©1996 Michael Vallen

A view of Los Angeles from the Thesis site.

“Oh, it will become bigger and bigger and extend itself north and south. And soon Los Angeles will begin in San Diego, swallow San Francisco and pave every acre of earth up to the Gold River. The only historic monuments spared will be the rest rooms in the gasoline stations.”

Attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright, late 1950s 4 Los Angeles is a city apart, not only in derived from a popular Spanish novel of gold, and territorial conquest were the significant trade among the estimated 500 location, but in ideals and pursuits. This city, 1510, in which a terrestrial paradise is motivations of the Spanish. Instead the tribal groups of the region. They possessed little understood, has been, and is, the described... Spanish discovered the coast of California. a strictly organized religious system, a keen model from which we currently fabricate our “Know-ye that at the right hand of the It was Juan Cabrillo, who in late 1542, became knowledge of plant and animal material, metropolitan areas; an experiment in urban Indies there is an island called California, the first European to meet the native people and an intricate architectural language that and social planning unlike any previously very near the terrestrial Paradise...It is the of the Los Angeles Basin, the Gabrielino linked all parts of their structures to their known to humanity. To some these grand spiritual beliefs. experiments have failed, miserably; to others, not only have these experiments The Spanish were not interested in con- been a success, but they have also forged the quering the Gabrielinos. They were more future in ways simply unthinkable a genera- concerned with their religious conversion, tion ago. which they felt would aid in the process of civilizing them. Once civilized, these Misconceptions, many created by Angelenos, indigenous people would make perfect have set Los Angeles apart negatively and colonists. The Spaniards set up a system of positively. To understand this place, a missions, presidio, and pueblos along the historic perspective of its creation must be California coastal areas. This system acquired. Myths and generalizations pro- stretched south from the San Diego Bay to mote unrealistic ideas of this city. Point Reyes in the north. From the begin- We must form our interpretations and truths ning the missions were established to teach about this habitation, as Los Angeles did not the natives self-sufficient techniques, such happen by accident. This city is purely the as farming, weaving, reading and writing. It creation of people, nothing more and was the Franciscan Padres’ original intent nothing less. to return the missions and the land sur- rounding them to the natives once they Significant contributions made by the were civilized. people of Los Angeles are manifest within the realm of the house. Our understanding It was the missions and the myths fostered of the house today is the direct result of the by their existence that has left us today with work of scores of architects, designers, and the ideal of an Arcadian lifestyle in South- planners who have worked in the Los ern California. Nothing, however, could be Angeles region. Their efforts span over 100 farther from the truth. years, continuing today, shaping the future Human greed soon took over, and the of how we live in our most private environ- missions were never returned. ments. Not working in a vacuum, they were influ- enced not only by the various movements The Town

Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles occurring in their respective fields, but by the immigrants who chose to make this Los Angeles was established in 1781 and corner of the world their home. named el Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles (The Village of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels.) It was Discovery primarily established to provide supple- mental hides, wine and tallow for the main Despite popular mythology, Los Angeles mission San Gabriel to the East. They does have a past; in fact, its history spans established the pueblo on a high point several thousand years. Because it is above the Los Angeles River to avoid perceived as a city of constant change, the flooding. The original pueblo plan was city has gained a reputation of being established using the Spanish Law of the arrogant, elusive, eccentric and superficial. Indies as a reference. The Law required the It is told that the Chinese were the first to plan to have a central plaza. This plaza had discover the western coast of North Ameri- its corners fixed by the cardinal points of can in about 500 AD. Not being a people of the compass. The surrounding area was territorial wants, they simply made note of divided into building lots, sowing fields, their discoveries in journals, and never with the remaining property being set aside touched land. They left the true discovery of for newcomers and common use. the coast to the Spanish in the early 16th The 1914 Rand McNally map of California, with enlarged Southern and Central areas. Because of the region’s weather, ample century. land of Amazons, of gold, of bold rocks, Indians. water and fertile soils, the pueblo grew crags and griffins.” Spaniards discovered and named the 1 These peoples had an extremely sophisti- beyond Spanish expectations, becoming the California coast. The name “California” was Hopes of finding trade routes to the East, cated economic system that enabled largest settlement in California by 1820. 5 From the collection of the Bancroft Library, University of California Angeles the first such grant was San Pedro; 1860s. Large tracts of land became more To the north, the Los Angeles basin is the last, ironically to an American, was scarce, and by the end of the decade, bounded by east/west traversing moun- Catalina Island in the Santa Monica Bay. following the drought of 1863 and the flood tains, and between these rows of up to of 1867, the ranchos began a process which 10,000 foot peaks are expansive valleys. To With the American occupation of 1846, and continues to this day-Subdivision. the east is the southern end of the Sierra the discovery of gold in Northern California Nevada mountains and beyond them the in 1849, there was a tremendous influx of Through a process of intense advertising, great deserts of the Southwest. To the west American settlers. In search of quick riches, the land of Los Angeles County was pro- is the Pacific, and to the south, Mexico. they found that they also needed to eat, and moted throughout the United States and thus the first economic boom of Southern Europe. People boarding ships in San Transportation to and from Los Angeles was California was born. Within a few short Francisco bound for Los Angeles were each difficult before the connection of a mainline years, Los Angeles and her attendant given Boom packages telling of the area’s railroad from the eastern United States. At ranchos became know the State over as natural wealth, agricultural prowess and the best, a ship to San Francisco could be had Queen of the Cow Counties of California, availability of cheap land. every third day, a ship around South establishing cattle ranching as the occupa- America every third week, or a stage coach A series of economic boom periods oc- tion of choice. As with all economic booms, daily to San Francisco, and then east. curred during the 1870s, including the there was the inevitable bust. production of silk worms, wool and citrus. A battle lasting ten years between San The Mexican government did not have a Land, though, remained the most economi- Diego and Los Angeles occurred over which policy of taxing land based on an assessed cally viable industry in Los Angeles. Stories of the two towns would be connected to the valuation. However, the American Govern- abound of the plats of land bought in the Central Pacific’s mainline railroad to San ment did. This put Mexican land owners in morning by one person and sold the end of Francisco. The battle ended with the forma- jeopardy. Along with proving ownership of the day to another for a 300% profit. tion of a new railroad company, The South- the original rancho lands, they found their ern Pacific, a subsidiary (and thus a friend) Publication of the story Ramona by land possessed significant value and was of the Central Pacific. Los Angeles won Helen Hunt Jackson did more to end the therefore a tax burden few were able to pay. through a series of land concessions and era of California as frontier than any Throughout the 1850s the ranchos were the inclusion of an existing rail line from Map of the Pueblo, 1793. other event of the late 19th Century. This confiscated or sold in bankruptcy courts to the central city to the port at San Pedro. As a The Spanish Colony of Mexico declared its novel, which tells the story of the confis- American speculators. result, the Southern Pacific had a monopoly independence from Spain in 1822; included cation of California mission and rancho on intrastate transportation. Intra-city in this was Alta California, or roughly the American entrepreneurs sought several land by American interests, was meant by transport, on the other hand, grew easily area that is currently known as California. opportunities in Los Angeles. Abundant Miss Jackson as a social statement. Her and quickly. The structural framework for The missions, as a result of complaints of cheap land, a mild climate, an abundant intentions, to provide information about subsequent transportation systems in Los abuse from the natives and accusations of water supply and an unskilled labor force the atrocities being perpetrated against Angeles was thus established. These sys- land monopolies by the gentry, were taken made an ideal situation for these opportu- the natives of California, failed recogni- tems furthered the building pattern of the from the Church and given to the State. This nity seekers. They began to move in in- tion by the reading public. Rather than metropolitan area. They also provided began the era of Mexican land grants. In Los creasing numbers to the basin by the late admit to such atrocities, and attempt to greater accessibility for immigrants, and for end them, Americans of the late 19th From the collection of the Bancroft Library, University of California shipments of the city’s commodities to Century simply allowed them to con- other parts of the country. tinue. What the reading public choose to embrace were the writer’s vivid accounts In 1884, a second rail system entered the of the bucolic climate, landscape and city. The arrival of the first competitive natural beauty of Southern California. railroad, the Antichion Topeka and Santa This story, credited for establishing the Fe, incited the greatest of all the early land Mission myth, alone set a stage for the booms to affect Los Angeles. world’s perception of this region. This The boosters of Los Angeles realized that sylvan perception has lasted well into the only way to increase the economic our present day. activity of the area was to increase the population. Greater population meant The Promise higher production levels of goods, which in turn meant higher land assessment values Los Angeles, the town, however, had certain that meant higher tax revenues. logistical problems that severally limited the The boosters of the area included the possibility of the area ever realizing its Southern California Immigration Associa- economic promise. There was no natural tion, which was supported by prominent deep water port, available water was limited property owners and consistently adver- at best, flooding was a continuous problem, tised the area, saying: there was little timber for building, and, most importantly, the area was isolated by “No happier paradise for the farmer can be natural features unlike any other American found than Los Angeles County, its unex- An early view of the Pueblo, the plaza is at the center with the church at the left. city. celled soil assures prosperity to the industri- 6 From the California Historical Society/Ticor Title Insurance (Los Angeles) Collection of Historical Photographs. Duty was conceived of less as making the large tract of land in some outlying locale. most of a poor situation than as doing what Then, the company would connect the area

is hard and what you love.”5 to a mainline of the rail system, subdivide the land into lots for housing, and sell the As land was sold many large parcels were property to the newcomers. These newcom- bought by owners of railroad lines. It was ers, to emphasize a point, were brought to the railroad owners who contributed the the land sales offices by rail. greatest single impetus toward further land subdivision. The electric railroad was never a profitable venture in the United States, and Hunting- ton realized this. Land, its subdivision and The Pacific Electric resale, was the main business force allow- ing Huntington to build a vast personal Henry Huntington came to California in the fortune and transportation network. This late 1890s. Wanting, but not getting, a network became the fundamental frame- controlling interest in the Union Pacific work that Los Angeles’s infrastructure and Railroad from his uncle, he set forth to settlements have followed to this day. create a system of his own that would rival By the time Huntington sold his railroad to all other rail systems in the United States. The Pacific Electric as it appeared in the late 1890s, a typical house of the period. the Southern Pacific in 1911, over 1,164 ous and frugal. Immigrants without much property. The year 1885 saw the birth of the electric miles of railroad were in place. The network capital but with strong arms and good habits, intra-urban (a rail system within a city’s stretched North from the San Fernando What this boom did most importantly was are certain of employment at high wages and boundary) railroad in Los Angeles. By 1895, Valley to Balboa Island in the South, West to establish the town of Los Angeles. The a competency in a few years. Los Angeles there were several independent systems in from Santa Monica to San Bernardino in the infrastructure was set; transportation, the lacks none of the institutions essential to the the basin. East, running 2,700 trains daily.6 constant climate, and a farm industry with refinement of manner or the enjoyment of all of its attendant manufacturing industries Huntington saw a great advantage in linking life, and its warm winters, dry summers, and were established. The immigrants them- the existing rail networks. He single- San Pedro clear skies create a land of perpetual spring, selves were different from any previously handedly set forth to create a network of rail and a veritable sanatorium.” 2 known in the United States. As one who links to the center of the metropolis by A true deep-water port was also essential witnessed the boom years wrote: consolidating existing lines. To establish his for the establishment of a major economic empire he used a method that was simple center in the Southern California area. San A Change “Nowhere else in the world had such a class and quite direct. The company he formed, Diego had a natural deep water anchorage. of settlers been seen, Immigrants coming in The Pacific Electric Railway, would buy a Los Angeles did not. By the mid 1880s Los Angeles had become palace-cars instead of prairie schooner, and From the collection of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. the winter playground for Easterners and building fine houses instead of log shan- Midwesterners. Few, however, permanently ties, and planting flowers and lawn grass immigrated to the region. The winter of before they planted potatoes or corn.”4 1884 saw a change; instead of the normal These new immigrants were in search of a Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles decrease in population due to the exodus of the winter crowds, the population leveled life previously unknown to them. They were off and remained constant through the predominantly Midwestern farmers who summer. Late in the summer of 1885, the saw the evils of eastern cities and the two serving railroads embarked on a fare isolation of the Midwest as life-styles to be war. This, in turn, brought more people to avoided at all costs. They were no longer the area and was directly responsible for interested in the life of a farm family. the five-fold increase in population of Los For those who choose Los Angeles there is Angeles by 1890. At the time of the war, the another reason: more and more people at fare from St. Louis to Los Angeles was $125 this time were less and less willing to (1884 dollars) each way. By the end of the expend all of their time in the pursuit of summer that price was dropped to just $1. material betterment; instead, as Ralph It is estimated that over 120,000 people Waldo Trine said, made that journey on just the Southern

