Recentering El Pueblo

Blogus Defunctus

2011-09-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

I took a hiatus of sorts, maybe a little tired of the writing grind, distracted by social media; and, cured of the insomnia that facilitated so many two am postings.

Stumping for preservation doesn't always make for joyous rallies either. Developers are seldom opposed by indentured city council persons; and only the wealthiest, most resourceful neighborhoods are spared the threshing machine.

I'm not opposed to contemporary architecture in principle. In fact, there's a many a Corbusian crib, in Venice and environs, I admire. Still, it's enthusiasm dampening when so many folksy Tudors are obliterated for 'builders cubes.'

1759 S. Bronson Avenue

2011-04-25T19:13:00.001-07:00

Airplane bungalow with "Japo-Swiss" flair in Arlington Heights

De Vaux Family Residence. Built and designed by Emil Gross in 1913

Stately public rooms embellished with pristine, golden mahogany woodwork. Three bedrooms (plus study), including commodious master (18.5 X 12) with gargantuan closet (11 X 6.5), windows on three sides.

Detached garage with second-story office/guest quarters (replete with kitchenette and bath).

Multiple systems improvements, including freshly rendered exterior (paint and stain).

Period details, including fixtures, built-ins, oak and maple flooring.

Offered as a fully cooperating pocket listing and shown by appointment

3 beds, 2 bath; 1,947 sq. ft. (not including detached space); lot size: 6621

Price: $650,000.00

Thomas Guide: 633 F5
[Editor's note: withdrawn from market]

Spanish Revival Retreat in Wilshire Vista

2011-01-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

Atop a gentle rise, a masterfully re-worked Spanish Revival with contemporary scale and light-gathering capability awaits.

Open kitchen outfitted with upscale appliances, cork flooring, and custom maple cabinetry.

Sophisticated period details remain including art tile, flooring inlays, and multi-light casement windows.

Voluminous living room with barrel vault ceiling.
Spectacular master suite with two sets of french doors, ample closets, and bonus meditation space.

One block North of a revitalized Pico Blvd. strip featuring Sky's Taco's, Pico>Modern Furnishings, Whole Body Gallery, Chic Restaurant, and Bloom Cafe, amongst others.
Detached garage, well suited for office conversion or creative space.

Sweeping system upgrades including electrical, plumbing, heating/cooling, tankless hot water.

1306 Hauser Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019-2521

2 beds + 2 baths
1,421 square feet (per public records)
Year built: 1925
Lot size: 5,270
Thomas Guide: 633-C4
$679,000.00
Shown by appointment gladly and enthusiastically.
Sale is subject to lender approval; negotiated by seasoned agent. Seller has complete lender package ready.

Co-listed with Kristine Halverson of Prudential California Realty.

More images, information available.
[Editor's note: sold]

2158 W. 24th ST.

2010-08-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

2158 W. 24th ST

Does anybody remember this listing? It's baaaaccccckkkkkk! After a couple of false starts, we're finally marketing in earnest.

Kinney Heights Craftsman Retreat

A broad, recessed dormer and a bold two-story bay punctuate this dynamic early Craftsman form, with generous, extended eaves and supple rafters. The delightful complexity continues inside with substantial, successive, detail-rich rooms, each with dual exposure. Dramatic interplays of volume persist on the second floor with soaring, lancet-shaped cove ceilings, and an intimate, tree top sleeping porch. Sophisticated kitchen, with pantries, recycled glass tile backsplash, and superb linoleum inlay floor, opens onto a mature acacia tree, providing beautifully filtered ambiance, and picturesque sightline.

An unusually generous lot size, bolstered by an exceptionally wide frontage, is made even more pronounced by a relatively small building footprint. An unrivaled, outdoor life inducing green space results. The front garden is landscaped with live oaks, toyon, coral bells, lilacs and a host of California natives and climate-suited Mediterranean plants. Gravel mulch gives way to thick shows of wildflowers in spring. Stonework and a dry-stream bed by Pasadena firm Urban Organics capture and keep rainwater. The rear garden boasts a second arroyo, an Italian fountain, and meandering paths dividing beds stocked with apple, apricot and plum trees underplanted with roses, sage and lavender. At the rear is a raised bed for vegetables and a two-story carriage house with room for dirty play downstairs and a studio above.

2158 W. 24th ST 90018
3 beds, 1.5 baths
1,712 square feet
Year built: 1906
Lot size: 58 x 150
Lot Area: 8,700
$690,000
[Editor's note: sold]

West Adams' Creative Canvas

2010-05-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

West Adams Heritage Association Spring Tour

A doozy, entitled Art in Historic Places: West Adams' Creative Canvas, this year's tour showcases the work of West Adams resident artists. Ten architecturally diverse venues are on tap, including those pictured, single family homes, a 1920's fourplex, a carriage house turned studio, and an early movie theatre.

Featured artists include: Rob Remer, Marina Moevs, Max Miceli, Sue Ann Jewers, Jenny Hager, Steven Irwin, Tom Lazarus, Taidgh O'Neill, Tolanna, Shelly Adler, Dianne Lawrence, Art Curtis, David Pacheco, Rory Cunningham, Susan Arena, Art Tobias, Mas Ojima, Donald Ferguson, Aaron Morse, Kim Lee Kahn, and Fredric Booker.

This self-guided, drive--or bike--yourself, tour is scheduled for

Saturday, June 5th, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets are $30 on the day of the event, at the check-in: 1824 S. 4th Avenue (at Washington Boulevard).

For more information, call 323-733-4223, or write tours@westadamsheritage.org; and, as always please wear shoes that won't mar hardwood surfaces.

America's Second Most Famous Architect?

2010-05-06T09:34:00.001-07:00

In January, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) nominated ten Frank Lloyd Wright designed structures for inclusion on its list of world cultural heritage sites, an unparalleled honor. Wright is doubtlessly America's most famous architect. But who is number two?

I surveyed ten "archiphiles," a group of architects, planners,

architectural historians, and authors. Responses varied, from Canadian born Frank Gehry to Chinese born I.M. Pei, from Thomas Jefferson to modernist mad men.

The consensus number two with a whopping two votes: Henry Hobson Richardson (or H.H. Richardson), a giant of late 19th century architecture, progenitor of the Richardsonian Romanesque Style, which loosely reinterpreted Medieval characteristics.

Is there another American cultural form so beholden to the legacy of a single practitioner? Who would vie for the mantle of America's greatest painter, film director, fiction writer? Miles Davis, Ansell Adams, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Elvis Presley, Fred Astaire, none seem as peerless as Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright.

(Images are of FLW's Hollyhock House)

No More Apologies

2010-05-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

Despite a plethora of celebrated Mexican and Salvadorean eateries, barbecue and soul food spots, the restaurant scene in West Adams has seldom been trumpeted; and, the question--oft asked is, 'Does one have to leave the neighborhood for a decent meal?'

As it happens, the previously under-served USC area is exploding with new options, including a fleet of gourmet loncheras, mostly stationed along Jefferson and Hoover. Greek, Korean-Mexican fusion, Vietnamese, pizza by the slice, and desert trucks, an ever changing roster, have enlivened these bustling corridors.

Adjacent to the events center on Figueroa, the USC hospitality folks have assumed control, replacing a tired Sizzler with a gastropup (The Lab), replete with firepits and flatscreens, added an upscale surf-n-turf (McKay's), and a pizzeria.

At Grand Street and 37th, Mercado La Paloma, a former warehouse, hosts six restaurants and a couple handcraft vendors, sprinkled about communal space. Amongst the food choices: noted Peruvian-Japanese establishment Mo-Chica, and a satellite location of Westlake's legendary Yucatanean hot spot, Chicken Itza.

A veritable restaurant row is in the making, making my response easy.

Chalet Leftovers

2010-04-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

Diamonds are Forever

2010-04-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

The varied shingle idiom is amongst the defining characteristics of the late Victorian house styles.

The diamond motif, possibly inspired by playing cards, appears often.

A void, filled inexplicably, by a curtain of vellum.

The term imbrication refers to the overlapping of shaped (patterned) tiles or shingles.

Image left features a diamond, set bindi-like, in a front facing gable.

April Fools Market

2010-04-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Real estate's new Magilla Gorilla is the escrow process, longer, and more onerous. Appraisals are uncertain, rendered by out of area know nothings, loan approvals take an eternity to garner, lender demands: unceasing and often idiotic.

