More Crenellations

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

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

More Fraternal Twin Dormers

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

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

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

A Little Satisfaction

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

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

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

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

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.