Housing the Masses | Los Angeles Conservancy
Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy

Greater L.A. was a hub of wartime production during World War II and the nation's top producer of aerospace technology during the Cold War. All this industry, coupled with thousands of military personnel moving or returning to the area after WWII, led to a population explosion and an urgent need for affordable housing.

This gave architects and planners an unprecedented opportunity to think quickly and creatively about ways to “house the masses.” A range of housing options were developed that not only met the immediate problem, but drew on the styles, technology, environment, and daily needs of Angelenos.

Large-scale suburban developments with mass-produced housing and nearby shopping centers, like Lakewood and Panorama City, sprang up in former agricultural land. Visionary architects and developers used new technologies to create elegant homes that could be mass produced, bringing Modern ideals within reach of the average Angeleno.

Another was the garden apartment movement, based on the Garden City Movement principles of integrating architecture and landscape design to create shared open green spaces for all residents. Los Angeles has the second-largest collection of historic garden apartments in the country.

Dingbat apartment complexes were yet another option, based on simple “stucco-box” construction that maximizes the use of a small urban lot.

These housing types, along with a variety of high-density options that emerged in the late 1950s and '60s, helped to meet the housing needs of a rapidly growing region.

Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

6672-6674 Vista Del Mar Duplex

Reported to have been the first built work of architect Eric Owen Moss, now well-known for his visionary designs in Culver City and across the region.
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Airform "Bubble House"

Met with mixed reviews upon its construction but since lauded by scholars and critics alike, this dome-shaped dwelling was considered by architect Wallace Neff to be the perfect solution to the mid-twentieth century global housing crisis.
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Avenel Cooperative Housing

An unusual example of a Federal Housing Administration-funded project in the postwar period, ten families pooled resources to create a modestly scaled complex that incorporated modern ideas about affordable indoor-outdoor living.
Photo courtesy Chattel, Inc

Chase Knolls

This garden apartment community in Sherman Oaks was built in response to the postwar population boom, for those looking for "gracious living in apartment homes."
Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy

Crestwood Hills

What began as four musicians wanting to raise the level of middle-income family housing prospered into a utopian community in the middle of some of the most prime real estate in the country.
Eldridge House
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Eldridge House

An elegant example of Claremont Modernism, the Eldridge House was a clear outcropping of the architect's abiding principle of "total environment."
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

General Panel Residence

The only complete prefab building system created in the immediate postwar period featured an innovative framing system based on the "wedge connector," an X-shaped, cast-steel mechanism within wood-framed panels.
Hayworth Avenue Dingbats
Photo by Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy

Hayworth Avenue Dingbats

An entire street full of intact dingbats is a rare and special thing indeed, making Hollywood's wonderful 1956-1965 dingbat cluster on Hayworth Avenue a must-see.
Hollywood Riviera
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Hollywood Riviera

While the courtyard apartment is very common building in Southern California, in regard to style and integrity few compare to the Hollywood Riviera.
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Kona Kai Apartments

Rosemead Boulevard, from Pasadena to Pico Rivera and beyond, contains an unusually intact assortment of exuberant architectural styles including the Kona Kai, in San Gabriel, which falls right in line as a proud example of midcentury Tiki tradition.
Lakewood Center
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Lakewood Center

Upon its official opening in 1952, Lakewood Center became a well-known shopping destination touted for its ultramodern style and easy automobile access.
Laurelwood Apartments
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Laurelwood Apartments

One of the finest Modern expressions of the ubiquitous courtyard apartment complex to be found anywhere in Southern California, Laurelwood Apartments is an International Style complex that contains 20 two-bedroom units on a narrow lot.

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