Architecture

#144: Halifax Apartments (Hollywood)

#144: Halifax Apartments (Hollywood)

March 23, 2023
Architecture
The Halifax Apartments were constructed in 1923 to help address the influx of emigrants attracted to the exploding film industry. It's on the NRHP as a dignified Italian renaissance revival design by Walker & Eisen. But way more interesting is the story of its builder: Leach Cross, a Jewish dentist who moonlit as a mediocre boxer and eventually turned to real estate. And then the restaurant biz. And then back to dentistry and boxing.
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#143: Louise C. Bentz House (Pasadena – Greene & Greene)

#143: Louise C. Bentz House (Pasadena – Greene & Greene)

March 17, 2023
Architecture
This house is a minor marvel from the craftsman starchitects Charles & Henry Greene. It was commissioned in 1906 by Asian art importer John C. Bentz, one of the developers of the fashionable Prospect Park Tract in Pasadena. The house was the very first built on the tract, and it set a sky high quality standard for the neighborhood. It's also a great example of how Greene & Greene could work with more modest budgets and still showcase their architectural mastery.
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#142: Citizen Publishing Company Building (Culver City)

#142: Citizen Publishing Company Building (Culver City)

March 13, 2023
Architecture
Beginning in 1929, the Citizen Publishing Company printed Culver City's most popular local newspaper, The Citizen - a family-owned rag that championed civic reform and boosted the local film industry. Architect Orville Clark based his design on original plans by Kitty Donovan, wife of the paper's owner Eugene Donovan. Since 2020, the building has operated as a swank food court.
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#141: Ebell of Los Angeles (Hancock Park)

#141: Ebell of Los Angeles (Hancock Park)

March 8, 2023
Architecture
Since 1927, the Ebell of Los Angeles has been the forever home in LA for this venerable women's cultural and philanthropic organization. Designed by the great Sumner Hunt, this Italian Renaissance marvel wears its 75,000 square feet well, with refined exteriors, richly decorated interiors, and a courtyard that ties it all together. The adjoining Wilshire Ebell Theatre has hosted historic appearances by too many celebrities to name, including Judy Garland, Amelia Earhart, Stravinsky, Michelle Obama - the list goes on.
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#140: The Lanterman House (La Cañada Flintridge)

#140: The Lanterman House (La Cañada Flintridge)

March 2, 2023
Architecture
The unique kinda-sorta craftsman home was one of the first houses in Los Angeles made of reinforced concrete. It was the home of Roy and Emily Lanterman, scions of La Cañada Flintridge's first family. One of their two sons, Frank Lanterman, would establish a legendary career in the California State Assembly.
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#138: Greystone Mansion/Doheny Estate (Beverly Hills)

#138: Greystone Mansion/Doheny Estate (Beverly Hills)

February 16, 2023
Architecture
This 55-room mansion in Beverly Hills was designed by Gordon Kaufmann for oil heir Ned Doheny and his family. Over the years it has been a residence and a public park; a popular place to get married or hold a fashion shoot; the site of a still-controversial murder-suicide case; a film school where David Lynch and Paul Schrader honed their chops; and the location of Beverly Hills' largest reservoir.
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#136: Villa Francesca (Palos Verdes)

#136: Villa Francesca (Palos Verdes)

January 31, 2023
Architecture
This lovely Mediterranean revival compound in Rancho Palos Verdes was the longtime home of Harry E. Benedict, one of the peninsula's early developers. Though the Great Depression prevented the completion of a planned mansion, the gate lodge and farmstead still stand as fine examples of renowned architect Gordon Kaufmann's work.
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#132: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Millard House (Pasadena)

#132: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Millard House (Pasadena)

December 28, 2022
Architecture
The Millard House (aka "La Miniatura") was the first of Frank Lloyd Wright's four textile block homes in Los Angeles. It marked a radical new phase in Wright's architecture, an attempt to democratize housing by ennobling the humble concrete block as a building material. It was also a remarkable integration of site and building that still stuns a century later.
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#131: Petitfils-Boos Residence (Hancock Park/Windsor Square)

#131: Petitfils-Boos Residence (Hancock Park/Windsor Square)

December 23, 2022
Architecture
The Petitfils-Boos Residence is a killer (and somewhat rare) example of the refined Italian renaissance revival style applied to a single-family home. It's also got a peculiar history involving the first proper cafeteria in LA, an abandoned chocolate shop covered in exquisite brown tiles, and a case of mansion-swapping among old friends.
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#130: Jennie A. Reeve House (Greene & Greene – Long Beach)

#130: Jennie A. Reeve House (Greene & Greene – Long Beach)

December 15, 2022
Architecture
This 1904 commission in Long Beach was a significant one for architects Charles & Henry Greene, because it integrated so many of the creative features that they had experimented with but never harmonized into a single building. Their approach here pointed the way to later masterpieces like the Gamble House, Blacker House and Thorsen House.
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#129: The Lummis House/”El Alisal” (Highland Park)

#129: The Lummis House/”El Alisal” (Highland Park)

December 9, 2022
Architecture
The Lummis House (aka El Alisal) in Highland Park is a playful castle-like structure of stone, cement and telephone poles (!), hand-built by one of the most colorful figures in LA history, Charles Lummis. You can appreciate it for its architectural uniqueness, or as a 3D manifestation of Lummis's philosophy. Either way, it's one of my favorite LA landmarks.
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