Not only is the 30 day escrow process a thing of the past, but even a 45 day time frame is ambitious, perhaps ill advised. Best plan on three months for an FHA deal. Delays a plenty. Need synchronized closings? Forget it, better to build in a seller rent-back.

The Appraisal Story

The appraiser surveyed the property, clipboard in hand, likely ignoring my neighborhood spiel.

"It's a new house," he blurted, questioningly.

"No," I responded flatly--a bit astonished, "it was built in 1898. Where are you from," I continued.

"La Canada," he volunteered, stealing a glance at his car, parked next to a hydrant.

"Have you ever been to this neighborhood before," I asked warily, "we're close to USC you know."

He hadn't, he didn't, and he tanked the value, comparing the property to others North of the freeway, apples and oranges.

*********************************************************

Supposedly we're safeguarding the consumer, thwarting cronyism with these new reforms, Good Faith Estimates, and the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), which mandates an anonymous appraiser pool rather than area-experienced specialists. Frankly, I think it's bunk. Window dressing, at the consumer's expense, to mask financial mismanagement and a creative shortfall.

Swiss Chalet Style (Part 2)

2010-03-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Please see preceding post: Swiss Chalet Style Part 1

Disappointingly, most of L.A.'s Chalets have been significantly altered: projecting porches enclosed, or eliminated; detailed balustrades, scroll sawn railings, lost or replaced by hollow core metal.

An outstanding model from versatile, creative architect Charles Whittlesey (image middle), and the Angelus Vista neighborhood. Whittlesey's rendition includes an extending ridge and tapered modillions.

The Bavarian spirit is alive and well in Adams-Normandie thanks to notched stickwork and scalloped details.

Swiss Chalet Style (Part 1)

2010-03-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Few examples of the Swiss Chalet Style exist in Los Angeles, and almost all were built during the Edwardian era.

Two principal sub-types can be distinguished. The first (see image top) combines a low-pitched front-gabled roof, with clipped (or jerkinhead) end, deep eaves, and exposed rafters.

The second (see image middle) is sited perpendicularly, and a large, elaborate masonry chimney serves as a visual centerpiece.

Tudor-like half-timbering, patterned stickwork, and a second story porch or balcony paired with substantial brackets, are also defining features.

Chalet elements were frequently applied to the pervasive Craftsman plan type. In the third image, a bungalow bears Chalet style stickwork in its gables. Note the elaborated, pendant-like, ends.

Part 2 tomorrow....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Irving Gill (Part 1)

2010-03-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

Contrary to architectural mythos, the subordination of ornament--the neue Sachlichkeit--was not first realized in Vienna or Glasgow, Berlin or Oak Park, but in the sleepy, seaside hamlet of San Diego, California, where architect Irving Gill, began practice in 1893, following a brief stint in the legendary Chicago office of Adler & Sullivan.

Aided by one of his early partners, William Hebbard (who also emanated from the great Chicago seed pod), and possibly influenced by an early job stabilizing the ruins of the Mission San Diego de Alcala, Gill began offering minimalist interpretations of established styles as early as the late 1890's. The improvisational Gill may have also gained from "primitivist" Frank Mead, a student of Andalusian forms, who joined the firm in 1905 and with whom Gill briefly partnered in 1907.

Solo by 1908, and pursuing a style without definite historical precedent, the ever inventive Gill who experimented with new materials (concrete, magnesite) and methods (thin wall, tilt-slab construction), was labeled a cubist and a secessionist by an uncomprehending press.

That nothing so fresh was produced along the Eastern seaboard for a whole generation is a manifold cause for astonishment, though perhaps Gill was liberated by San Diego's isolation and freedom from architectural precepts. While the office building had undergone a streamlining, courtesy of the Chicago gang, Gill's brand of austerity--particularly in the domestic arena--was unprecedented.

Irving Gill's architectural legacy is unmatched in San Diego, where the majority of his projects can be found, and where he died in 1936. Gill fostered a series of inspired disciples, largely arts and crafts geometricists, including his nephew Louis Gill, Lloyd Wright, Hazel Waterman, and Emmor Brooke Weaver.

The San Diego Heritage Association's Annual Historic House Tour, on Saturday, March 21st, is featuring four Gill and Hebbard designs, on Balboa Park adjacent Seventh Avenue. For more information and tickets, go to www.SOHOSanDiego.org.

Block Changers

2010-03-06T06:58:00.001-08:00

It's nice to be associated with architectural masterworks, bag hefty commissions, bask in reflected glory. But my greatest source of professional satisfaction is representing buyers on block changers, typically long neglected, tenant-occupied dwellings, spewing adverse impacts.

While it's important to shepherd the comings and goings of swans, neighborhood trajectories are altered most by the passage of ugly ducklings. Because seldom is an entire block guilty of impiety; instead, a single residence is the source of horn honking, the feral cat population, late night shenanigans.

Bad apples put to compost. "The Christmas House" lay vacant after evicting a deadbeat tenant, vandalized and collecting refuse. At "La Casa Azul" people slept two to a bed, and in bunks, in violation of occupancy restrictions. The yard grew wild and brown (photo is post trim).

Homeownership may be a right, but it's also a responsibility.

Screen Savers

2010-03-03T02:36:00.000-08:00

Death of a Model

2010-03-02T20:55:00.001-08:00

Most good listing agents have a signature touch, be it catered brokers opens, property specific web-sites, or staging preferences. I've a trade secret too: marketing images incorporating animals.

I've featured half a dozen dogs and cats, in backyards, amongst tall grass, splayed across the kitchen floor, balled on a comfy chair, exhibiting happiness, vulnerability; engaging.

While I've yet to outlive a client, a couple of my most irresistible subjects have passed.

Here's hoping for a doggie and kittie heaven.

1880's/1920's/2000's

2010-02-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

Periods of prosperity, each with deflating finales.

The booms encouraged American weakness: love of magnitude, a penchant for land gambling, deplorable waste.

But after the love is gone?

The 1890's delivered a decade of unmatched eclecticism, exotic

revivals, rusticism, the Chicago School, new forms of expression, the basis of modern architecture.

In the 1930's a machine aesthetic, best exemplified by the Streamline Moderne--the continued development of those ideas first engendered in the late nineteenth century, tamped the fantasy and romance that infused America's bucolic post war period.

The late 2000's?

To Be Continued....

The Awful Tower

2010-02-17T01:48:00.000-08:00

While less tall than the U.S. Bank Tower or Aon Center, L.A. Live's 54-story hotel and condo complex nonetheless dominates sightlines, immodestly isolated on downtown's Southwestern edge.

The sleekly framed Q-tip mass, designed by big project poobahs Gensler, is the latest big city skyline marring "signature structure," joining the ranks of San Francisco's One Rincon.

Checkboarded in blue tinted glass, the structure rises, exclamation point like, along the 110 freeway, defying scale, defiling scale.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T09:40:00.001-08:00

Super Bowl XXXX Something or Other

2010-02-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

While I've a fondness for the Colts franchise, many things Baltimorean, I'll be rooting for the New Orleans Saints. The Colts' furtive relocation to Hoosier land, and recent big game win (2006), make the 'Aints-no-more, my feel good favorites.

The Saint franchise, christened in 1967, and playing in its first Championship game, is led by mortal-sized quarterback Drew Brees. The Colts are captained by pleasing pitchman Peyton Manning, the likely product of genetic engineering.

While Indianapolis has been installed as the odds on choice, significant Colt injuries may be a factor.

(Images courtesy of the writer's dog-eared sports card collection.)

Density Dogma (Part 2)

2010-02-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

Please see Density Dogma Part 1 (12/14/2009)

Only density, charge the growth shills, can forge the new mecca: vibrant, walkable communities, like immoderately wealthy land islands Manhattan and San Francisco. Density dendrites, linking decentralized purlieus, offer salvation, sustainability, more bakeries, a trattoria.

But what of Maywood then, I ask, to a sea of blank faces. Maywood: California's most densely populated city. More densely populated than Santa Monica, San Jose, or San Francisco. Have the residents of Maywood forsaken the combustion engine, biking to nearby jobs, past corner close farmer's markets and keen shops, enkindled by vitalizing street life?

Nope.

Are basic services, life's little necessities, nicely arrayed along the main drag, East Slauson?

Necessities perhaps, but little else, and many storefronts appear lifeless or relegated to automobile uses. Recreational opportunities, meanwhile, are nearly non-existent for Maywood's 40,000 residents, limited to a pocket park and a thin strip of L.A. River badlands. Maywood hasn't a movie theatre, or performance space, gym, toy store, libreria, cookwares shop, art supply source, or athletic fields.

