Apartments Deemed Worth Saving

“You have to see my favorite building. It has a great Art Deco feel, a Hollywood style to it. It’s very beautiful,” Amanda Seward said.

Seward, chairman of the residential council of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee, hurried past the pair of fenced-off buildings next to Doreen Place and rounded the corner at Elkland Place.

The smile on her face disappeared when she stopped in front of a stylish, two-story apartment building painted a vivid red.

“They’ve boarded it up!” she exclaimed Monday afternoon. “It’s empty, and it’s boarded up!”

At the Lincoln Place Apartments in Venice, a boarded-up building means one thing: Demolition may not be far behind.

For 50 years, the modernist multi-family complex a mile from the beach was a stylish example of pioneering post-World War II affordable housing in Los Angeles.

Each of its 795 one- and two-bedroom apartments featured tile kitchen counters, etched-glass tub enclosures and -- an oddity in 1951 -- pre-wired television hookups connected to built-in television antennas.

Lincoln Place was an example of pioneering social change too. Its 52 buildings spread out over 38 acres were designed by a team led by a black architect -- a rarity in the 1940s and the subject of some drama during construction.

He was Ralph Vaughn, a former senior set designer at MGM who had also worked with architect Paul Williams on major commercial projects and celebrity homes in Beverly Hills.

Going for $63.50 and $73.50 a month, the rental units were snapped up by ex-GIs starting their families. For decades, their occupancy rate hovered at 98%, with many original tenants still living in the same units.

The atmosphere of familiarity and family came to an abrupt end in 1991, when a new owner applied for approval to demolish all 52 apartment buildings and replace them with condominiums.

Los Angeles officials initially refused to allow the demolition. But, in what would become a series of lawsuits that continue to entangle Lincoln Place, the city was ordered in 2002 to reconsider the condominium project.

The owner, meanwhile, had begun “renovating” some buildings, evicting or relocating tenants. Fighting back, Lincoln Place residents sued the city over environmental concerns in late 2002.

By then, the tussle had caught the attention of Los Angeles preservationists. They researched the history of Lincoln Place, and pressed state and federal officials to proclaim it a historical resource that should be saved.

In early 2003, the state Historic Resources Commission concluded that Lincoln Place was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. But a short time later, the apartments’ owner, who opposed the designation, demolished two buildings, putting the nomination in limbo.

Five more buildings were torn down in mid-2003, about two hours before tenants and preservationists say they were scheduled to go to court to try to block demolition.

A short time later, acquisition of the apartment complex was completed by a Denver-based real estate investment trust, Apartment Investment and Management Co., for a reported $120 million.

No wonder tenants were edgy two weeks ago, when construction fencing went up next to Doreen Place around two more buildings. Word spread that the new owners were prepared to continue with the demolition.

Residents were relieved when the Los Angeles Conservancy, the California Preservation Foundation, the 20th Century Architecture Alliance and the National Organization of Minority Architects teamed up to hurriedly obtain a temporary stop-work order from a state appeals court March 24.

Patti Schwayder, a spokeswoman for Apartment Investment and Management, confirmed this week that demolition was being sought for the two structures. But she said her firm had not decided whether new apartments would be constructed or the property sold instead.

“We’re in apartments. We don’t do condominiums,” she said. “If we do continue to provide rental apartments there, a percentage will be ‘affordable,’ and we want to work with people who live there now.”

That kind of talk was of little consolation to Amanda Seward as she gazed at the boarded-up red building and the fenced-in buildings on Doreen Place. Demolition of additional Lincoln Place buildings would seriously damage the integrity of architect Vaughn’s design, said the Mar Vista resident, who is the author of the National Register nomination.

Seward said the work of Vaughn and partner Heth Wharton “is an almost textbook application” of planning principles used by the postwar Federal Housing Authority. Buildings were staggered and variably configured to avoid a monotonous look, and building facades were given a “multi-planed” look, using some of the set-design skills Vaughn had honed at MGM.

Lincoln Place’s two-story buildings feature low-pitched, hipped roofs and bold geometric shapes at doorway entrances. Buildings are laid out in L or U shapes around landscaped courtyard gardens.

Tenants have done their own research into Lincoln Place’s past. Documentary filmmaker Laura Burns, who has lived there since 1996, interviewed surviving members of the 1950-51 construction team.

Gerald Bialac, whose father owned the site and decided to build the FHA-insured project, recalled that Vaughn had been picked on the basis of other garden apartments he had designed in the Los Angeles area.

Vaughn “had an incredible flair for design and an ability to deliver affordable housing that looked and felt like luxury housing,” Bialac explained in a statement in support of the National Register nomination.

“We later received death threats for working with a black architect, but that did not stop us. We were committed to creating the finest project in the country,” Bialac said.

For the 15-month construction project, builders set up their own sawmill next to the Lincoln Boulevard site. They custom-cut lumber to produce studs and beams that fit together quickly -- and tightly, according to Bialac.

Sheila Bernard, a teacher who has lived 16 years at Lincoln Place and heads its tenants association, said construction remains solid a half-century later. And residents remain together too.

“We’re going to fight to save this place,” she said.