Recentering El Pueblo

Super Bowl XXXX Something or Other

2010-02-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

While I've a fondness for the Colts franchise, many things Baltimorean, I'll be rooting for the New Orleans Saints. The Colts' furtive relocation to Hoosier land, and recent big game win (2006), make the 'Aints-no-more, my feel good favorites.

The Saint franchise, christened in 1967, and playing in its first Championship game, is led by mortal-sized quarterback Drew Brees. The Colts are captained by pleasing pitchman Peyton Manning, the likely product of genetic engineering.

While Indianapolis has been installed as the odds on choice, significant Colt injuries may be a factor.

(Images courtesy of the writer's dog-eared sports card collection.)

Density Dogma (Part 2)

2010-02-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

Please see Density Dogma Part 1 (12/14/2009)

Only density, charge the growth shills, can forge the new mecca: vibrant, walkable communities, like immoderately wealthy land islands Manhattan and San Francisco. Density dendrites, linking decentralized purlieus, offer salvation, sustainability, more bakeries, a trattoria.

But what of Maywood then, I ask, to a sea of blank faces. Maywood: California's most densely populated city. More densely populated than Santa Monica, San Jose, or San Francisco. Have the residents of Maywood forsaken the combustion engine, biking to nearby jobs, past corner close farmer's markets and keen shops, enkindled by vitalizing street life?

Nope.

Are basic services, life's little necessities, nicely arrayed along the main drag, East Slauson?

Necessities perhaps, but little else, and many storefronts appear lifeless or relegated to automobile uses. Recreational opportunities, meanwhile, are nearly non-existent for Maywood's 40,000 residents, limited to a pocket park and a thin strip of L.A. River badlands. Maywood hasn't a movie theatre, or performance space, gym, toy store, libreria, cookwares shop, art supply source, or athletic fields.

The ideal urban construct, apparently, requires a bit more than up-zoning.

The Dating Game

2010-01-30T02:47:00.000-08:00

Many colonial era buildings incorporated a date stone, bearing the year of finished construction.

Dates have also been memorialized in wood, on plaques, even stained glass.

When I assume the fantasy position of Building Czar, date inscriptions will become obligatory; and, any facade changes will require notation, such as:

Built in 1914

Re-sheathed in 1972

Window Replacement in 2003

Perhaps commemoration will give pause.

Eyebrows Again?! Part 2

2010-01-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

Fleeing the bracing modernity of the Craftsman period, and the techno horrors of the Great War, English country/cottage revivalism--comfort housing, gained favor in the 1920's.

A medieval pastiche, half-timbering, prominent chimneys, irregular massing, decorative brick work, and rooflines with thatch-like characteristics were all key traits of this romantic style.

The wavy eave, or eyebrow eave (see Eyebrows Again?! 6/21/2009), a wall/roof junction with a wavy, or undulating profile, often paired with correspondingly shaped doors or windows, helped complete the illusion with a feature-softening come on.

Acanthus

2010-01-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

The Acanthus, favored flora of the Mediterranean, first used as ornament by the Greeks, in the Corinthian and Composite orders, and in many subsequent eras, found favor during the Arts & Crafts period when stylized representations of nature

dominated the decorative arts.

Not uncommonly portrayed in scrolls, and with its caulicoli exposed, alternately spiky or curly tipped, the Acanthus (aka Bear's breeches) appears often as a frieze, tempering bulk (image top).

Some historians, who have have traced the evolution of vegetal garniture, most notably Alois Riegel, claim the acanthus motif is actually a derivation of the palmette, a ubiquitous form in classical decoration.

End of the Year Finds

2010-01-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

Whether on account of holiday preparations, or the influx of new, yuletide trash pickings are typically the year's best.

Note penned in 1926; amidst personal effects in a dresser drawer.

Mission style rocker with missing, damaged leg bottom and rail. Ebonized finish.

The rubbish de resistance: luscious, early '20's, china foot bath with rolled rim. Perfect for tootsies, or toddlers.