The ideal urban construct, apparently, requires a bit more than up-zoning.

The Dating Game

2010-01-30T02:47:00.000-08:00

Many colonial era buildings incorporated a date stone, bearing the year of finished construction.

Dates have also been memorialized in wood, on plaques, even stained glass.

When I assume the fantasy position of Building Czar, date inscriptions will become obligatory; and, any facade changes will require notation, such as:

Built in 1914

Re-sheathed in 1972

Window Replacement in 2003

Perhaps commemoration will give pause.

Eyebrows Again?! Part 2

2010-01-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

Fleeing the bracing modernity of the Craftsman period, and the techno horrors of the Great War, English country/cottage revivalism--comfort housing, gained favor in the 1920's.

A medieval pastiche, half-timbering, prominent chimneys, irregular massing, decorative brick work, and rooflines with thatch-like characteristics were all key traits of this romantic style.

The wavy eave, or eyebrow eave (see Eyebrows Again?! 6/21/2009), a wall/roof junction with a wavy, or undulating profile, often paired with correspondingly shaped doors or windows, helped complete the illusion with a feature-softening come on.

Acanthus

2010-01-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

The Acanthus, favored flora of the Mediterranean, first used as ornament by the Greeks, in the Corinthian and Composite orders, and in many subsequent eras, found favor during the Arts & Crafts period when stylized representations of nature

dominated the decorative arts.

Not uncommonly portrayed in scrolls, and with its caulicoli exposed, alternately spiky or curly tipped, the Acanthus (aka Bear's breeches) appears often as a frieze, tempering bulk (image top).

Some historians, who have have traced the evolution of vegetal garniture, most notably Alois Riegel, claim the acanthus motif is actually a derivation of the palmette, a ubiquitous form in classical decoration.

End of the Year Finds

2010-01-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

Whether on account of holiday preparations, or the influx of new, yuletide trash pickings are typically the year's best.

Note penned in 1926; amidst personal effects in a dresser drawer.

Mission style rocker with missing, damaged leg bottom and rail. Ebonized finish.

The rubbish de resistance: luscious, early '20's, china foot bath with rolled rim. Perfect for tootsies, or toddlers.

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

Topless Turrets (Part 2)

2009-12-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

Please see Topless Turrets (8/10/2009)

A common debate in the old house community is whether preservation is better served by poverty, or prosperity?

The poor, it's supposed, lack the means to alter. Whereas the prosperous, renovate astride changing tastes.

My contention is, for a time poverty does preserve, but ultimately structure requires maintenance.

Turrets, from the Latin turris, particularly require skilled tradespeople.

A turret projects, and is therefore not to be confused with a tower or any feature integral to the building footprint.

Gold Line Eastside

2009-12-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

The city's latest addition to a burgeoning rail system, the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension (or La Linea De Oro, Edward R. Royball), debuted November 15th, at an oft-reported cost of $898 million.

The oddly-named Extension, features eight new stations a mere six miles apart, including two subterranean stops (at Mariachi Plaza and Soto).

From Union Station, the line travels South into the Little Toyko/Arts District, then East along a disturbingly sanitized (the kinship of development is development) First Street to Boyle Heights, eventually passing to Maravilla, and East Los Angeles proper.

The stations feature artful embellishment: seating and shade structures, mosaics, and sculpture.

(The top three images are from the Indiana Station, credited to Paul Botello, a founding member of the East Los Streetscrapers, key contributors to the 1970's muralist movement. Titled Syncretic Manifestations, pierced, stainless steel panels resemble Mexican papel picados, complex, perforated paper designs.)

The Eastside extension feels neither revolutionary, nor likely to create new patterns of use; and it offers not, a different vantage of the city like the grid skewering Pasadena connection.

Still, the sisyphean task continues...

Next stop: Expo Line and westward ho!

Fotografias

2009-12-21T10:29:00.001-08:00

Tudor Revival

2009-12-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

The Tudor Style, so called because it developed during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, experienced a revival in the United States (and Britain) between 1890 - 1930.

The Tudor Revival, recapitulated several early English building types, even fusing for a time with the Arts & Crafts movement, probably on account of anti-industrial ideals.

Graced with several sub-types including the Cotswold model, the Tudor Revival is chiefly distinguished by decorative half-timbering (usually with embellishment concentrated at--but not confined to--the gable). The range of half-timber expression is truly remarkable, yielding elaborate patterns.

Decorative (or false) timbering has succeeded true half-timbering: eight to ten inch timbers, joined by mortise-and-tenon. The voids between these structural members were filled of a mortar, creating the striped or patterned appearance.

2122 Vestal (90026)

2009-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

Elysian Heights Fixer

Two bedroom, one bath Mediterranean-revival cottage with sweeping canyon views, on secluded, tree-sheltering street.

Both the house and detached single car garage have suffered extreme, potentially structure-compromising, water damage and are uninhabitable; furthermore, the property has been cited by the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety. It will not qualify for conventional financing.

The property may be a poor tear-down candidate as well, and parties with redevelopment interest are encouraged to review, at a minimum, building codes, lot coverage ratios, and hillside ordinances.

Neither the brokerage nor listing agent will offer any warranties, either expressed or implied.

A city owned easement runs along the Southern lot line, rendering a privacy enhancing, heretofore unbuilt buffer between properties.

An unimproved parcel, directly opposite, 2123 Vestal (APN 5420-018-011), is simultaneously being offered by Furstenberg Realty (mls#09-399431).

2122 Vestal Avenue (90026)

870 sq. ft.

Year built: 1930

Zone: LAR2

Lot size: 40 X 69

Lot area: 2,760

List price: $250,000

Interior photos and showings available upon request.

Density Dogma (Part 1)

2009-12-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

Density is enjoying a heyday, back from the urban planning scrapheap, the manifesto de jour.

'Mixed use, multi-story in-fill, near transit': the current planning charge, a mantra for the development gryphon.

The re-engagement is understandable, amidst suburban disillusionment, the tireless push of affordable housing advocates, and increased concerns over the resource intensiveness of ever-expanding beltways.

Still, the urban occurrence is being fueled by more than just green jeans and a reprinting of the Jane Jacobs oeuvre. It's because our cities are safe once again, or at least (statistically) safer than they've been in recent history.

Planners understood sustainability and the merits of density in the 1970 and '80's; but were also mindful of "defensible space" (Oscar Newman's study that examined high crimes and high-rises), and the perceived failure of supra quadras like Igor-Pruitt.

The violent crime rate in the United States (as measured by the Bureau of Justice Statistics) soared from a metric of 160.9 in 1960 to 758.1 in 1991; decreasing since. The degree of urbanization, its perceived connection to lawlessness, and middle class flight, often drove policy prior to the onset of trend reversals in the 1990's.

END PART ONE

Saturday Snaps

2009-12-12T09:01:00.001-08:00

Sun King (Part 2)

2009-12-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

See Sun King (11/30/09) for the beginnings of this thread.

Effusing sunbeams as pediment centerpiece, a refreshingly fluid highlight amidst the strict geometries of the cornice and vergeboard detailing.

A sunburst relief panel bedecks a vent dormer, the architectural equivalent of a diamond stud earring.

Could a crawl space access screen be any more beautiful, convulsive, synthetist-like?

West Adams Heritage Association Holiday Tour

2009-12-01T07:06:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again: WAHA's Annual Holiday Historic Homes Tour & Progressive Dinner: Saturday, December 5th and Sunday, December 6th. This year's staging ground: Country Club Park, a pending Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, featuring a melange of pre and post World War One house styles. Courses, one to be served at each exquisitely restored property, include grilled cheese bites, creamy corn bisque, eggplant parmigiana, chicken with lemons and olives, and old-fashioned apple crumble.

Log onto www.WestAdamsHeritage.org for more information, to PAY ONLINE and/or to print/download the invitation flyer. Tickets are: $85 per person for the Progressive Dinner Tour, and $30 for the food-less, self-guided walking tour Sunday afternoon from noon to three pm.

The Holiday Tour & Progressive Dinner lasts about three hours. Please, no high heels.

(I'll see you at the Soup House!)

Roof Returns (Part 2)

2009-12-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

In Roof Returns (May 12, 2009), I featured bargeboards (see also The Devil's in the Thingee March 7, 2008 for a definition of Bargeboard and associated terms) interrupted by chimneys and unusual projections.

I've since collected examples of 'faux fascia', roofing extensions and returns without practical purpose, in service of symmetry, aesthetic pursuits.

