Residents Seek Historic Monument Designation for Homes

Cory Buckner loves her neighborhood: The airy 1950s-era homes tucked carefully on the hills above Brentwood, the quiet tangle of trees carpeting the hillside, and the unobtrusive backyards hidden away from neighbors’ view.

Preserving the original design of the Crestwood Hills community is so important to Buckner and four of her neighbors that they want their homes designated historic monuments. Los Angeles’ Cultural Heritage Commission, which decides what structures will have that distinction, has taken the buildings into consideration and will inspect them next week.

For Buckner, it isn’t a moment too soon.

About 45 original Modernist houses remain in Crestwood Hills, about one quarter of those designed in the early 1950s by Los Angeles-based architect A. Quincy Jones. Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and Japanese architecture, the small, sleek houses feature wide walls of glass, low gabled roofs and open rooms that flow into one another without floor-to-roof divisions.

“I just think it’s going to be a shame if places like this are lost,” said Buckner, 46, an architect who has lived in her Rochedale Lane home with her husband and daughter since their Malibu house burned down two years ago. If the structures are named historic monuments, Buckner said, she hopes the pace of remodeling in the hillside community will abate and more of the custom-made houses will be protected.

Jones’ unusual designs reflect a time when Los Angeles reached a peak in architectural ingenuity, said Jay Oren, historical preservation officer for the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

“L.A. as a city made its biggest contribution to world architecture during that period,” he said. However, besides the homes in Crestwood Hills, many of the buildings Jones designed were destroyed in canyon fires.

Throughout Los Angeles, 628 structures have been named historic monuments because of their association with a significant historic event or person, or because they are an exemplary pieces of architecture, Oren said.

Once historic monument status is conferred, demolition of that building is almost impossible, George said. Remodeling the original architecture often requires an additional review process. If the commission approves the Crestwood Hills homes as historic monuments, the Los Angeles City Council is expected to confirm their status in the next month.

Buckner said she was floored when she saw the small house tiled with black squares. “I walked in the door and I knew this was it,” she said.

Now, she said, she’s incorporating Jones’ approach into the houses she designs for others. “It’s had a lot of influence on my work.”