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

Topless Turrets (Part 2)

2009-12-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

Please see Topless Turrets (8/10/2009)

A common debate in the old house community is whether preservation is better served by poverty, or prosperity?

The poor, it's supposed, lack the means to alter. Whereas the prosperous, renovate astride changing tastes.

My contention is, for a time poverty does preserve, but ultimately structure requires maintenance.

Turrets, from the Latin turris, particularly require skilled tradespeople.

A turret projects, and is therefore not to be confused with a tower or any feature integral to the building footprint.

Gold Line Eastside

2009-12-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

The city's latest addition to a burgeoning rail system, the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension (or La Linea De Oro, Edward R. Royball), debuted November 15th, at an oft-reported cost of $898 million.

The oddly-named Extension, features eight new stations a mere six miles apart, including two subterranean stops (at Mariachi Plaza and Soto).

From Union Station, the line travels South into the Little Toyko/Arts District, then East along a disturbingly sanitized (the kinship of development is development) First Street to Boyle Heights, eventually passing to Maravilla, and East Los Angeles proper.

The stations feature artful embellishment: seating and shade structures, mosaics, and sculpture.

(The top three images are from the Indiana Station, credited to Paul Botello, a founding member of the East Los Streetscrapers, key contributors to the 1970's muralist movement. Titled Syncretic Manifestations, pierced, stainless steel panels resemble Mexican papel picados, complex, perforated paper designs.)

The Eastside extension feels neither revolutionary, nor likely to create new patterns of use; and it offers not, a different vantage of the city like the grid skewering Pasadena connection.

Still, the sisyphean task continues...

Next stop: Expo Line and westward ho!

Fotografias

2009-12-21T10:29:00.001-08:00

Tudor Revival

2009-12-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

The Tudor Style, so called because it developed during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, experienced a revival in the United States (and Britain) between 1890 - 1930.

The Tudor Revival, recapitulated several early English building types, even fusing for a time with the Arts & Crafts movement, probably on account of anti-industrial ideals.

Graced with several sub-types including the Cotswold model, the Tudor Revival is chiefly distinguished by decorative half-timbering (usually with embellishment concentrated at--but not confined to--the gable). The range of half-timber expression is truly remarkable, yielding elaborate patterns.

Decorative (or false) timbering has succeeded true half-timbering: eight to ten inch timbers, joined by mortise-and-tenon. The voids between these structural members were filled of a mortar, creating the striped or patterned appearance.

2122 Vestal (90026)

2009-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

Elysian Heights Fixer

Two bedroom, one bath Mediterranean-revival cottage with sweeping canyon views, on secluded, tree-sheltering street.

Both the house and detached single car garage have suffered extreme, potentially structure-compromising, water damage and are uninhabitable; furthermore, the property has been cited by the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety. It will not qualify for conventional financing.

The property may be a poor tear-down candidate as well, and parties with redevelopment interest are encouraged to review, at a minimum, building codes, lot coverage ratios, and hillside ordinances.

Neither the brokerage nor listing agent will offer any warranties, either expressed or implied.

A city owned easement runs along the Southern lot line, rendering a privacy enhancing, heretofore unbuilt buffer between properties.

An unimproved parcel, directly opposite, 2123 Vestal (APN 5420-018-011), is simultaneously being offered by Furstenberg Realty (mls#09-399431).

2122 Vestal Avenue (90026)

870 sq. ft.

Year built: 1930

Zone: LAR2

Lot size: 40 X 69

Lot area: 2,760

List price: $250,000

Interior photos and showings available upon request.

Density Dogma (Part 1)

2009-12-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

Density is enjoying a heyday, back from the urban planning scrapheap, the manifesto de jour.

'Mixed use, multi-story in-fill, near transit': the current planning charge, a mantra for the development gryphon.

The re-engagement is understandable, amidst suburban disillusionment, the tireless push of affordable housing advocates, and increased concerns over the resource intensiveness of ever-expanding beltways.