These 'bow tie' bargeboards (middle and bottom images) dress a roof/wall junction in dapper fashion. Crowning a column (middle) and masking a change in mass (bottom).

Sun King

2009-11-30T14:28:00.001-08:00

The image of the radiating sun (referred to variously, from the Baroque period forward, as Sunburst, Sunrise, Sun-in-Splendour, Sunset, and Sun-in-Glory), was the most popular turn of the century decorative motif .

Top image: Classic example in gable, glowingly rendered in gold leaf paint.

Many ancient patterns represented the sun, including the swastika, wheel, and Egyptian sun disc; still, figurative examples are the most common.

Middle image: corner brackets with delicious detail.

Bottom image: Craftsman era rendition with attic vent as fiery sphere.

Looks Like Teen Spirit

2009-11-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

The University Gateway Project, latest in the Figueroa facelift, jettisons its hijab.

Bricks and chunky massing, Brutalism with a masonry veil, giantic volumes masquerading as decoration.

Neo-trad(itional) to the max, bookending the more laudable Galen events center, shunning revered, Islamo eccentric neighbor, The Shrine Auditorium.

Ugly. Effective? TBD.....

To There and Back

2009-11-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Terroir d' hood

2009-11-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

Terroir, typically translated from the French as, "a sense of place," is a term largely associated with viticulture and uniquely local attributes.

The attributes that generate the

aura of a neighborhood, and perhaps best define it, should not be bedimmed by presumptive semiotics, or colonializing instincts.

The need for a culturally validated landscape consumes many home buyers, bewitched by radical traditionalism, unreceptive to resemanticising forces.

Intangibles, an obsession of sporting reporters, are always difficult to document. Expertise is useful.

Ch-Ch-Change

2009-11-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

Change is the only constant in urban quarters, the most prevailing characteristic. A challenge then, is to view place not as still, but moving.

University Park, for example, amidst efforts to reframe the Figueroa corridor and USC's

manifest destiny, might resemble a time lapse effect. Flashy eateries and popular chains are sprouting along Figueroa, as is a mid rise cluster of student living complexes. Once the district was a moribund slum. Earlier still, it was home to the city's elite.

Fifteen years ago Palmdale was an up-and-coming bedroom community with new municipal works, and a celebrated growth pattern. Today, the city's image has been radically reset by meteoric foreclosure rates, and mounting social problems amongst its latch-key youth.

Like the expanding universe theories, different neighborhoods

move at different rates of speed.

A few nights ago, I attended a United Neighborhood Neighborhood Council Zoning & Planning

meeting, wherein two of the agenda items concerned Jefferson Park. The meeting was held, without significant fanfare, on a weeknight, during the final game of the World Series. Still, over a dozen residents attended, to further the drive toward a historic designation, one of the invisible rudders that helps steer transitional neighborhoods to productive waters, by more effectively managing change.

Outside Outsider Art

2009-11-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

Backyard murals come in an all shapes, sizes, and sophistications (including driveway trompe l'oeil).

Cultural landscapes revealed: highly romanticized renderings of the old country, chronicles of the immigrant experience, appear frequently (see Caribbean beach scene bottom).

In 2001, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art relocated three walls from a garden structure in Pacific Palisades, bearing Portrait of Mexico Today, the only intact U.S. mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros, painted in 1932.

Old Lyme meet tool shed, might there be other significant backyard works?

About This Site

2009-10-25T03:14:00.001-07:00

Yes this is a real estate web-site, masquerading as a blog, masquerading as a web-site. I've deliberately eschewed the emerging web-site standard: pretty slide show, mortgage calculator, a rap sheet of recent sales. Nor, do I offer a jazzed up bio, full of hand-picked testimonials, and the usual sing song promises: unmatched service, attentive team, a bouquet of flowers on your birthday. (For something a bit more in this vein, see our brokerage site: www.citylivingrealty.com)

Instead, I offer unburnished opinions, a lot of 'em, probably enough to build a gallows. Dig through the archives (500 entries divided among 20 topics) and you'll find years of street-level reporting on the urban experience, architecture, and the real estate industry (replete with criticism).

I write from the perspective of an agent whose chief conviction, and practice, is the promotion and preservation of historic housing stock and neighborhoods, be they mansions in privileged enclaves or humble folk dwellings in the tenderloin.

Additional notes:

*Occasionally, I detail events, vendors, or services. Never have I received payola for doing so.

*Listings are grouped under Current Listings (in the side bar), though I've often pocket listings that don't show on the site (inquiries welcome).

*The photowork is my own.

Grassin' Grass

2009-10-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

Remember when verdant, clean-edged lawns connoted status and neighborhood standing?

Times change. Water use restrictions and a burgeoning water consciousness are shifting the paradigm.

The unbroken carpet effect (seen here in Leimert Park) used to signal pride of ownership; now, it translates as sluggish and lacking progresivity, a bit like Humvee drivers in a gas crunch.

The new world order is even on display in show-boaty Hancock Park, where many a former putting green browns; and elsewhere, as some homeowners, inspired by LADWP turf removal incentives, embrace landscape alternatives.

The semantic system is finally under attack, pitted by terms like evapotranspiration and soil percolation. With a crisis looming,

will morality oblige?

Sub Modern (Part Two)

2009-10-23T01:29:00.000-07:00

More International Style homage, with curtain wall wrap-arounds. More ugliness. Does this building harbor residences, offices, or civic endeavors? Modernism's extreme formality eschews the value of distinguishability.

But back to the impoverishment of architecture (see Sub Modern Part One), and the alibis of the art agnostics: "It's too expensive to build the old way".

It isn't necessarily "too" expensive, but choicer materials and refined finishes cost more, regardless of style. Once consumers, the consortiums, civic leaders, university regents, and mom 'n' pop home buyers accepted minimal forms, be they graph paper-y skyscrapers, or the mass produced post-war housing of Levittown, the die was cast.

Assembly line home building, minimal ersatz, and the machine aesthetic would forever be promoted, the sometimes lesser

costs hailed; the traditional picturesque dismissed, as impractical, even vulgar.

When did simplicity become a correlate of potency?

Things I Found in September 2009

2009-10-21T01:38:00.000-07:00

The good pickins are slimmer of late, surely in part because I've less time, less will to scale the mighty dumpsters, inspect the curb side rubbish, or traffic the forlorn alleys.

Wiffle ball bat, found in Inglewood. Handy for impersonations of Al Kaline or Jimmy Rollins.

The margins in my dayplanner are lined with suspension addled

scrawl, sightings--seldom requited--like, 'pocket door on 36th', or 'demolition near Hooper'.

Painting found in Jefferson Park. Most of the discarded paintings I find are small still lifes. In recent years a growing number of exhibits have considered the art of the "intuitive", "outsider", "found", or "anonymous," including even the ephemera unearthings of Chicago based Found Magazine.

Sometimes the ferocity of the demo demands vigilance, common as investors seek to reduce carrying costs with quick turnarounds that favor the installation of new over the rehab of old.

Pivoting, 24", three piece, turn of the century towel bar, rescued (and subsequently re-plated) from front yard debris in East Adams. Probably the single best hardware find of my recogedor career.

The Real Estate Market October 2009

2009-10-11T03:20:00.001-07:00

With the first time home buyer's credit still ablaze and interest rates remaining near historic lows, consumer sights have re-focused on Los Angeles real estate.

Investor participation has resumed as well, targeting single family housing in "starter markets," for conversion to rentals, or to flip.

Nearly all the reporting agencies, agents, escrow officers, data tracking firms, report a souffle-like rise in transactions, prices.

Has the market got its groove back? If so, this star turn has confounded critics and swamis both, even the smartest guys in the room.

Personally I expect an up-and-down market over the next three

years; but, of what I'm most confident: unpredictability. Just as no one foretold this torrid late summer rally, anticipated the magnetism of the $8,000 tax credit, foresaw the foreclosure moratoriums, and the inventory choking 'controlled release' strategies of the lenders; nor, will the next round of market manipulations be so clairvoyantly divined.

In other words, the bets are off.

Rick's Hardware

2009-09-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

Buy an old house, shop for old house parts. What grande dame isn't bereft a bauble: brass window lift, niggling bullet catch, or push button plate?

Rick's Hardware at 4382 Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake (91602), boasts a diverse inventory of door and window hardware, latches and catches.

The narrow, densely packed shop manages to remain clean and discernible, unlike some larger salvage operations, though items aren't necessarily ordered by era or style.