Pacific3 in the ensuing months, and that as “Wealth was less a measure of achievement many as half of them stayed. Land and than a means to the legitimate comforts of ranchos were further subdivided and life. Poverty was objectionable not so much property was furiously exchanged. Real because it reflected character defects as estate transfers and property values in- because it prevented the fullest possible creased by 280% on average. The bottom enjoyment of the world. Work was honor- fell out of the market, however, in early able not as a prerequisite for spiritual or 1889 and since sellers were also buyers, even financial salvation, but as a way to The Pacific Electric approaching the Alpine Tavern 5,100 feet above the City of nearly everyone was attempting to get rid of self-realization and emotional gratification. Los Angeles enroute from its Pasadena terminus below. 7 Photo from the collection of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. prices were unregulated; therefore, where where brick was the material of choice. The one lived determined the price paid and the early American buildings of Los Angeles, regularity of water service. The system such as the Pico Union Hotel, were built of reached its limits by 1910. Water service was brick. For the most part, the idea of the placed under municipal ownership, and the house remained constant during the early city hired William Mullholland, a civil years of the city, relying on the existing engineer, to devise a plan that would bring language of what had become domestic much needed water into the city. His plan Mexican architecture. was adopted as the California Aqueduct. The early American immigrants, not satis- This aqueduct, a 236 mile canal, brings fied with the existing housing stock, re- water into the San Fernando Valley just thought the typical adobe dwelling and north of the downtown area; it was com- made some innovative changes. The idea pleted in 1913. This aqueduct, the largest originated in Monterey California in the engineering effort to date of its kind in the mid-1830s when an American settler added country, was later joined up with an aque- a second floor with a verandah, or balcony, duct siphoning water from the Colorado extending the full length of the street River. By 1925 the flow of imported water facade. This became known as the into Los Angeles had increased by 1,500 %. “Monterey Style,” and was prevalent in the These projects were not without costs to the Los Angeles area by the early 1860s. environment. The Owens Lake, and River Valley, were obliterated and removed from The housing demands, though, were not for the face of the planet as a result of the Los typical dwellings as seen in the countryside Angeles Aqueduct. of Iowa or Kansas. The immigrants were not attracted to the typical dwellings of the The Early House Mexican period, as they were poorly built, subject to sever damage from earthquakes With transport, a port and water, Los Ange- and were extremely dirty. These newcomers les quickly became a city-a mega metropo- were much more interested in a kind of lis. The population doubled, each ten years dwelling that would reflect their desires and until the 1930s. The demand on the housing attitudes and reasons why they had come to market was stretched as more people this place to live. migrated to the city. Typically, an early house of Los Angeles was a derivative of the The first land booms of the 1870s and 1880s mission buildings themselves. The mis- ushered in the popular styles prevalent on sions, built of mud brick (adobe), were the East Coast, the Victorian and Queen fashioned by the memory of the padres and Anne, or Eastlake, house. The buildings military engineers who had only seen the reflect the changes in attitude toward great churches of Spain. There is no record technology occurring at the time. The of any great or famous architect or church machine was now capable of producing builders settling in the area during Spanish vast quantities of patterns and designs from occupation. With an abundant labor force wood. The architects of the period, fasci- supplied by the native peoples and the nated with these possibilities, developed limited availability of lumber, masonry sometimes odd and unusual arrangements construction of this type was seen as appro- in their building, using these newly in- priate. This construction of one-story vented devices. Collision of form coupled The 1890 Bradbury House on Bunker Hill, the quintesential example of a Queen Anne house. sprawling adobe dwellings were built in with highly decorative detail seemed the order of the day. Phinneas Banning, an early railroad pro- intended to attract, the town needed water. rows. Each row fronted a street and had an moter in the area, seized the idea of estab- The basin had only enough naturally individual back yard or corral. This court- Still, there was a feeling that this language lishing the port of call that the city needed. occurring water to supply a population yard, used for cooking, raising small live- was not an indigenous one to the area. It His purchase of the San Pedro/Wilmington 100,000. Water had traditionally been stock and for family gatherings, was the was not a response to the desires of the new rancho lands in the mid-1860s was the supplied by a system set up by the Mexi- living room of the house. The roof struc- inhabitants; they, after all, sought to differ- beginning of this journey. Quickly, he built cans. A system of zanjas (canals) channeled tures, using the limited lumber available, entiate themselves from their roots and to a railroad link to the city center. Through- water from the Los Angeles River through- were typically flat. Wood beams were establish this region with its identity, in out the next 25 years he laid the foundation out the pueblo. covered with tule, a grass, and then with spirit, life-style and architectural form. that established this free harbor at San asphaltum taken from the La Brea Tar pits west of the plaza, to keep out rain. Pedro as the largest in the world. However, as the town grew and its water Land of Sunshine resources became limited, the privately This type of house construction remained Water owned water providers became increas- little changed until the American occupa- Charles Flecther Lummis, founder of the To support a population of manufacturers, ingly difficult for the municipality to man- tion. The Easterners who first established periodical “Land of Sunshine,” and editor of professionals and farmers that the boosters age. Shortages were commonplace, and residency in the area came from places the “Los Angeles Times” newspaper, studied 8 From the collection of the Bancroft Library, University of California tects to break from traditional modes of Photograph by Julius Schulman design, arrived in Los Angeles in the mid- 1890s. Their Bandini House of 1903 opened the entire building up to a central courtyard that contained a garden and fountain. All rooms were either entered en suite, or through a verandah. In effect, this house encouraged what had not been done previously: the complete interaction and focus of the inhabitants was from inside the house to outside.