Still, the urban occurrence is being fueled by more than just green jeans and a reprinting of the Jane Jacobs oeuvre. It's because our cities are safe once again, or at least (statistically) safer than they've been in recent history.

Planners understood sustainability and the merits of density in the 1970 and '80's; but were also mindful of "defensible space" (Oscar Newman's study that examined high crimes and high-rises), and the perceived failure of supra quadras like Igor-Pruitt.

The violent crime rate in the United States (as measured by the Bureau of Justice Statistics) soared from a metric of 160.9 in 1960 to 758.1 in 1991; decreasing since. The degree of urbanization, its perceived connection to lawlessness, and middle class flight, often drove policy prior to the onset of trend reversals in the 1990's.

END PART ONE

Saturday Snaps

2009-12-12T09:01:00.001-08:00

Sun King (Part 2)

2009-12-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

See Sun King (11/30/09) for the beginnings of this thread.

Effusing sunbeams as pediment centerpiece, a refreshingly fluid highlight amidst the strict geometries of the cornice and vergeboard detailing.

A sunburst relief panel bedecks a vent dormer, the architectural equivalent of a diamond stud earring.

Could a crawl space access screen be any more beautiful, convulsive, synthetist-like?

West Adams Heritage Association Holiday Tour

2009-12-01T07:06:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again: WAHA's Annual Holiday Historic Homes Tour & Progressive Dinner: Saturday, December 5th and Sunday, December 6th. This year's staging ground: Country Club Park, a pending Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, featuring a melange of pre and post World War One house styles. Courses, one to be served at each exquisitely restored property, include grilled cheese bites, creamy corn bisque, eggplant parmigiana, chicken with lemons and olives, and old-fashioned apple crumble.

Log onto www.WestAdamsHeritage.org for more information, to PAY ONLINE and/or to print/download the invitation flyer. Tickets are: $85 per person for the Progressive Dinner Tour, and $30 for the food-less, self-guided walking tour Sunday afternoon from noon to three pm.

The Holiday Tour & Progressive Dinner lasts about three hours. Please, no high heels.

(I'll see you at the Soup House!)

Roof Returns (Part 2)

2009-12-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

In Roof Returns (May 12, 2009), I featured bargeboards (see also The Devil's in the Thingee March 7, 2008 for a definition of Bargeboard and associated terms) interrupted by chimneys and unusual projections.

I've since collected examples of 'faux fascia', roofing extensions and returns without practical purpose, in service of symmetry, aesthetic pursuits.

These 'bow tie' bargeboards (middle and bottom images) dress a roof/wall junction in dapper fashion. Crowning a column (middle) and masking a change in mass (bottom).

Sun King

2009-11-30T14:28:00.001-08:00

The image of the radiating sun (referred to variously, from the Baroque period forward, as Sunburst, Sunrise, Sun-in-Splendour, Sunset, and Sun-in-Glory), was the most popular turn of the century decorative motif .

Top image: Classic example in gable, glowingly rendered in gold leaf paint.

Many ancient patterns represented the sun, including the swastika, wheel, and Egyptian sun disc; still, figurative examples are the most common.

Middle image: corner brackets with delicious detail.

Bottom image: Craftsman era rendition with attic vent as fiery sphere.

Looks Like Teen Spirit

2009-11-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

The University Gateway Project, latest in the Figueroa facelift, jettisons its hijab.

Bricks and chunky massing, Brutalism with a masonry veil, giantic volumes masquerading as decoration.

Neo-trad(itional) to the max, bookending the more laudable Galen events center, shunning revered, Islamo eccentric neighbor, The Shrine Auditorium.

Ugly. Effective? TBD.....

To There and Back

2009-11-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Terroir d' hood

2009-11-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

Terroir, typically translated from the French as, "a sense of place," is a term largely associated with viticulture and uniquely local attributes.

