Dear Homeowner,

On behalf of the Crestwood Hills Association Board, I would like to welcome you to our community. We hope the accompanying materials provide you with an entertaining and educational look into the history of our neighborhood as well as useful contact information.

The Crestwood Hills Association has always been an active advocate for the interests of the neighborhood and maintaining its tranquil quality of life. Over the years we have been instrumental in preventing roads from connecting Mulholland Drive to Kenter Avenue, preventing the construction of a county dump in a neighboring canyon, and lobbying for improvements to our streets and park. We ask that you show your support for the Crestwood Hills Association (CHA) by paying your dues on a regular basis. Your $100 payment helps the CHA accomplish many things. Among them:

> We support the Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) attached to the deed of each property in our neighborhood, and assist our architectural committees and tree committees to that end; > We publish the Crestwood Hills Views Newsletter and Directory, and maintain the crestwoodhills.com website; > We maintain a preferential enrollment agreement for CHA members’ children with the Crestwood Hills Cooperative Nursery School (founded by Crestwood Hills residents); > We finance and coordinate annual brush clearance and tree trimming in neighborhood common areas; > We maintain a seat on the board of the Brentwood Community Council and represent our neighborhood’s interest to city and county officials; > We organize picnics, parties, and other social events including an annual softball game; > We maintain a fascinating archive. [Did you know that Crestwood Hills won an American Institute of Architects design award? That Crestwood Hills homes have been featured in many architectural tours, with several established as Cultural/Historic Monuments with the City of ?]

As always, the Board welcomes your input and involvement. Crestwood Hills can be as vibrant as its members choose. Let your voice be heard.

Regards,

Kate Blackman President

986 Hanley Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90049 www.crestwoodhills.com history Welcome to the neighborhood! The Welcome Committee

welcome members delivering this packet will try to answer your resources renovation questions and introduce you to our community. Crestwood Hills is not just another neighborhood in Los Angeles. It’s much, much more.

There’s no place like Crestwood Hills. Tudors here. The housing was also It truly is a dream come true. It was to be sensitive to the hillside terrain. conceived, planned, developed and Three men were selected (over such built by your neighbors. There was a figures as Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard tremendous housing shortage after Neutra and John Lautner) to design World War II, and Los Angeles was the homes—A. Quincy Jones, Whitney swamped with returning servicemen. Smith and Edgardo Contini. All three In 1946, four friends, all musicians and became leading lights and internationally recently discharged from the Army, known. Their designs were so unique had an idea. Together, they would buy and so far ahead of their time that the an acre of land, build homes at the four Federal Housing Administration would corners and have a communal pool and not approve mortgages in Crestwood playground in the center. Together they Hills. A delegation had to be sent could purchase what they could not to Washington, DC to convince the afford individually. It was a wonderful bureaucrats to allow funding. (Of the concept. Many had similar dreams, but 350 homes in Crestwood Hills, less only one community made it work— than 100 recognizable original designs Crestwood Hills. remain. We’re working on ways to Soon, the original four turned into a preserve them.) dozen, and the dozen grew to be more After much struggle, the homes were than 500. A nonprofit corporation built and Mutual Housing Association, called Mutual Housing Association having served its purpose, turned into was formed. All of the members owned the Crestwood Hills Association. Instead shares in the corporation and would of the community owning the homes eventually obtain a housing site. and land, with the members owning After looking at several properties, shares in Mutual Housing (the initial Mutual Housing purchased land in plan), individuals took title. However, Kenter Canyon. The next step was the communal ideal never quite left. hiring an architectural team to develop The Crestwood Hills pioneers (some of modern housing—no colonials or

www.crestwoodhills.com history whom still live here) purchased this land, of the most current information. Visit hired a design team, obtained financing, us anytime at www.crestwoodhills.com. welcome

resources hired contractors, opened a credit union, Your Architectural Committees renovation built a nursery school, donated a park You have probably seen the signs as to the city and created a community for you drive into Crestwood Hills—“An themselves and for us—their successors. Architecturally Controlled Community.” The stories of Crestwood Hills are Don’t be afraid; it’s a good thing. endless (the Bel Air fire, the Otherwise Crestwood Hills would Ten, the Mutual Withdrawees) and be plagued by gigantic stucco boxes, some of your neighbors are historians sullying hillsides and blocking of this place. Crestwood Hills has been neighbor’s views. the subject of many magazine and For information on working with journal articles, and books, and won Crestwood Hills CC&Rs and tree architectural and planning awards. We guidelines, including an FAQ, check even maintain a fascinating historical out the section in your archive in the park. If you want to learn Renovation welcome packet. more, just ask. Some Final Words Your Neighborhood Association Welcome to the community. You’ve Your neighborhood association is the come to a place where you will soon Crestwood Hills Association. Dues know your neighbors. We are very proud are $75 per household, per year. The of Crestwood Hills and cherish its past welcome committee is part of your and future. Association. We also have a social committee, which holds an annual We hope you will too! softball game, and a website with all

Visit www.crestwoodhills.com/dues to register for the community newsletter and notices; find more information on architectural and tree guidelines; and learn about community events.

