above the slope while opening panoramic views across the San Fernando Valley. Corporate sponsorships helped make the ambitious project possible, with materials supplied by Chem Seal inspiring the house’s famous name.
Lautner served as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s original Taliesin Fellows from 1933 to 1939, carrying the principles of organic architecture into a highly individual body of work that united structure, landscape, technology, and dramatic spatial experience. This newly acquired photograph preserves more than the appearance of an architectural icon. It captures the remarkable moment when one of Lautner’s boldest ideas was still taking shape.
If you have archival materials related to John Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright, or any other organic architectural or design items that you're interested in donating for our growing collections, please let us know by contacting us at info@oadarchives.org.
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OA+D NEWS & EVENTS
Now Available in Softcover: *Crossing Boundaries with Frank Lloyd Wright*
OA+D is pleased to announce that Sidney K. Robinson’s Crossing Boundaries with Frank Lloyd Wright: How Ornament Led to Architecture is now available in a new softcover edition.
In this thought-provoking study, Robinson examines how Wright carried the principles underlying Louis Sullivan’s ornament into the design of entire buildings. The book explores Wright’s movement across the boundaries between architecture and nature, interior and exterior, tradition and innovation, and ornament and structure.
Featuring a foreword by noted architectural historian David G. De Long, the 224-page volume includes more than 75 color and black-and-white photographs. Its convenient 9-by-6-inch format makes it an excellent addition to the library of anyone interested in Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, organic architecture, ornament, or architectural theory.
Order your copy today and discover a fascinating new perspective on how Wright transformed the visual language of ornament into a distinctly American approach to architecture.
Discover Robert Hartmann in the New *Journal OA+D*
The newest issue of the Journal of Organic Architecture + Design celebrates the remarkable work of Racine photographer, designer, and architectural historian Robert Hartmann.
As Mark Hertzberg recently noted in Wright in Racine, Hartmann is one of the city’s long-hidden architectural treasures. The 48-page issue features more than 70 photographs and drawings documenting the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Taliesin Associated Architects, Bruce Goff, Herb Greene, and others. Several images also preserve important records of buildings that have since been demolished.
Together, Hartmann’s photographs, renderings, and interpretive studies reveal a lifetime of close observation, careful research, and devotion to organic architecture.
Order your copy today, subscribe to the Journal OA+D, or, best of all, become a Friend of OA+D sustaining member. Active members automatically receive every new issue while providing ongoing support for OA+D’s vital work to preserve and share the legacy of organic architecture and design.