The attributes that generate the

aura of a neighborhood, and perhaps best define it, should not be bedimmed by presumptive semiotics, or colonializing instincts.

The need for a culturally validated landscape consumes many home buyers, bewitched by radical traditionalism, unreceptive to resemanticising forces.

Intangibles, an obsession of sporting reporters, are always difficult to document. Expertise is useful.

Ch-Ch-Change

2009-11-05T08:47:00.000-08:00

Change is the only constant in urban quarters, the most prevailing characteristic. A challenge then, is to view place not as still, but moving.

University Park, for example, amidst efforts to reframe the Figueroa corridor and USC's

manifest destiny, might resemble a time lapse effect. Flashy eateries and popular chains are sprouting along Figueroa, as is a mid rise cluster of student living complexes. Once the district was a moribund slum. Earlier still, it was home to the city's elite.

Fifteen years ago Palmdale was an up-and-coming bedroom community with new municipal works, and a celebrated growth pattern. Today, the city's image has been radically reset by meteoric foreclosure rates, and mounting social problems amongst its latch-key youth.

Like the expanding universe theories, different neighborhoods

move at different rates of speed.

A few nights ago, I attended a United Neighborhood Neighborhood Council Zoning & Planning

meeting, wherein two of the agenda items concerned Jefferson Park. The meeting was held, without significant fanfare, on a weeknight, during the final game of the World Series. Still, over a dozen residents attended, to further the drive toward a historic designation, one of the invisible rudders that helps steer transitional neighborhoods to productive waters, by more effectively managing change.

Outside Outsider Art

2009-11-03T08:49:00.000-08:00

Backyard murals come in an all shapes, sizes, and sophistications (including driveway trompe l'oeil).

Cultural landscapes revealed: highly romanticized renderings of the old country, chronicles of the immigrant experience, appear frequently (see Caribbean beach scene bottom).

In 2001, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art relocated three walls from a garden structure in Pacific Palisades, bearing Portrait of Mexico Today, the only intact U.S. mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros, painted in 1932.

Old Lyme meet tool shed, might there be other significant backyard works?

About This Site

2009-10-25T03:14:00.001-07:00

Yes this is a real estate web-site, masquerading as a blog, masquerading as a web-site. I've deliberately eschewed the emerging web-site standard: pretty slide show, mortgage calculator, a rap sheet of recent sales. Nor, do I offer a jazzed up bio, full of hand-picked testimonials, and the usual sing song promises: unmatched service, attentive team, a bouquet of flowers on your birthday. (For something a bit more in this vein, see our brokerage site: www.citylivingrealty.com)

Instead, I offer unburnished opinions, a lot of 'em, probably enough to build a gallows. Dig through the archives (500 entries divided among 20 topics) and you'll find years of street-level reporting on the urban experience, architecture, and the real estate industry (replete with criticism).

I write from the perspective of an agent whose chief conviction, and practice, is the promotion and preservation of historic housing stock and neighborhoods, be they mansions in privileged enclaves or humble folk dwellings in the tenderloin.

Additional notes:

*Occasionally, I detail events, vendors, or services. Never have I received payola for doing so.

*Listings are grouped under Current Listings (in the side bar), though I've often pocket listings that don't show on the site (inquiries welcome).

*The photowork is my own.

Grassin' Grass

2009-10-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

Remember when verdant, clean-edged lawns connoted status and neighborhood standing?

Times change. Water use restrictions and a burgeoning water consciousness are shifting the paradigm.

The unbroken carpet effect (seen here in Leimert Park) used to signal pride of ownership; now, it translates as sluggish and lacking progresivity, a bit like Humvee drivers in a gas crunch.

The new world order is even on display in show-boaty Hancock Park, where many a former putting green browns; and elsewhere, as some homeowners, inspired by LADWP turf removal incentives, embrace landscape alternatives.

The semantic system is finally under attack, pitted by terms like evapotranspiration and soil percolation. With a crisis looming,

will morality oblige?