The Greenes developed their architectural ideas by designing many average-sized single family dwellings in the Pasadena area of northeast Los Angeles. Considered by many critics as their most significant contribution, thus redefining how Ameri- cans dwell, were a series of grand winter El Alisal, the Sycamores, the home of Charles Lummis overlooking the Arroyo Seco. retreats, mansions, for wealthy clients along the architecture of the Missions, spent two The house was not to be a decorated box, the Arroyo Seco. Their greatest achieve- Entrance interior of the Gamble House. years living with the pueblo Indians in New but an enclosure that shaded and insulated ment is the Gamble House of 1908, built for

Mexico, and burst onto the Los Angeles itself, and looked inward.”7 the Gamble family of Proctor and Gamble scene in the early 1890s. fame. Lummis, through his publication, the efforts Greene and Greene The Gamble House is indeed a quintessen- of the Landmarks Club and the building of tial architectural masterpiece. It has been his own home in 1898, established the As a result of technological changes, the lauded and praised as a truly significant Mission Revival architectural tradition. This increased awareness of environment (as American artifact. It is in the detailing that new language, Lummis argued, was most related to one’s health) and the explosive this house is remarkable. As a somewhat appropriate for the area: effects on society by the industrial revolu- simple winter vacation home; it has a “Los Angeles must learn from adobe tion, the idea of home began to radically penchant for the abstract and an elegantuse architecture: thick insulating walls for change. Nowhere was this phenomenon of wood as both decorative and structural comfort, a protected patio for privacy, and a more apparent than in Southern California. material. Every structural member, decora- verandah at the front for picturesqueness. Charles and Henry Greene, the first archi- tive detail and light-emanating device has been considered laboriously. No corner of Photograph by Julius Schulman this dwelling was overlooked or given less importance. An attitude about how one Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles should live breathes throughout this great American home. As a work of architecture Arturo Bandini House, plan. this building has left us a legacy of such delight and beauty that it is assured a Photograph Pasadena Historical Society presence in our collective psyche for an eternity. The establishment of the architectural language of Greene and Greene is a direct response to the desired life-style of the Los Angeles region. It was they who saw the future of the automobile and they were first to incorporate it into their house designs. Of greater importance perhaps is that the Greenes understood the desire and need for a regional architectural expression, while at the same time they preserved and promoted the existing artistic traditions.

The extensive work of Greene and Greene The northwest corner of the Gamble House, this photograph was taken after the influenced house design not only in Los discovery of a stone pathway that originally went to the Arroyo Seco, a creek Angeles, but the entire country. Soon after below the house. their masterworks were completed, publica- Arturo Bandini House, courtyard. 9 tions such as “Bungalow Magazine,” “Crafts- “...described the Californian bungalow as able as a winter retreat in Southern Califor- developed but they deserve a name as man Magazine” and “Country Life in ‘the best type of cheap frame house which nia ended up being built as a permanent distinctive as they have in character be- America,” as well as many architectural had been erected in this country since the home in South Dakota. Other complaints come. These little, thin-walled dwellings, periodicals, published pattern books which old New England farmhouse went out of about the bungalow abound. However, the all of desert-tinted native woods and sold the idea of the bungalow, namely the fashion’....these could be constructed for most recognized remains the size of their stones, are as indigenous to the soil as if California Bungalow, to the country. The between 700 and 1,100 dollars compared to kitchens. Although the house type was they had grown up out of it, as charming in outcome of the intensive propaganda over double the price for two-story houses. lauded for its “mechanistic kitchen,” they line and the perfection of utility as some of efforts of companies like Sears and Roe- Plan prices were a mere five dollars. In the were usually extremely small. Typically, the those wild growths which show a delicate buck, which sold Bungalow Kit Homes, and mild dry climate of California, where much bungalow was a temporary dwelling; as airy fluorescence above ground, but under the real estate developers of Los Angeles of life was lived outdoors, the construction such, little space was provided for the it have deep, man-shaped resistant roots. was that endless numbers of single family could be relatively flimsy and substantial kitchen as it was not deemed necessary. With their low and flat-pitched roofs, they bungalow houses were built across the foundations and cellars ignored.”8 Constructing a smaller kitchen, like using present a certain likeness to aboriginal area, and, in turn, the country. redwood siding, at the time was signifi- dwellings which the Franciscans found True, many great Craftsman style dwellings cantly cheaper. scattered like wasps nests among the were constructed all over the country; The Bungalow Ethic chaparral along the river-which is only however, the typical bungalow dwelling The bungalow was, however, loved. It did another way of saying that the spirit of the The most significant consequence of the was, as time elapsed, a less than desirable leave Los Angeles with an identity. For the land shapes the art that is produced there.”9 bungalow’s popularity as a dwelling type on commodity. Many portions of Los Angeles, suburban dweller, the bungalow not only Los Angeles domestic architecture is that it as well as other American cities, were became the ideal home, it also represented firmly established the idea of outdoor living in covered with the cheaper versions of these an ideal lifestyle. One impression given in California Modern the population at large. This idea provided the houses. They were often built as specula- 1914 by a writer named Mary Austin for immigrants with the needed identification tive developments in subdivisions outside “California. The Land of the Sun” signifies Contemporaneous with the passing of the with an indigenous architecture as well as the the central city. As they were generally built the era: bungalow ethic in the city was the emer- life-style that they had been in search of. as speculative housing, construction costs gence of a group of architects who, through “In this group of low hills and shallow significantly determined the characteristics various routes, had been trained in the valleys between the Sierra Madre and the The bungalow was not, by any means, a of the building. It is not to say that the languages of the early modern movements. sea, the most conspicuous human achieve- panacea. As the building type developed houses were, as a group, poorly built. Among these were Irving Gill, Rudolph ment has been a new form of domestic first in India, and later was transported to Typically they were not. However, as a Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd architecture. England, it was typically seen and under- group, they were seldom regionally identi- Wright. Although Wright is the exception, for stood as a temporary dwelling. As a matter fied. Since the idea quickly found its way This is the thing that strikes the attention of the most part these designers established of course, the masterpieces of Greene and into mainstream culture through pattern the traveler; not the orchards and the the rules of the game, built most of their Greene, Heineman and the “Representative books, the houses of Los Angeles were gardens which are not appreciably different work in Los Angeles and lived in the city for California Homes” of E.W. Stillwell & Co. being built in Minneapolis, Washington, in kind from those of the Riviera and some most of their professional careers. They were spacious and well built. However, D.C. and Tampa. Seldom were the environ- favoured parts of Italy, but the homes, the provided not only the region, but the entire once the fashion engulfed the American mental characteristics, such an integral part number of them, their extraordinary adapt- world, with invaluable lessons. They mainstream it was significantly watered of the California designs, considered in ability to purposes of gracious living. The increased our understanding and realiza- down. As evidenced in the work of these varying locals. What happened was Angelenos call them bungalows, in respect tion of living a designed life, with architec- Frederick T. Hodgson: that a house that would be very comfort- to the type from which the latter form ture as the focal point.