Rick's caters largely to the film production community, with corresponding hours of operation:

Monday - Thursday 8 am - 4 pm, Friday 8 am - 2 pm.

Tel 818-508-7948

rickshardware@aol.com

Video Paper

2009-09-15T14:26:00.001-07:00

Bemoan, Bemoan Part 2

2009-09-14T22:38:00.000-07:00

(See Bemoan, Bemoan Part 1, 6/27/2009)

Frustration, backpacking through the urban thorn, flag bearing for architectural preservation. So many buildings altered in ways I find deplorable.

Yet I hate these notions: the superior eye, the fecundity of artists--the elites, raised in a monastery of beautiful things, cultivating greater sensitivities.

Typically, I try to recognize competing cultural mandates, and the by-products of resourcelessness. Still my non-judgemental cover bloweth, mainly to vociferate: 'how could one think X is preferable to Y'?

Can people really not see the difference(s)? The envelope

please......and the answer is...YES and NO. People can see the difference, and the difference is of little value. Utility is paramount.

House as utility, as vessel. How many can it shelter, bathe and feed?

Candid Camera

2009-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

Some object to security bars, which in neighborhoods that lack the moderating capabilities of landscape, can seem repressively encircling. In many higher income communities, features of potential alienation are shrunken, if not more unsettling.

Home Security Cameras are an example of such, fixed to eaves, above entrances, atop high walls. Residences, even neighborhoods, blazon their deployment.

As the systems drop in price (a package with four dome-shaped infrared cameras and a four channel DVR with 250 gb, costs around $1,000.00), their employment mounts.

The proliferation is also connected to the rise of the home office. Increasingly, sound and image related professionals, in flagging entertainment industries, are forsaking rental space; instead, housing expensive equipment in re-purposed

garages, basements, and rumpus rooms.

I asked one Hollywood Hills home owner if he'd utilized his multi-camera surveillance set-up.

"Yes," he replied glowingly, "we identified the cat spraying our front door."

Sub Modern (Part One)

2009-09-09T21:54:00.001-07:00

"How dangerously bourgeois," I wise assed to the latest kid Corbusier, "a few strips of teak on the face of el bloque. A little charity for the ol' hammer and nail guys?"

"Even if I wanted to build one of your Beaux Arts fantasies," the architect spat, "I couldn't find the craftspeople--they're under six feet of dirt, along with your aesthetic."

(A common lament, blame not my inability to compose the picturesque, to enroll the broad grammar of architecture, sayeth the builder, I am limited by my charges.)

"That's funny," I returned, "because only a couple blocks away is the Queen Anne inspired Stein Building (second and fourth images), erected not in the 1880's, but in the 1980's. You reckon the finish carpenters were mummies?"

Los Angeles actually boasts dozens of neo free classicals, design throwbacks, and revival revivals; inspiring novelties in a landscape dominated by nuevo Mediterrauseums, and Machine Age rip-offs.

"Stick-n-stucco rules," one custom builder allowed, "because it's fast, cheap and the popular taste."

"Is the blind, leading the blind," I asked.

"You're the critic," he responded, "you tell me."

End Part One

Living History Tour 2009

2009-09-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Angelus Rosedale Cemetery celebrates its 125th anniversary, with the West Adams Heritage Association Living History Tour on Saturday, September 26th.

Tour goers will canvas the scenic grounds, between graveside portrayals of famous Angelenos including:

Jean Goldkette: a prominent jazz bandleader of the 1920's and 1930's.

William H. Shores: the first African American employee of the Security Trust & Savings Bank founded in 1889.

Katharine Putnam Hooker & Marion Osgood Hooker: mother-daughter explorers and travel writers.

Remi Nadeau: member of a pioneering, land-developing, Los Angeles family.

Everett Sloan: actor of radio, tv, and movie fame, who enjoyed a long professional relationship with Orson Welles.

For information on tickets ($25 general), visit www.WestAdamsHeritage.org.

Tour times begin at 9 am, and every 25 minutes thereafter till 12:20.

Tours are projected to last 2 - 3 hours, so don appropriate footwear and bring water.

Between the Blogs

2009-09-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Zanjas Follow Up

2009-08-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

My Zanjas entry (9/24/09) generated two informative responses. (The images, yet more shots of crenellations, are unrelated.)

The first rejoinder from Double G: "My daughter attended Phoenix HS on Zanja (ditch in English). There used to be a ditch from Washinton Blvd. to the ocean along now what is known as Zanja Street."

The second from Qualified Condition: "There is an portion that has been preserved along the Gold Line route adjacent to the Cornfield park--next time you happen upon the Gold Line have your camera handy on the westerly side as you enter the park. The Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park station also has a pretty decent art installation on the topic."

Transitional Columns

2009-08-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Transitional, the favorite catchword of the Architectural Historian, describes those works betwixt and between, when new styles are in their infancy, while elements of the preceding period endure.

These columns from the Edwardian period (and the Angelus Vista neighborhood), epitomize one such transition, from the decorative finish emphasis of the 19th century to the elemental, materials emphasis of the Craftsman period.

Heavily detailed Ionic capitals (as identified by the volute, or helix, a spiral scroll), crown relatively simple columns of (originally) unpainted brick, wood, and stone.

Zanjas

2009-08-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

There is little remaining evidence of the shallow irrigation ditches, or Zanjas, that once carried water to parts of the city center. A plaque here, a street sign there, a small stretch of channel along Figueroa Boulvard.

Similar to acequias, these gravity chutes were originally earthen, lined later to improve performance amidst explosive growth.

Between the St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church and the Stimson Mansion on Figueroa Boulevard, a section of Zanja endures (image bottom). Several brick lined sections of the aqueduct have been uncovered, or re-discovered, in recent years in and around Chinatown, or by MTA construction crews.

The Day's Details

2009-08-20T02:18:00.000-07:00

Wall of Sound

2009-08-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

The artery severing damage imposed by freeways is old news, cleaving into neighborhoods, destabilizing, imposing new and unsympathetic patterns of use.

Following the 1972 Noise Control Act, and its 66 decibel standard, many of these concrete marauders were outfitted with Soundwalls or Noise Barriers, producing a measure of separation.

Soundwalls are commonplace today, lining most interurban highways and byways. Most, but not all. Shockingly, an at-grade section of the 10 freeway, lies agape in Pico-Union, while further West (in West Adams Heights) an off-ramp pierces residential idyll.

Besides unmitigated sound, these defenseless neighborhoods are exposed to greater doses of harmful particulates, a debilitating visual excess, and a lack of protection from flying cars.

Jadedly, I assumed those susceptibilities were limited to areas with diminished advocacy; until, a showing on Cahuenga Terrace, in the rarefied Hollywood Dells (see image #3). Wide freakin' open.

Is the city to blame? Partly, politically I'm sure, but the ultimate responsibility lies with Caltrans. In reviewing the Caltrans Strategic Plan 2007-12, the usual spate of road building projects are detailed, along with public awareness campaigns on drunk driving, measures to protect fish during bridge construction, and anti-terrorism efforts in ports. Fifty seven pages and not a mention of soundwalls.

What could be more important?

Topless Turrets

2009-08-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Before the simplification of forms, turrets made corners a point of interest, emblems of spectacular craftsmanship and ambition.

Those architectural features most unique are frequently the most expensive to maintain. Many turrets have been shamefully re-clad or beheaded--stripped of their essentials.

The Witch's cap or Candle-Snuffer roof remains (second image), though the fenestration has been depredated by an aluminum skin.

In high occupancy situations, sometimes turrets, meant to function as adjunct sitting rooms--offering the grandest views, are converted to closets.

Resourceless tradespeople often resort to "mummifying" conical forms, with tar paper or roll products.

Adding insult to injury, most decapitations yield poorly flashed, flat-roof sections which hasten other (water-related) degradations.

Taaaammmmmalllllleeeeeeess

2009-08-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

Street hawkers are commonplace in Mexico's 32nd estado, aka the eastern end of the Los Angeles coastal basin. Vendors sell grilled corn, pork rinds, roses, even manure, from trucks, stands, handcarts and bicycles. Most wide-spread of the "informal economic practices" are the tamale outcriers--typically women, pushing cooler or tamalera (steaming pot) laden shopping carts stocked with masa morsels.

The tamales come wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves (a tropical variant), generally filled with chicken or pork in either a green or red sauce. Tamale peddlers commonly offer Atole or Champurrado, a maize-based hot chocolate-like beverage as well; and, sweet tamales (de dulce) around holiday seasons.