You can also pay your dues online by visiting www.crestwoodhills.com/dues.

www.crestwoodhills.com history Mutual Housing Association, Los Angeles, 1946-1950 Whitney R. Smith, A. Quincy Jones, architects, and resources renovation Edgardo Contini, engineer Excerpt from A. Quincy Jones, by Cory Buckner

The experimental forms of the Mutual in an area of Brentwood now known as Housing Association (MHA) set a Crestwood Hills. The tract in the Santa standard for excellence in postwar tract- Monica Mountains was designed to home development. The development’s be in keeping with the communal spirit. founders took a bold approach toward Land was designated as both private creating a cooperative community, and public, with acreage set aside for resulting in houses that offered a park, nursery school, gas station, and young families an opportunity to grocery store. experience modern architecture within a modest budget. Shortly after purchasing the land the founders interviewed architects, including After World War II, in 1946, four . The original contract musicians formed the Cooperative draft was a joint venture between Jones, Housing Group as a viable way to obtain Whitney R. Smith, and Jones’s former inexpensive houses by pooling their employer, Douglas Honnold. John resources. The housing shortage for Lautner, an associate of Honnold’s, returning servicemen and the excitement architect Francis Lockwood, engineer of creating a model community through Edgardo Contini, and landscape architect cooperative methods were foremost Garrett Eckbo were also involved in the in the minds of the original founders. early stages of the project. Honnold By combining their resources, the four turned over the project to Jones and families could afford such luxuries as Smith when personal problems made it a swimming pool and an expansive impossible for him to continue. The final garden. They mentioned their plan team for the project consisted of Jones, to a few friends and soon found they Smith, and Contini, with architects Jim had twenty-five people interested in Charlton and Wayne Williams working the idea. Articles ran in the Hollywood as draftsmen with design input. Williams, Citizen-News and other newspapers, Jones, and Contini also became members creating an interest that boosted the of the Association. group’s membership to five hundred. The group purchased eight hundred The team drew up ten sets of plans but acres in the Santa Monica Mountains was sent back to the drawing board

www.crestwoodhills.com history resources renovation

Crestwood Hills groundbreaking with a plant nursery in the background.

after the Association deemed the plans masonry and wood, was built in 1950 too modern. They returned with fifteen with a rectangular floor plan at a cost additional plans for modestly priced of $16,700. A framework of structural houses designed with a simple exposed ribs and posts extended across the structure and materials. The architects entire floor plan, in-filled with panels of presented a booklet, “Mutual Plans,” glass across the view wall. The main roof consisting of twenty-eight house echoed the slope of the hillside and designs, to the Association in 1948. a secondary roof created a clerestory The Association then began a series of operable plywood panels. The house of meetings to determine which houses gave the members of the Association it would select as models for the an opportunity to experience firsthand development. Eventually, eight of the the architect’s sweeping design for the plans were constructed. hillside home.

With their own funds Jones and Smith Similar to the pilot house, the first purchased an inexpensive hillside lot structure built by the cooperative was in Mt. Washington, a section of Los to be used as the site office for the Angeles adjacent to downtown, to build architects. Adjacent to the architects’ a pilot house for the project. The house, site office was the sales office, which Model 102, made out of concrete-block later became the cooperative nursery

www.crestwoodhills.com history school. An early proposal also suggested never completed. Nevertheless, MHA the creation of a communal plant did prove to become the only successful

resources nursery, a doctor’s office, and several housing cooperative in the state renovation other community services to be clustered of California. together near the area designated for The site planning of the Mutual Housing a park. The local Federal Housing Association was unique for its time. Authority (FHA) reluctantly approved Houses were positioned at odd angles the plans for the cooperative services to the street instead of lined up in a as an experimental effort only; the row, the latter the typical arrangement Authority feared that other communities of many postwar tract developments. would propose similar amenities. Once Each house site was oriented to respect families settled into the neighborhood, the privacy of the neighboring houses, however, the cooperative spirit ebbed, and owners were encouraged to plant crowded out by the day-to-day tasks six-foot-high hedges at each side yard to of raising a family and the financial provide additional privacy from house burden of furnishing and landscaping to house. their own homes. With the exception of the park and nursery school, the Out of the five hundred lots proposed, remaining communal facilities were 160 houses were built accordingly to

Grouping of MHA houses on Rochedale Lane, part of the first thirty houses built in 1948.

www.crestwoodhills.com history MHA designs. The houses are finished each house proved to be time-consuming. with materials in their natural state: Composite beams had to fit composite

resources concrete block, redwood siding, exposed posts exactly, and odd-shaped clerestory

renovation Douglas fir plywood and tongue-and- window glass could only be ordered groove ceiling planks, with no applied once framing had been completed, plaster or paint. The glass walls give a causing a delay in construction time. sensation of free-flowing space, making Two different contractors went bankrupt a 1,200-square-foot house seem twice during construction of the houses, the size by extending the sight line to leaving many homeowners with plans the property line. Eight-foot-wide sliding but no way of constructing them in glass doors dissolve the boundary an efficient manner. between house and garden. The In 1952, the AIA gave the Award of exposed composite posts and built-up Merit to 500 Home Community, beams act as rhythmic ornament Brentwood, California. The Bel Air fire throughout the house. Beams march of 1961 destroyed approximately sixty of across the structure like a series of ribs, the MHA houses, Over time, demolition which, combined with a low-pitched and extensive remodeling have further roof, emphasize the horizontality of the destroyed all but thirty-one of the houses. Despite the use of a module and original houses. standard sliding door sizes, constructing

