L.A. Seeks State Grant to Renovate Landfair Apartments in Westwood

The city of Los Angeles has applied for $300,000 in state funds to renovate the Landfair Apartments, regarded as one of the best examples of the International Style of architecture.

Designed in 1937 by architect Richard Neutra, the two-story structure near UCLA retains the clean, modular form characteristic of the austere International Style of the 1920s through 1940s. A model of the building was one of two chosen to represent Neutra’s work in a 1982 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

But a study commissioned last year by the apartments’ owner, the University Cooperative Housing Assn., found that the building needs lateral bracing to resist earthquakes. In addition, portions of its exterior stucco walls are cracked and its interior walls and ceilings are in poor condition.

“The smartest thing we could do, in a business sense, would be to tear it down and put up a four-story building,” said Dennis Kissick, general manager of the cooperative, a private, nonprofit corporation established during the Depression to provide low-cost housing for UCLA students. “But this is one of the few classic buildings in Westwood.”

With Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s help, Kissick and a committee of students, chaired by Timothy Sales, in December secured the council’s promise to maintain the building’s historical integrity. The promise entitled Landfair to compete for state Parks and Recreation Facilities Bond Act funds. The city’s Cultural Heritage Commission is also considering designating the building a historic monument.

“My gut instinct is (that) we’ll be granted a major portion of the funds we requested,” city planner Daniel Scott said. “This building is definitely worthy of local, state and federal recognition.”

Scott said the state grant would trigger financial support from foundations and individuals for other aspects of renovation. An estimated $1.25 million to $1.5 million is needed to remodel the building to suit its current use as student housing, Kissick said.

Originally designed as eight luxury apartments, the building has housed students since the University Cooperative Housing Assn. bought it in 1941 and renamed it Everett Robison Hall. A plan drawn by Venice architect Steven D. Ehrlich calls for restoring the original facade and transforming Neutra’s eight apartments into dorm rooms with three communal areas for students.

Capacity under the new plan would be 67 students, down from 75. Kissick said the co-op would be forced to raise room and board rates $30 to $50 a month as a result of construction costs, despite the anticipated grants. Residents now pay an average of $200 a month, which includes 19 meals a week.

“It is a pleasure to see how sensitively and imaginatively the restoration plans . . . have deferred to the needs of the present occupants of the building and maintained, at the same time, the spirit of Neutra’s original,” said Thomas Hines, a UCLA professor and Neutra biographer. “It would be a great loss if the building was allowed to continue to deteriorate.”