The tamales are mostly fixed in large batches by groups of four and five women--sometimes extended family, who pool expenses and divide territory, beginning before sunrise (though meat fillings are often prepared the night before), for morning distribution, breakfast or merendar, a holdover tied to the disappearing Mexican practice of a substantial, late lunch.

Some critics fear the safety of unregulated fare and a few efforts (notably around MacArthur Park where a co-op kitchen operates; image left) have been made to register vendors. Others associate a street transaction with a measure of cultural authenticity, and as a class equalizing measure.

The going street rate is a buck a piece, with discounts in bulk.

Sunday Brunch/Bonus Crenellation

2009-08-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

No bartizan this (an overhanging lookout in a battlement), but still the evocation of crenellations, inverted, as a molding at the skirt of a salient feature, or oriel.

More Crenellations

2009-07-29T22:40:00.001-07:00

In the previous post (Crenellations are Not Snack Cakes) we established crenellations as a pattern of openings or indentations, originally found in battlements, or fortified parapets.

The Crenel (or crenelle) is the opening; the Merlons are the solid alternates.

Strongly associated with medieval castles, crenellations also bedeck long stretches of the Great Wall of China.

A decorative device enlisted by nearly all the pre-war styles, as evidenced by Tudor details (top and bottom), and as stubby bay window crown on Craftsman-transitional dwelling (middle image).

Crenellations are Not Snack Cakes

2009-07-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

A parapet is a low wall, most commonly erected above a roof line, an extension of the facade.

A crenel is an cut-out in a parapet (thus crenelations), originally employed in battlements for defense. Crenelations appear in Islamic fortifications of the Fatimid period (969-1171), during the Norman and Gothic periods; and, throughout recent architectural history.

Crenelations, also sometimes referred to as embrasures, crown all manner of projections, turrets and towers.

Atop the twin towers of a Hollywood Heights Cordoban pleasure palace (image #2).

Crenelations aloft a bow window in the Adams-Normandie neighborhood.

The Sleeping Kitty

2009-07-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

More Fraternal Twin Dormers

2009-07-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

Please see the groundbreaking, Fraternal Twin Dormers? (12/11/2008)

The asymmetrical: exalted; explorations thereof--commonplace in El Pueblo. Multiple roof planes: the quintessence of the Craftsman style, but conjoined gable ends of dissimilar mass?

What're you kidding me?!

Example A, the lone single-story entry with a porte-cochere corresponding to the lower peak.

Example B, fantastical Westlake tenement, with profile-enhancing flared, closed, eaves, and physiognomic tripartite attic vent. Your eyes--they are like limpid pools.

Finally a Tudor facade from the precious, village-like collection on La Fayette Road.

The Real Estate Market July 2009

2009-07-19T12:34:00.001-07:00

Got Inventory?

The buzzword for the market's second and third quarters, as inventory shrivels and fierce competition returns to upper entry levels ($300 - $600K).

Pick a zip code, any zip code....

The 90007 zip code which encompasses over 100 city blocks, shabby patches and glorious enclaves, dollhouses and manor houses, sports 10 single family listings. Ten. Diez.

Of those ten, one will require an all-cash or hard money purchase, owing to condition issues. Another, a probate, has a previously accepted offer and is awaiting court confirmation. Four are short sales, of which three have already netted offers, and are correspondingly disinclined to show, as they grapple with obstreperous note holders.

Ten is the new five. "The numbers," I tell my stat-tracking crazies, imitating Edward G. Robinson's Johnny Rocco, "ain't the

numbers."

The Unsold Inventory Index, measured in the number of months it would take to deplete supply, were home sales to continue at the current pace--without refreshment, stood in June at 3.6 months. A far cry from January 2008's bloated 14.5 months.

But back to 90007 and the furious five: one is a bank-owned

property that "shows" as active, despite an accepted offer. Even though agent/brokers can be fined for not updating the status of

their listings timely (from 'active' to 'pending' or 'looking for backup'), REO (bank owned) brokers, perhaps in response to a higher level of aborted transactions, are notoriously delinquent. Some brokers regard a noncompliance fine as the cost of doing business, and only perform status updates when a buyer has removed all contingencies (typically 17 days into a transaction).

Finally, a listing on 20th ST is subject to interior inspection only. Which requires a buyer to write an offer interior sight unseen. A proposition, contingencies notwithstanding, most buyers reject.

Ten = three. Got Inventory?

Plan Book Bungalows

2009-07-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

The North end of South Los Angeles is dominated by neighborhoods of detached single-family housing, built during the Edwardian era, generally of late Queen Anne, Craftsman, Four-Square derivation.

Many were constructed by small scale builders, "untrained architects," who only labored on a handful of homes. Some of these supposedly nescient craftspeople created striking, original renditions, others adapted planbook specifications.

The Wilson Bungalow Book of 1910 (now a fabulous Dover reprint) was one such source of designs. Number 372 (top) featured highly articulated rafter tails, four sets of twin, battered pillars, and a bay projection in the gable.

"A good substantial home, with every requisite for comfort. This plan is well adapted to the seashore, but quite as suitable for any location, " reads the catalog description.

"The house is 28 feet front by 54 feet, and can be built for about $1800."

Imagefest

2009-07-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

A Little Satisfaction

2009-07-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

I don't typically highlight specific compacts; however, I just completed a transaction, over a year in the making. I'd like to recognize the principals and express my appreciation.

The buyer, whom I represented, is Beverly Meyer. The seller was Frederick Johntz, represented by Tom Inatomi of Prudential. The helpful escrow agent was Patsy Addy of Pickford Escrow.

The deal endured several rounds of negotiation and a lengthy escrow. A major repair item was included. The financing took time to arrange, and was far from conventional. Even personal effects were exchanged.

The property, a one-story Spanish Revival was originally built in the Watts area in 1931, and moved to the Jefferson Park neighborhood in the late 1940's, at which time a second bathroom, the arcade entry, porte-cochere, and third bedroom were added.

Real estate dealings are often contentious and embittering; yet this transfer, despite its numerous challenges, was a triumph of negotiation and absolute collaboration.

Things I Found in June

2009-07-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

Yellow subway tile, from a bathroom demolition in Angelus Vista.

Change. There's lots of change on the streets, pennies everywhere. I keep the loot in the cup holder of my truck, for parking meters, or tacos.

Photographs are sometimes left in abandoned, or foreclosed, housing. If the images have a sense of place, and just a touch of hoariness, I give them a home between the pages of a dusty tome, a bookmark in waiting.

Book Club

2009-07-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

A new Arts & Crafts style book is in the works. Penned by Tina Skinner for Schiffer Publishing, with photographs by Steven Whitsett, numerous West Adams area interiors are to be featured.

While authors Jane Powell and Paul Duchscherer have mined the rich West Adams vein, typically the territory is bypassed for Pasadena, owing to laudable civic promotion, masterworks by the Greenes, and likely a bit more "whiteness."

Los Angeles though boasts nearly ten times the number of Craftsman residences as Pasadena, and excepting those vanguards the Greenes, as many exceptional works. West Adams, get ready for your close up!

Stay tuned for a release date.

Flower Power 2

2009-07-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

A second entry? (Please see yesterday's Flower Power) An excuse for more images, including this uncommon flower box with applied ornamentation.

Many boxes feature a flared frontispiece. Few enjoy such a full compliment of slender supports.

A turret base is topped by with a curved planterbox, forming a stout lip.

Flower Power

2009-07-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

The early Southland boosters exported images of neat suburban streets awash in riotous blooms of color, bungalows enshrouded by exotic flora, with tendrils of green cascading from second floor windowboxes.

Some windowboxes had liners of tin, and more than a few have disappeared, victims of neglect, sacrificed to infestations of stucco, asbestos or aluminum/vinyl siding. In this instance, only the supporting brackets remain.

As with any other house detail of this joyously decorative period, variations abound, including the broad, shingled box in image opposite.

Diamond Midriffs

2009-06-30T07:52:00.001-07:00

Faux half timbering accompanied by four faux tenons/beam ends.

I love the Craftsman style and influence, but sometimes I find the diagrammatic tendencies, form as the basis for ornament, a bit forced.

Marvelous relief panel echoes the muntin pattern in the flanking sash windows.

Like its geometric partner-in-arms the lozenge, the diamond is sometimes used as a ground for other patterns, as in strapwork.

In image bottom, the diamond adds visual focus to an otherwise undifferentiated facade.