Rendering of Hollyhock House, 1923, delineated by Lloyd Wright, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 10 War I and worked in Chicago for three Houses of the 1930s-1940s. Hollyhock years. In Europe he was exposed to the House is mostly praised for its site plan- Wasmuth Portfolio produced by Frank ning. This house, like the Lovell Beach Lloyd Wright in 1910, he made it his priority House by Schindler, competently and to work for Wright, which he did, starting in beautifully integrates the inside with the 1918. Wright brought Schindler to Los outside, using the garden as an architec- Angeles in 1920 to supervise the construc- tural mediator, again setting a precedent tion of Aline Barnsdall’s Hollyhock House and a response to the desires of the inhabit- on Olive Hill. Schindler had traveled to the ants of Los Angeles. Southwest earlier and was exposed to the Wright, in further developing a response to indigenous adobe architecture of that area. the environment of Los Angeles, built He designed a project for an adobe house several urban homes using his textile block in Taos that would lay the foundation for construction method. The first, La his later work in the Los Angeles area. Miniatura, 1923, in Pasadena, is considered The influence of Wright’s work on Schindler the most poetic of all the homes. Here cannot be underestimated. Schindler Wright incorporated the flow of a natural quickly identified what qualities and spring, damming it to form a pond in front attitudes were imperative to the establish- of the house. Water had become an integral ment of a truly Californian or part of Wright’s houses with the rebuilding Angeleanoarchitectural tradition. of his home in Spring Green, Wisconsin after the fire of 1914, and he used it as a His contribution of over 450 buildings in material in La Minitura with equal effective- the Los Angeles area, of which the vast ness. Additionally, Wright built three other majority were residential, has influenced houses, Storer, 1923, Freeman, 1924 and not only the American modern architectural Innis, 1924, all in the Hollywood Hills. movement, but also the basic premises by Each furthured Wrights ideals of building— which later houses have been considered in landscape integration, the architectural this country. His earliest Los Angeles work, significance of roadways and the power of his own home and studio where he lived the outdoor room. until his death in 1953, embody many of his architectural premises. Consequence Richard Neutra established the acceptance Ground floor plan, and immediate site plan of Hollyhock House, Olive Hill, 1923. of Modern Architecture in Los Angeles. His All was not well with the City of Los Ange- Gill worked in the Sullivan and Adler office ments, 1919 in Santa Monica is based on practice in Los Angeles that spanned some les. While these many significant architec- at the same time as Wright. Gill, intrigued the idea of a bungalow court. These apart- 43 years, produced hundreds of homes and tural efforts were being realized, the busi- with the San Diego area, moved there early ments were designed as four white stucco many schools and commercial buildings. ness interests of the city recognized that in the century. It was in San Diego that Gill blocks. Each block had an open balcony within the domain of commerce, problems

Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles Neutra is little known, however, for his developed the tilt-slab method of concrete used as a sleeping porch on the second understanding of the human condition. were surfacing. Until the 1920s and 1930s construction and applied it to his domestic floor. The entrance to the dwelling was During his time, he was considered an Los Angeles had prospered chiefly on architecture. He used the form language placed under the sleeping porch beyond an authority in the fields of human physiology, tourism, real estate and agriculture. The established by the Missions, but abstracted arched opening in the wall. All the en- and sociology. In 1954, he published one of business leaders of the metropolis realized, and simplified it using concrete as a pri- trances were accessed from the central many books, Survival Through Design. This at about this time, that a city is not built mary material. He believed that, courtyard. book established Neutra as an authority on upon tourism, real estate speculation or “if the architects’ will is to do great and Sadly, Gill’s art and craft have for the most sustainable design, and the effects of such agriculture alone. It was also realized by lasting work they must dare to be simple, part been overlooked as simply a regional design on the health and well being of the these individuals that a city such as Los must have the courage to fling aside every expression of a certain time. Significantly, users of buildings designed within his Angeles could not attract the large manufac- device that distracts the eye from structural his efforts have enhanced the often unat- guidelines. He was, however, a designer turing interests away from the Midwest and beauty, must break through convention and tainable ideals of the Greenes, as the and architect first. He applied his knowl- East. These regions had already in place the get down to fundamental truths....Any masses simply could not afford to have edge mostly to his architectural works but infrastructure to support their industries; deviation from simplicity results in a loss of their work. With a similar penchant for certainly also to his writings. His effort was Los Angeles did not. dignity.” detail, but with a simpler repertoire of to create human dwellings that enabled the 10 The key to attracting large industry lay in material, Gill was able to create living spirit, cleaned the soul and healed the mind. Gill set up a practice in Los Angeles in 1915. the costs associated with doing business. environments equal to those of the His commissions included a vast number of Frank Lloyd Wright was convinced that Los The greatest cost, labor, was the key to Greenes. Furthermore, Gill’s work aided in houses, including the ill-fated Dodge Angeles was a location for him to develop persuading hundreds of manufacturers to the effort to epitomize the Southern Califor- House in West Hollywood of 1916, sadly his prototypical house. His first built set up shop in the area. The pivotal point in nia experience. torn down in the early 1970s. The Dodge commission in the city, Hollyhock House, the establishment of Los Angeles as an House is considered by many as the com- Rudolph Schindler, trained under Otto 1914-1923, has proved to be a significant, open shop city occurred in 1910, when the plete expression of Gill’s genius. Another Wagner in Vienna, emigrated to the United transitional piece between his Prairie workers at the “Los Angeles Times” at- structure, the Horatio West Court Apart- States just before the beginning of World Houses of the 1890s-1910s and his Usonian tempted to unionize. Their protest, which 11 resulted in the printing plant being dyna- film producers spread motion picture mited and 20 lives ending, failed. This studios over the San Fernando Valley. Thus, event established Los Angeles as the business decentralization, combined with largest metropolitan area in the country to residential dispersal, created an urban form keep labor unions out. This lasted until the in greater Los Angeles consistent with its end of World War II. The architectural growth and yet unique in the United States consequence of this was that housing costs of 1930. had to be maintained at increasingly lower As industry grew farther and farther away levels than the rest of the country. from being centralized, it also moved To contain labor, transport, and promo- farther away from the transportation means tional costs of new manufacturing indus- of choice, the railroad. Instead, these tries, the City Council undertook a massive establishments required roads, and more promotional campaign in Eastern, and roads. Midwestern industrial bases encouraging By the mid 1920s the electric railroad’s them to open branch factories in Los monopoly on rapid transit ended and the Angeles. To entice them, the Council automobile began to set the pace of land promised low wages (because Los Angeles development. Whereas the Pacific Electric was union free), extensive in-place trans- had previously reached out farther and portation facilities by way of the Southern farther along its lines to establish new Pacific and Pacific Electric Railroads, and subdivisions, the automobile reached the extensive inexpensive land in outlying new areas more easily and quickly. In 1925 areas to the south and east of the down- an intensive rapid transit plan for the city town area. was devised, using interurbans, street cars Fellowship House, 1932, Harwell Hamilton Harris, floor and immediate site plan. By establishing these branch factories close and buses to knit the system together. The Photograph by Fred Dapprich to the San Pedro docks, East Los Angeles effort was quelled by suburban and South Central Los Angeles, they at- homeowners groups who were more tracted not only workers, but also land interested in maintaining the growth of subdividers. This new industry was directly automobile use, and the plan was dropped responsible for the increased habitation of in 1926. these areas throughout the 1930s, resulting directly in the establishment of such cities Control as Compton, Montebello and South Gate, With the tremendous increases in suburban all worker’s suburbs. and industrial development in the basin, a The central city did, however, remain the call for control was heeded. Zoning, though focus of commercial, retail and professional not new to urban areas, was more exten- enterprises until the end of World War II. The sively defined in the early part of this speed by which the train could bring workers century in Los Angeles than in any other into the city was unrivaled. However, as the metropolitan area. The word “variance” was 1920s unfolded and the introduction of the born in Los Angeles as a result of these automobile embraced Los Angeles society, zoning endeavors. It was the very same the days of the electric railroad and down- people who insisted on the regulations who town as a viable commercial and residential cried out the most if any of these rules district, were numbered. would directly apply to their concerns. Although fully adopted, zoning regulations As the branch factories opened and traffic were extensively modified. Zoning, initially increased in the traditional downtown considered an instrument of planning shopping districts, so did the expansion of subject to administrative control, was suburban retail markets. Prominent transformed into a method of promoting mercantile concerns relocated old stores real estate interests through political and opened new ones along Wilshire, influence. In its short history, zoning, far Hollywood and other fashionable boule- from guiding the expansion of the metropo- vards. Meanwhile, in conjunction with lis, merely sanctioned the preferences of local realtors, mammoth manufacturing segregationists and private enterprise. firms established segregated industrial complexes throughout Los Angeles. It was the efforts of planners who tried from Steelmakers constructed furnaces at the early 1910s to incorporate parkways Torrance, oil producers erected refineries into the landscape of the urban environ- at El Segundo and Venice, aviation compa- ment. Although their efforts were not a nies built hangers near Santa Monica, and complete failure, none of their original Fellowship House, 1932, Harwell Hamilton Harris, entrance from the garden. 12 projects were realized as proposed. To their Photograph by Julius Schulman credit, they were able to establish a network of major highways within the basin. As with many road projects, they exceeded capacity well before their actual completion. The first major parkway was completed in 1939. The Arroyo Seco Parkway connected down- town with Pasadena. Although this was a success initially, no other parkways were ever built.

