A week after I covered the Jardinette Apartments (visit #171) in early September of 2023, its owner Cameron Hassid reached out and invited me to tour the property. It was an important time for the Jardinette – Hassid and his colleagues were preparing for a presentation to the City of LA’s Cultural Heritage Commission on September 21 about their progress on the restoration of this 1928 architectural landmark, the first US solo commission for Richard Neutra. 

It’s been over three years since Hassid bought the Jardinette, since the previous owner went bankrupt. So what kind of progress has been made? If you were to base your assessment solely on the outside, with its dated, weathered paint slathered in graffiti (not to mention the security fencing and warning signs), you might assume that the Jardinette was still derelict. I’ve visited three times between June 2023 and April of 2024, and the first glimpse of the Jardinette as I round the corner has been equally depressing each time. You see blight, not a modern masterwork.

But step inside and you’ll see a building in the midst of a transformation. The walls are ripped down to the studs, revealing the wood skeleton of Neutra’s original 43-apartment layout…with some modifications. 15 of the rooms marked for renters with disabilities now have wider passageways and kitchens than Neutra prescribed, to comply with ADA standards. Some of the wood framing has been replaced, especially in the bathrooms, where moisture led to rot. But a lot of the original framing is still intact, 95 years later. 

In between the wood bones of the Jardinette is a network of new pipes and electrical wires, running over and through newly-reinforced beams. The plumbing and structural upgrades are complete, electrical is nearly there. When I visited in early April, Hassid was waiting on some inspectors to check a sample HVAC install in one of the units before his workers added venting to all the others. 

I spoke with Neutra scholar Dr. Barbara Lamprecht, the co-author of a comprehensive Historic Structural Report on the Jardinette in 2017. She’s working with Hassid and June Street Architecture to advise on what’s original, what’s not, and how to conform to historic preservation standards in rehabilitating the Jardinette. She’s involved in decisions both large and small, everything from the paint color of the entire building, to where to place a shower head.

Lamprecht told me that when she first visited the Jardinette in 2016, its condition was “Worse than hell – horrible.” Decades of neglect had left it rundown and deteriorated. But all that deferred maintenance had an upside: there’s a surprising amount of original stuff left over at the Jardinette, because previous owners didn’t have the money to replace it. 

Scattered throughout the property are doors and door frames from 1928. Large patches of subway tiles and hexagonal floor tiles are reusable, and many of the kitchens have cabinetry and countertops spray painted with a red “X,” indicating that they’re meant to be repaired and reinstalled. The three fire escapes are original, and so is the elevator – which still works, though they’re waiting on a new door. Up on the roof, there’s a small room housing the nearly 100-year-old elevator motor. There is plenty of intact door hardware, even some of the hinges from the murphy beds that Neutra installed in the smaller units.

There are also non-original changes that they’re reversing. At some point the corner one-bedroom units – the largest in the building, at 693 square feet – were divided in two to squeeze two units out of them. Now they’re back to the original floorplan, with a capacious open space at its heart, intended as the living room/dining room. 

Previous owners swapped out Neutra’s signature band of steel frame casement windows for aluminum or vinyl versions. All of those are being rolled back and replaced with custom-fabricated steel frame windows from Riviera Bronze.  

Lamprecht is particularly excited about the changes underfoot in the entrance to the Jardinette. “The red concrete – the oxblood concrete – that was on the floor of the lobby, that extended out to the sidewalk/curb. Out to the street! I can’t wait for that to be restored.” Right now the outdoor floor in the portico is covered with non-original tiles. They’ll be ripped up to expose the original stained concrete – in the same pattern, and same oxblood red color as the lobby floor.  

And then there’s the exterior paint color, currently a queasy peach and green combo. Eventually it’ll be white, with an undecided dark color for the window trim. 

Hassid told me that the plan is to make the Jardinette Apartments 100% affordable housing – an admirable move in a city facing a housing crisis. In addition to the 15 units for renters with disabilities, the Jardinette will have six units equipped with special technology to aid people with visual impairments, and another six for people with hearing impairments. 

“I consider Cameron a hero,” Lamprecht told me. “The previous [owners] were over their heads. They weren’t really equipped to understand the requirements of a landmark. And they just weren’t equipped financially. But Cameron has a vision.”

Some less-charitable pundits have questioned why the restoration work has taken so long. I get it – after three years, it still looks bombed out from the outside. It’s understandable why some would be cynical about the rehabilitation prospects of a property that’s suffered more than half a century of neglect. Hassid wouldn’t be the first owner to promise that a restoration is in the works. 

Based on the progress inside, it seems like this is actually happening. Hassid’s sunk a whole lot of money into strengthening the bones of the Jardinette. Crossing my fingers that the rest of the project proceeds as planned, and that within a few months we’ll see how Neutra’s visionary work from 1928 still holds up in 2024. 

Thanks to Cameron Hassid for walking me around the Jardinette Apartments, and to Dr. Barbara Lamprecht and Corey Miller of June Street Architects for their insights about the project. 

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ de Vere, C.C.: “WTF Is Happening to the Jardinette Apartments?” (Empty Los Angeles, September 24, 2023)

+ Hassid, Cameron: “Update Presentation to Cultural Heritage Commission (September 21, 2023)

+ Lamprecht, Barbara, Matt Dillhoefer & Laura Orozco: Historic Structure Report: Jardinette Apartments (2017)+ Marsak, Nathan: “The Jardinette Apartments: Will They Return from the Dead?” (R.I.P. Los Angeles, September 29, 2023)