Bemoan, Bemoan Part 1

2009-06-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

The topic to which I'm probably most continuously drawn (no doubt to the consternation of my forgiving readers), are those forces occasioning alterations in the housing stock of inner core neighborhoods.

Cultural signifiers, the makeover phenomenon, and the ego-imprimatur impulse have all been referenced, sociology, economics, cultural transmission, and memetics, as well.

I've largely resisted imprecations, and a fruitless, villainizing impulse. Still, I'm hard-pressed to understand how anyone, anywhere, for whatever reason, would think to transform, for example, image top to image middle.

Avoid opining about aesthetics, I'm often cautioned, matters of taste are dissevering, unfixed, and coupled with elitism. Does taste play a role, is there such thing as "good taste" or is it all "different taste"?

Eyebrows Again?!

2009-06-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, only this time it's Eyebrow Eaves! (See Eyebrow Dormers 7/18/08, More Eyebrow Dormers 8/3/08, and Even More Eyebrow Dormers 3/16/09.)

Eaves are that section of roof which extend past (or overhang) the roof/wall junction.

Eaves with a wavy lip or profile are Eyebrow Eaves.

A Craftsman/Four Square with a more jagged brow. (And flower boxes with an overlay that matches the muntin pattern!)

Another eyebrow eave from a "rustic colonial" similar to top; and, another concave set. Unframed round (or full) arched windows with consenting roofline.

10 at 10

2009-06-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

FM radio station 100.3 ("The Sound") recently aired an LA themed 10-song block:

1. I Love L.A. - Randy Newman

2. L.A. Woman - The Doors

3. Los Angelinos - Billy Joel

4. Walking in L.A. - Missing Persons

5. Coming into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie

6. Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers

7. Los Angeles - X

8. Free Fallin' - Tom Petty

9. Blue Jay Way - Beatles

10. Valley Girl - Frank & Moon Unit Zappa

Turtles

2009-06-15T23:52:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when houses of wood are stuccoed, features above the roofline escape cement internment.

Are these mostly small dormers overlooked (since they are seldom accosted by changes of fenestration), or might their exclusion be a cost savings move? Is 'The Dormer' beneath notice or viewed benignly?

Like the head of a turtle emerging from its cartilaginous shell, the tactile difference is conspicuous, even when masked by common color, like this example wherein the beta gable has been left unmolested, er, shingled.

Whilst I tend to get a bit peppery when confronted by detail diminishing alterations, perhaps I should be grateful for these vestiges, restoration road maps of a sort, Sirens for the aesthete.

Realbonics

2009-06-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Contemporary? Modern? Modern with an 'e'?

Label for this post? Real Estate Rants! Yep, another opportunity for snarkiness, righteous self-promotion, and a little squawk.

Increasingly, the term 'Architectural' is being used by real estate

agents as a catch-all for things new, blobitecture, deconstructivist, International style re-hash, anything that isn't neo classical.

How lame.

"I'm selling architecture too," I chided one of the descriptive language challenged, "you know the result and product of building."

"Cute," she responded cooly, before adopting a more smug tone, "but this is architect designed."

"Very cute," I returned, "is he an architect of architecturals?"

Check out these marketing comments (see bottom image): Stunning Architectural with fully integrated Craftsman and Asian details. Integrated details, as opposed to unintegrated details, WTF?!

If you can't accurately describe product, you're an unqualified salesperson.

More Prow

2009-06-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

A clarion call, from rooftops and passing cars, "more prow," on corners, between verse, aided by amplification and chorus.

Yet again shabby treatment, marvelous wooden plasticity, incarcerated by a stucco gaoler. Look at that stupid little window (middle of frame), companion catastrophe to a fiberglass

shower stall installation I expect. A challenging strike zone for me and my rotten tomatoes.

Now, my mood has lightened, inspirited by this cross-gabled example in powerful plum, the building type from whence the prow likely originates, the Shingle Style. Textural effects, sock it to me!

What's a post without a third photo?

West Adams Heritage Association Spring Tour

2009-06-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 6 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Last ticket sold at 1 pm)

WAHA is back with another self-guided, driving/bicycling tour, featuring a radical array of monuments, big and small, churches, mansions (the Italianate Guasti Villa, see top image), farm houses, multi-units, from Victoria Circle to University Park, and neighborhoods in-between. Nine stops at latest reporting, for a measly $30.

For more information and check-in location, visit www.WestAdamsHeritage.org

I'll be holding court during the afternoon docent shift at the Queen Anne on Bonsallo (image below).

The TV that wouldn't leave

2009-06-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Me: "It's still here."

Marc: "It's heavy."

Me: "Should we set an over/under?"

Marc: "Four."

Marc's TV

2009-05-31T22:06:00.000-07:00

Marc's television spent a night on the porch.

Me: "Is your tv sleeping outside?"

Marc: "Someone's coming to get it"

Me: "When."

Him: "I don't know. Eventually."

To Be Continued

Arches

2009-05-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

Arches? Not just any arches, multi-foil cusped arches.

Can you believe those elaborated cuspings? Crazy. Check out the stilted arch in the gable, wherein the center is higher than the impost.

The Shrine Auditorium and more cusped arches. A lot more, an arcade.

The Conflict of Interest Myth

2009-05-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Times business section featured a story Sunday about the declining ranks of real estate agents, Realtors are Abandoning a Listing Ship. Amongst other items, the article details conflict of interest concerns, whether agents push more expensive product to secure richer commissions. I'm sure it happens--all things happen, but I don't believe it's prevalent. Moral and ethical obligations aside (and those aren't easily hopscotched for living, breathing, licensed,

regulated professionals), practice of the sort would be a bit uncomprehending.

For starters, commissions are not fixed. Sometimes a lower priced property compensates more amply. For example, a three percent sales commission on $500,000 bears a greater sum than

2.5% of $585,000. Some listings even offer bonuses to the selling agent, further complicating the assumption. (As an aside, I showed over 30 properties last weekend and I haven't the

slightest sense of what was offered by whom.)

But perhaps what derails the conceit altogether: the difference in the numbers is de minimus, because buyers usually court properties in a fairly narrow price range, plus/or minus 5-10%. Supposing all things equal, commissions of 2.5%, and a 75/25 agent/brokerage split, consider the following scenarios:

Property A: Sales price $330,000.

Property B: Sales price $300,000.

Brokerage commission Property A: $8250.00

Agent take home: $6187.50

Brokerage commission Property B: $7500.00

Agent take home: $5625.00

The pre-tax difference is $562.50. Would anyone really

jeopardize a client relationship, in a highly competitive marketplace, for 500 smackers? That's just crazy talk. Sure, as the numbers get higher the spread increases, but so does the payday.

I always want my buyers to get the best deals and the best properties, regardless of the remuneration. In part because I want to be affiliated with the best houses and potentially represent them at a later date; but, also because I'm highly competitive, desire to be liked, and have a big ego. Ahhh, but you readers already knew about the ego part.

Gunnite

2009-05-21T21:40:00.001-07:00

Gunnite (or Gunite), is mortar conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface. (Mortar is a sticky cement/sand/water, and usually lime, mixture designed to adhere.)

The force of application and "peening effect" of the larger particles results in a very dense, waterproof mass.

Trademarked in 1909, the form-less process gained popularity amongst architects in part for its resemblance to the rough pebble dash finishes of England: crushed rock set into an outer coat.

While "shotcrete" has become the all-inclusive term for sprayed or "gunned" concrete, several processes exist, and gunnite refers to a specific dry-mix technique.

The finish, typically a pale grey, was usually left unpainted.

As styles changed, many examples were foolishly stuccoed, and are subsequently disguised, made more adobe-like, or smooth coated like this work by architect Charles Whittlesey. Deformed.

On the Prowl for Prow

2009-05-20T14:48:00.001-07:00

Prow-shaped Gables or prow-shaped projections in the gable are another dimensionalizing feature found in that greatest period of home building in wood, as I heretofore christen the architecture of Americana Victoriana and decades one and two of Century number twenty.

Now that we've that business out of the way, let us feast our eyes on image left, a ferocious pink pyramid, a convergence of diagonal boards, forming a stickwork beak. Raw and forceful, Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky forceful.

A sad case, blunted in composite shingles. Grounds to repeal old house ownership license! You need further cause? Exhibit B, directv dish! Stick that stupid, headphone shaped piece of grey along the side or back, on the double!

It Ain't V-shaped

2009-05-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

Seems like just the other month, my scribblings about the Hover Market (4/9/2009), paralyzed buyers, and a torporific real estate climate. Things now couldn't be more different.