Read more: A. Quincy Jones: A. Quincy Jones Building for Better Living by Cory Buckner Crestwood Hills: by Brooke Hodges Published by The Chronicle Published by The Phaidon Press, 2002 of a Modern Utopia Hammer Museum by Cory Buckner in conjunction with an Published by Angel exhibition of the same City Press, 2015 name, 2013

www.crestwoodhills.com Crestwood Hills Association Crestwood Hills Park Kenter Canyon State Assemblymember 986 Hanley Avenue 1000 Hanley Avenue Elementary School Richard Bloom, Los Angeles, CA 90049 Los Angeles, CA 90049 645 North Kenter Avenue (D) District 50 resources www.crestwoodhills.com (310) 472-5233 Los Angeles, CA 90049 District Office: renovation 2800 28th Street, Suite 150 The Crestwood Hills The beautiful public park Crestwood Hills residents Santa Monica, CA 90405 Association represents in our neighborhood can take advantage of an (310) 450-0041 nearly 350 homes in the includes a clubhouse, easement (a sidewalk) Brentwood area. Dues outdoor theater, dog connecting Hanley Avenue State Senator are $75 per year, per walking areas, playground, with Leonard Road, allowing Senator Ben Allen, household. picnic and barbecue areas, children a safe shortcut (D) District 26 baseball diamond and on their walk to our local CHA Board of Directors: District Office: basketball court. public school. Kate Blackman, President 2512 Artesia Blvd., #320 Redondo Beach, CA 90278 John Haley, Vice President Crestwood Hills Donald Bruce Kaufman (310) 318-6994 Robert Plotkowski, Treasurer Nursery School Public Library Bruce Kaplan, Secretary 986 Hanley Avenue 11820 San Vicente Blvd. U.S. Congressman Shel Brucker Los Angeles, CA 90049 Los Angeles, CA 90049 Ted Lieu, Cory Buckner (310) 472-1566 (310) 575-8273 (R) 33rd District Greg Ferkel www.crestwoodhillscoop.org 5055 , Nearest Post Office Rob Fissmer Joanna Port, Director Suite 310 200 South Barrington Lauri Gaffin A private, cooperative Los Angeles, CA 90036 Avenue (2 blocks south of Kyle Kozloff nursery school—one of (323) 651-1040 Sunset, east side) Barbara Levin the best in Los Angeles. Founded by Crestwood U.S. Senators Crestwood Hills Representation: Hills residents and offering Dianne Feinstein, (D) Architectural Committees City Councilmember enrollment priority to 11111 Santa Monica Blvd., Plans for all exterior Mike Bonin, 11th District dues-paying Crestwood Suite 915 changes must be submitted 200 N. Spring Street, #415 Hills Association members. Los Angeles, CA 90025 for approval. Please check Los Angeles, CA 90012 (310) 914-7300 your deed or property tax Tumbleweed Camp (213) 473-7011 bill to determine in which Located at the far councilmember.bonin@ Kamala Harris, (D) tract you live. end of the park, lacity.org 312 N. Spring Street, at 1024 Hanley Avenue Suite 1748 Tracts 14944, 14122 County Supervisor P.O. Box 49291 Los Angeles, CA 90012 and 15095 Sheila Kuehl, Los Angeles, CA 90049 (213) 894-5000 Gregory Serrao (D) 3rd District (310) 472-7474 Robert Hensley 821 Kenneth Hahn www.tumbleweedcamp.com Michael Palladino Hall of Administration Send submissions to: A private, children’s day 500 West Temple Street CHAC camp offering swimming, Los Angeles, CA 90012 c/o Gregory Serrao, AIA horseback riding, (213) 974-3333 1068 Hanley Ave gymnastics and more. [email protected] Los Angeles, CA 90049 Also available for parties. [email protected] 310.471.7517

www.crestwoodhills.com Architectural Planning and Submissions FAQ: There are special CC&Rs (conditions, covenants and restrictions) in the deed to renovation your property, placing you within the review and oversight of an architectural committee.

As your realtor and seller have told you, the CC&Rs The philosophy behind the architectural committees are binding legal obligations. You may not build or alter is simple and we believe, necessary. Crestwood without approval. If you wish to alter the outside of Hills homes should blend into the beautiful hillside your home, you need to submit plans to the architectural landscape, should not interfere with the views of their committee for your tract. The architectural committee neighbors and should be in harmony with the rest has guidelines to make things easier for you and your of the neighborhood. The architectural committee architect, which can be found at www.crestwoodhills. members are volunteers with a difficult job. Please try com/cc-and-rs or by contacting the architectural to work with them. committee members listed in the Resources section for more information.

Visit www.crestwoodhills.com/cc-and-rs to download guidelines..

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