Restraint and Refinement As with most American cities, the Depres- sion of the 1930s practically made time stand still in Los Angeles. As funds were lacking, so were prosperous immigrants to the city. The Depression gave Los Angeles a time to catch its collective breath. As industry contracted, the subdivisions subsided and commercial growth all but halted. Whatever the slowing of life caused by the Depression there was, it did not, however, change two critical things: Los Gregory Ain's Dunsmuir apartments 1937, street and north elevation. Angeles’s prominence as a world city, nor its the occupants could push their bed out into area of Los Angeles. Set on a gradual slope, Floor plan of the Lowe House, 1934. inhabitants’ attitudes about living. the open to sleep outside on hot summer he skillfully placed four connecting units in Among those to embrace the moment were nights. a staggered pattern set off at a five degree a new generation of young architects, who, angle to the lot line. Using the south side of Harris’ most significant project was the not accustomed to being on the high horse the building for openness, view and Fellowship Park House, 1935. Built on his of the architectural profession, made a warmth, he closed the north side, except for property above Griffith Park out of a decided effort to address the needs of the a continuous band of high windows that lit salvaged prefabricated house and sliding middle class. bedrooms, utility rooms and bathrooms. glass doors removed from the Lowe House, Each apartment had its own private en- A member of this new generation was he created a new architectural attitude. At trance and each a private garden, all this on Harwell Hamilton Harris. His first indepen- first Harris felt the house might be a place a typical Los Angeles 50x150 foot residential dent commission, in 1934, was designed for in which to sit. As he finished the building lot. a now more frugal group of professionals. he liked it so much that he decided to live

Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles Harris had a unique perspective when he in it, and added two additional bays to J.R. Davidson, a 1920s immigrant to Los began the design of the Lowe house in house a bath, storage and kitchen. The total Angeles, began his career by designing Altadena, a suburb north of Pasadena: cost of the building was $2,350, and it was mainly commercial works and storefronts under 500 square feet in area. This house, for the new boulevards from downtown to “I doubted that I would ever again design in its use of wood, a pitched roof and little the ocean at Santa Monica. In his second another building. This would be my first Isometric of the Lowe House, 1934. more is what attracted the new clients of and last executed project. I went about its architecture to it. Photograph by Ernst Ludwick design with a solemn resolve: it must be a Photograph by Fred Dapprich summation of all I have ever thought or felt Los Angeles architectural critics saw Harris

about life and architecture.”11 as someone who bridged the years between Greene and Greene and the 1930s, using Within this one building Harris would wood more directly and economically, but establish the attitudes and perceptions he also with grace and elegant detailing. would pursue during the rest of his career in the city. The house is L-shaped in plan, to Gregory Ain, born into a socialist Los allow the living room to face the enclosure Angeles family, believed that Modern of the rear private garden, with the bed- Architecture could solve the social evils of rooms flanking the leg of the L and the the world. He considered the historic styles kitchen mediating the two. By pushing the and attitude inane and felt that individual- dressing room between the two bedrooms ism was a wasted enterprise. out into the side yard slightly, and continu- ing this move in the landscape with plant- In 1937, Ain designed his most famous ing, each bedroom had a private patio, with work the Dunsmuir Flats, south of Holly- Living room of the Lowe House, 1934. a sliding glass door, a la Schindler, where wood, in a mostly single-family residential The Stothart House, 1939 by Davidson. 13 Photograph by Julius Schulman neighborhood has a private garden and From the Whittington Collection, California State University, Long Beach. roof deck. Davidson’s design skill was best exhibited in the interiors of his houses. He was trained earlier in Europe, designing 2nd and 3rd class accommodation of transatlantic ships. This training resulted in his intrinsic ability at designing built-in furniture and storage.

Transitions

Grenta Green Apartments, 1940, by Davidson. The Second World War brought renewed growth to the area with the tremendous house, the Stothart House, 1937, designed influx of defense-related industry. The end for the Music Director of Metro Goldwyn of the war brought an influx of returning Mayer Studios, he had the opportunity to service men. With the Federal government's delineate the, by then accepted, Interna- assistance, many of these veterans were tional Style of architecture in wood. In this able to stay in Los Angeles. As a result of house he used standard 2x4 wood framing, the birth of the American Dream, the breaking away the corner of the living room Nuclear family and Levittown, Los Angeles to the view and garden by sliding the glass embraced suburban growth. After the end into wall pockets. He went beyond Neutra’s of the war, the city began a revitalization ribbon banding of windows by breaking the program aimed at the rebuilding of the composition into solid and transparent transportation infrastructure. The parkway rectangles. He also interrupted the shear The consequences of the end of World War II, suburban sprawl, the American plan of 1940 was changed to the freeway Dream spreads. wall plane with overhangs to protect the plan of 1946, effectively sealing the fate of glass from both rain and sun. housing for typical American families, that houses that embody more truly the spirit of 12 electric rail service throughout the region. encapsulated the efforts of architects and living in Los Angeles. With these build- In this plan 1,500 miles of freeways in a 13 In 1940 Davidson designed the Grenta designers of the Late-Modern period in Los ings we are destined to remember, the great more or less gridiron plan were laid over Green Apartments, near UCLA in Angeles. The program, which lasted from bungalows of the Greenes, the simple the basin. In its best intention, no one Brentwood. Here, each of the three apart- 1945 to 1962 produced 36 designed houses, studio of Harris, and the overlapping would be more than three miles away from ments in this single-family residential of which 27 were built. counterbalances of Schindler. This collec- one of these transportation arteries. The Photograph by Juilius Schulman tive work of the 20th Century, more than the The effect of this program was profound; train was all but eliminated. For the most other, has certainly influenced and rein- not only did it establish the architectural part this plan was adopted, built between forced our visions of home. 1947 and 1994. To date over 770 miles of careers of such people as William Wurster, Photograph by Julius Schulman © 1980. freeway crisscross the county. The Red and Ralph Rapson, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Yellow Cars of the Pacific Electric and Los Saarinen, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Angeles Railway were slowly closed be- Edward Killingsworth, Pierre Koenig and A. tween 1947 and 1963. The last areas of the Quincy Jones, to name a few, it also in- city to have their transportation service creased residential building technology replaced with bus service was the South beyond any previously-known levels of Central area. perfection.

