A Date with L.A. Architecture

This week we explore Hancock Park, rock out in Eagle Rock, do Shakespeare - Native American style, and see scary movies.

This week’s spotlight feature is a bit of cheat. It was very affordable for us, but it’ll cost you a few bucks to do it. I will say that it is worth it if you choose to lay out the cash.

Back in April, Kim won a set of Los Angeles theme tours. We’re just now starting to cash in those gift certificates. Our first pick – Architecture Tours L.A.

Our guide Laura Massino Smith.

The company offers van tours of several Los Angeles regions, including Hollywood, downtown, and, our choice, Hancock Park-Miracle Mile. Their tours run $70 a person, $125 for the special Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry tours. I choose the Hancock Park tour because, A, I knew little about the area, and B, I liked the tour description of seeing Art Deco beauties, magnificent mansions, and Craftsmen homes.

Our guide was Laura Massino Smith, a New Yorker-turned-Angeleno with a master’s degree in architectural history and a love of historic preservation.

 We met up with Laura in the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken at Western Avenue and Oakwood Avenue in Koreatown. This isn’t just any KFC. This is perhaps the best looking KFC you will see anywhere.

Look at what the Colonel did.

 Laura told us it was an example of Deconstructivist Post-Modern architecture. It looks like a bucket that chicken would come in, only have of it is removed.

We were off to a good start and we hadn’t even left the parking lot.

A blow-by-blow account of our tour would take up way to much space, but I do want to share a few of the beauties we saw.

First, here are descriptions of Hancock Park and Windsor Square from the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources:

Hancock Park:  Outstanding architects of the era designed the palatial two-story, single family residences in various Period Revival styles (including Tudor Revival, English Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Monterey Revival, and American Colonial Revival) for influential members of Los Angeles society. 

Laura told us a story about Nat King Cole, who moved into Hancock Park in the late 1940s. Hancock Park residents were so alarmed at having an African-American in their neighborhood they sent out a letter advising residents to watch for “undesirables.” By accident Cole received one of the letters. He replied that if he saw anyone undesirable he would let them know. The Cole family lived in the neighborhood into the 1960s.

The Getty House, the Los Angeles Mayoral Residence.

Windsor Square was planned to be the most exclusive neighborhood in Southern California and the largest upper-class subdivision ever marketed in Los Angeles. Residences in Windsor Square represent various periods of development and a variety of architectural styles. Early residences feature examples of the Craftsman and Beaux Arts or Classical Revival styles while later residences reflect the popularity of Period Revival styles including Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, Tudor, English, French, and American Colonial Revival styles.

This beauty is my favorite of the trip - the Mauretania Apartments, named after the British ship. This Streamline Moderne beauty was the Los Angeles home for JFK. It was designed in 1934 by Milton Black.

The entrance to the Desmonds, a former department store which is now being used as an art gallery. This Art Deco beauty has an elevator operated by Ruben Pardo, who has been on the job since 1976.

The Chateau LeMoine, built in 1925 in the French Normandy style. Apparently it's rubbish day in the kingdom.

Sadly, my pictures of one of the other great tour highlights - an entire neighborhood of Craftsmen homes along South Wilton Place - didn't come out so hot. But trust me, they are fantastic. 

Okay, so we were lucky and didn't have to pay a nickel for this tour, but I will tell you this - immediately afterward Kim and I debated which tour with Laura to take next.We will be spending our own bucks next time around.You can get Laura's books on her various tours through Amazon. The price is around $10 new for the Hancock Park book and I saw a $5 price tag on used ones. So you can do your own self-guided tours, but I think you would be missing out. I think the book is best as a companion to, not a replacement for, one of Laura's tours.

Lots of great stuff coming up, people. This week’s quick hits:

- A couple of posts back I told you about our date at the Charles Phoenix “Architecture in L.A.” slideshow. Charles has two more architecture slideshows coming up, the first on Nov. 10 at the Mudd Theater in Claremont and the second on Nov. 24 in Pasadena. Charles’ shows aren’t cheap, but my wife and I believe Charles is value for your entertainment dollar. See Charles’ website for show details. 

- The Annenberg Space for Photography is between exhibits at the moment, but they are filling the void with what they are calling their Skylight Studios Fall Film Screening. They are showing a series of short documentaries from past exhibits: no strangers, Water: Our Thirsty World, and Extreme Exposure.

The free screenings are being held every weekend through the weekend of Oct. 19-20. The screenings are being held in the Skylight Studios located across the park from the photography space on “A” level, 10050 Constellation Boulevard in Century City. See their website for details.

The Annenberg is near Craft restaurant, one of the finest in Century City. It is pricey, but perhaps you might want to hit for drinks after the viewing.

- This Saturday is the annual Eagle Rock Music Festival. LA Weekly describes it as “music from the four corners of the Earth, delivered right to your own backyard.”

The event runs from 4 to 10 p.m. along Colorado Boulevard between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Argus Drive.

LA Weekly describes the lineup as being “all over the map in the best possible way. The bill includes The Mars Volta/Le Butcherettes collaboration Bosnian Rainbows, the Inland Empire' Latin combo Quitapenas, and the guitar-banjo-fiddle of Triple Chicken Foot. The wonderful Bob Baker Marionettes are also on the bill.

Admission is $10, $20 if you want a VIP pass. Complete lineup and tips on getting there can be found at the event website.

- I thought the outdoor screenings would start to disappear once fall came, but happily I was wrong.
Eat/See/Hear is holding Shocktober: Supernatural Saturdays., screenings of three classic movies. The series opens on Oct. 12 with a screening of Poltergeist at Los Angeles Technical College. Through the rest of October, the series will present outdoor screenings of Halloween classics, Ghostbusters (Oct. 19 at Centennial Square at Pasadena City Hall) and The Shining (Oct. 26 at LA Historic Park). Doors open at 4:30 p.m., band performs at 6:00 p.m. and movie begins at 7:30 p.m.

Advance admission is $10. General admission is $12. See their website for details You can find discount tickets on Goldstar.

- On Oct. 24 Native Voices presents a staged reading of Measure for Measure: An Indian Boarding School Comedy, a Shakespeare adaption set in the Old West. An Indian boarding school and the local town struggle over the fate of a young teenage boy unjustly sentenced to death. Tickets are $10 but you can get them for just a $3.50 service charge if you get them through Goldstar.