The reporting frequently trails the phenomenon, and it isn't long term recovery I herald; but, a buying orgy has commenced around Los Angeles, with transactions hard-packed around the credit-accessible, conforming loan limit figure of $417,000. The

pending home sales index (PHSI), a forward looking indicator, noted the transaction swell nationally; while, many in-house tabulations (by area brokerages) claimed an exponential jump in volume. Additionally, the median home price registered a 2.2% increase from March to April, a significant watermark, and the biggest month-to-month gain, according to a source reported on Bloomberg.com, since June 2005.

More than mere "Spring Bounce," many buyers are emboldened by good ol' fashioned affordability, and the prospect of a mortgage, helped by low interest rates, that shadows their rental payment. Multiple offer scenarios have returned, while opens are flooded with first-time buyers eager to burst from years of cocooning. Stay tuned for the April/May numbers.

Roof Returns

2009-05-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

Complex roof lines, a quaint, traditional notion abandoned by the supposed vanguard, are at their zany best when features are asymmetrical (see Fraternal Twin Dormers? 12/11/2008 ), or even discontinuous.

In rare cases, the bargeboard is truncated, interrupted by another element (like the chimney, above; or, turret, left).

Rarer still are examples like below, from a work by the Heineman Brothers.

A shed roof bargeboard that originates not at the junction of a wall, but rather just below a knee brace, masking a slight, second-floor projection. The partial return, attended to by the ubiquitous pigeon busting owl (see Owl Decoys 10/29/2008), is demented.

Chateauesque-lite

2009-05-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

During the interbellum period, Revival styles crowded the stage, including several based on precedents established in French domestic architecture. The second phase Chateauesque shared many characteristics with the Chateauesque, chiefly towers, the use of narrow, vertical windows, and steeply pitched roofs.

In Los Angeles, this largely asymmetrically-massed second wave was often grafted to the high-whimsy, and similarly medieval-inspired Storybook style.

Most of the original thatch-emulating roofs, which featured shingled courses of great--and seemingly random--variation have been lost, though the rolled eaves (visible at the gable ends) endure.

The style is also sometimes conflated with the Normandie Revival which features the sort of half-timbering associated with the Tudor.

Entrances are almost always through arched openings in the towers.

Leftovers

2009-05-07T13:40:00.001-07:00

Close to Mankind

2009-05-05T17:35:00.001-07:00

I root through property descriptions daily, in print and online. Many are colossally unimaginative, and more than a smattering resort to the 'tired trinity': close to schools, shopping, and transportation.

Close to Schools. It's Los Angeles, there's schools flippin' everywhere. LAUSD alone operates 658 campuses. One online source lists over 100 private K-12's. Throw in a few hundred pre-schools and few hundred colleges, from Pacific States University to the American Film Institute to Cleveland Chiropractic College, and you get the picture. Pick a Thomas Guide page, any Thomas Guide page, there's enough flags to fill the U.N. lobby.

Close to transportation, you mean a busline? Wow, welcome to the greater basin, beaches, foothills, and valleys. The Metropolitan Transit Agency web-site lists 200 express, local, limited, shuttle & circulator lines. Even the seemingly insufficient MTA rail system stretches over 73 miles (soon to be 80 with 2009's Gold Line extension), to say nothing of Metrolink commuter trains.

Shopping? Commerce, in the city that drove a retailing revolution? A mere place to spend money? Ninety-nine cent stores? Lazybones corner market? Tacos de Adam?

Really, isn't some of the most desirable real estate, deep in the canyons, high in the hills, sequestered at the cul de sac's end, the furthest from schools, transportation, and shopping?

Chateauesque II

2009-04-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Steeply pitched hipped roofs serve as a backdrop for busy roof lines, punctured by towers and turrets with bell-shaped or candle-snuffer roofs, pinnacles, and finials.

Perhaps L.A.'s best high-style example of the Chateauesque, the Rindge House, designed by Frederick Roehrig (top).

This example features Italianate modillions (or ornamental brackets beneath a cornice), nicely emphasized with a dark blue, movement inducing, accent.

16th Century France on Bonnie Brae. Azey Le Rideau and Gilles Berthelot meet Merithew and Haley. Parapeted dormer, hood molds with label stops, the whole deck of cards, a royal flush.

Chateauesque

2009-04-28T18:51:00.001-07:00

Less monumental, and more eclectic than the Richard Morris Hunt led revivals, an 1890's Los Angeles expression of the Chateauesque, exhibits the influence of the contemporaneous Queen Anne and Richardsonian house types; and, unlike its Eastern brethren, is crafted of timber.

Belt courses and balconies are common.

Nearly if not wholly symmetrical, and twin towered, a few examples feature medieval inspired Strapwork, or scroll saw elaborations (see top image).

Windows are sometimes divided into narrow vertical units with transoms above (see second image). Note also this example's jaw-dropping variations in fenestration (or design and placement of windows).

Dormers that split the cornice line or suggest a central pivot grace a few instances.

Even this stripped down case of house abuse from ol' Windmill Links wields a powerful silouhette.

No Words

2009-04-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

The Highest Office

2009-04-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

(Continued from Quattra Catharsis. See The Trial throughline.)

Our meeting was kept secret, away from pining ears, the usual handlers, secret service, Michelle.
"There's a broad spectrum of real estate," the pres started, "you needn't limit yourself to sixty years of interest. Our markets require broader stimulus."

"I like the 1870's too," I fired back defensively.

The leader of the free world continued, "a man shouldn't live in times gone by, lest the shackles of the past become the restrains of the present."

"Last I checked your crib was in Kenwood, not Schaumberg, " I volleyed, no longer wide-eyed and retiring.

"True," he paused, before a change in tone, "you know what I dislike? When windows are set into walls, without any decorative treatment..."

"Moldings," I interrupted.

"Exactly, it looks like a shadow box, or a picture without a frame."

"Precisely," I nodded.

"Now this business with the quattrefoil, are you in continued danger, have you adequate health care coverage?"

"An HMO."

"I've been reading the blog, I'm a bit concerned."

"Judge not my entries as wahnbriefe," I asserted, "but as ubermensch-ian pursuit, inoculation, reconstitution."

"Reform," he questioned softly.

"Perhaps," I offered, "but first I'm going to kick some pre-cast ass!"

Walkabout Closets?

2009-04-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

Bedrooms serving as closets, er--dressing rooms, once seemed supremely decadent, reserved for fashion professionals and the wardrobe department. Now, despite a consumerist backlash, they're practically commonplace.
The ultimate walk-in and the latest of status wrinkles, with full length mirrors, center islands and jewelry organizers, cedar-lined, or finished like a ballpark locker room.

Typically the smallest of the second floor bedrooms is conscripted, sometimes augmented by de-partitioned adjoining space, a hall or linen closet, or even the landing of a back stairway.

The smart aleck would suppose I've been encamped in Fremont Place (seldom) or the homes of wealthy gay men (more often); but, likely it has something to do with shrinking household size. Demographers predict within ten years, the most common household type in the United States will people living alone.

I guess fewer tykes, equals more togs.
Or just better display.

Interview with Skye Peyton

2009-04-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Recentering El Pueblo: What is the 'West Adams Moms Club'?

Skye: The MOMS Club of West Adams is a Los Angeles chapter of MOMS Club International (www.momsclub.org) We are a non-profit group providing support for mothers who are with their children during the day. We offer activities and resources for moms with children and raise money for community organizations benefiting mothers and children. Each month we have a variety of activities including play groups, field trips, mom's night out and service projects.

Recentering El Pueblo: How did it start?

Skye: The MOMS Club of West Adams was started in July of 2008 by it's current President, Skye Peyton, with the help of a neighboring chapter, MOMS Club of Mid-Wilshire.

Recentering El Pueblo: How does one join, or get more information?

Skye: To see our boundaries and to get more information, check out our website at www.momsclubwestadams.org. To join the club, send an email to Jenna Flexner at momsclubwestadams@yahoo.com

Recentering El Pueblo: Anything else you'd like our readers to know?

Skye: Yes, we are having a raffle to benefit the local charity that we support, Gramercy Housing Group (www.gramercyhousinggroup.org). We have some fantastic prizes and the tickets are just $2 each or 12 for $20 (2 extra chances to win!). The drawing is going to be held on Monday, May 4th (you do not have to be present to win). I can be contacted directly to purchase tickets: skye@filmmaker.com