When one thinks of the Case Study pro- Case Studies gram, one may visualize the famous Julius Shulman photograph of Pierre Koning’s The ending of the Second World War also Case Study House #22. Here building brought a renewed interest in the design of materials consistent with the preconcep- the home, as witnessed by the efforts of tions of mainstream Angelenos as well as John Entenza and his magazine “Arts and Americans in general are abandoned. We Architecture.” There were severe restric- realize that the technology available to tions on not only the sizes of homes built, commercial building enterprise is also but also on the materials with which they available for home construction. We also could be constructed. As the war ended, see that the effects of such decisions can be there was also a strong interest in develop- quite dramatic. As a result of such imagery, ing economically accessible homes for the we are left thinking that the best of this returning service men. It was the efforts of program is the steel and concrete framed Case Study House #9 (Entenza House), John Entenza’s Case Study Program, with its houses. Indeed, these are successfully- 1945-49 by, Charles Eames and Eero A Davidson built-in storage unit. underlying idea of superior affordable designed houses. However, it is the wood Saarinen. 14 Photograph by Julius Schulman. Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles

Pierre Konig's Case Study House #22. 15 Photograph by Julius Schulman. express, and experiment with his own re- ments with not only this, but many other sources. inexpensive, seldom-expressed building materials. Oddly enough, in this project Helmut Schulitz, an architect who practiced Gehry incorporates his admitted "maver- in Los Angeles in the 1970s was interested ick" design notions within and around a in building industrialization. His interests typical California Bungalow. This single led him to rethink the role played of the move brought full circle the ideas of Greene custom and the ready made elements of and Greene, Harris and Neutra. Gehry general building construction: brought a fresh and innovative design “We seem to find nothing wrong when approach to the house and housing in the traditional housing is built from ready- city. Gehry has his ideas of why Los Ange- made standardized floor plans with cus- les has architectrually prospered: tom-made building techniques. I prefer the "There is still a lot of creative opportunity opposite approach: to use custom designs here. When I visit New York, Chicago, or that respond to special situations and user Milan, for instance, the young architects do a needs and then to build the houses with lot of talking but have few chances to build ready-made standardized parts as industri- anything. The opportunity exists in L.A. alized systems”. 14 because of all the craziness of Hollywood, He recognized the difficulties related to the ambiance of innovation generated by building on the hillside sites of Los Angeles high-tech industries such as aerospace and and developed a system of construction electronics, and of course the benign climate using standardized building components. that allows a lot of ricky-ticky construction that wouldn't survive long in harsher latitudes." Integration and Retrospection 15

The architect Frank Gehry, whose name has A Collective History Charles Lautner's Carling Residence, 1947. been made-though by no choice of his own-synonymous with deconstructivist Create a City architecture, entered the Los Angeles scene Thus, Los Angeles had entered a new in 1965, forcing modernism to its limits, architectural age, one in which meaning has with his Danziger Studio on Melrose been found to be the greatest element No longer considered a town, the business Moving into the 1970s and the later part of Avenue. Seen as the turning point in his lacking in building. From the likes of Gehry interests of Los Angeles turned to recreating the Modern Movement in residential previous Modernist dogmatic training, have sprung many new architects and many a downtown, thus making the town a city. architecture in Los Angeles, little had Gehry sought to express architecture as art new works that reflect not only new mean- In 1957, the city eliminated its building changed from the 1950s and 60s. Now, and sculpture, rather than as an extension ing, but new ideals about how we live and height limit of 150 feet, and for the first time though, it was not the preoccupation with of an arbitrary Cartesian grid. can live in our houses. Leon Whiteson allowed Los Angeles to become a vertical prefabricated mass-produced housing that places the culture of Los Angeles in context: city. In reaction to this change, the last intrigued and informed the designers. In his early works of the mid-1970s, Gehry vestiges of the residential character of the Instead, as seen in the work of Charles found that clients would spend a great deal "The perception that Angeleno life is downtown area were completely removed; Lautner, it was the desire to respond to the of money on a building project, and curi- seldom static or "finished," and that its the landmark Bunker Hill, the highest point individual necessities of the site, the client, ously, surround it with cheap chain link architecture cannot easily attain the com- in the city center had its housing razed and and the designer. There were no more fence. As a result of these experiences, pleteness of more settled societies was one the hill itself lowered by 120 feet. By the tremendous tracts of land to develop. At Gehry sought to explore the role that the of Frank Gehry's great insights. This is an early 1960s, the plan had been designed most, the architect could find a client who material could be used forcefully and ad hoc culture in which people and institu- and groundwork laid for what was to be the would be willing (and could afford) to allow expressively in his future buildings. In tions make themselves up as they go along, greatest transformation effort yet of a experimentation. Where this failed to 1978, he remodeled his own home in Santa and always seem aware that a changeable central city area. develop, the architect taking control would Monica, starting the first of many experi- tomorrow is already here."16

The idealized Southern California as it was portrayed in picture postcards to the nation, and the world. 16 Again, Los Angeles is the playground on the one hand, and the great experimental laboratory on the other. Its canvas is still fresh and alive with the eyes that we as designers and as human beings may appreciate. At the same time we can learn valuable lessons as the present becomes part of our collective history.

Photograph from the Collection of Margaret Hall Kaplan. Housing...the Hillside Los Angeles

The Gehry House, 1978, Santa Monica, California. 17