Heritage Panel Takes No Action on Chase Knolls

The city Cultural Heritage Commission deadlocked Wednesday over the merits of designating the Chase Knolls Apartments in Sherman Oaks a historic cultural monument, sending the issue, without recommendation, to the City Council for a decision.

After more than two hours of public testimony, commissioners Catherine Schick and Kaye Beckham supported the designation, which would block, at least temporarily, plans by a developer to raze the Riverside Drive complex.

“I do feel that Chase Knolls is notable and does embody the modern architecture of its kind,” said Beckham.

But with two members absent, the commission couldn’t muster the third vote required for a recommendation because commissioner Holly Wyman objected, saying the building is not culturally or historically significant.

“Cultural monument status is not the appropriate vehicle to save Chase Knolls,” Wyman said.

With owner Legacy Partners wanting to demolish the buildings to make way for luxury apartments, tenants in the mostly rent-controlled complex said they will press their case to the City Council, where Councilman Mike Feuer sponsored the designation application.

“I’m very disappointed, but we are still hopeful the City Council will approve it,” said Mary Jane Atkins, an English instructor at Glendale College who has lived in Chase Knolls for seven years.

Feuer told the commission that the 260 apartments built in 1949 are part of the Garden City Movement of design, which provided working-class families with affordable housing surrounding large courtyards of green lawns and trees.

“Chase Knolls is one of the best examples of this movement,” Feuer told the panel,

He was backed in his recommendation by the Los Angeles Conservancy and Jay Oren, the commission’s staff architect.

“This really is among the best housing of its type in the San Fernando Valley,” said Ken Bernstein of the conservancy.

The designation was also supported by several tenants of the building, including actress Penny Singleton, who starred in the “Blondie” movies and who was the voice of Jane Jetson. Singleton told the panel that the buildings have over the years been home to many people in the entertainment business, including a young Johnny Carson. The buildings’ historical designs deserve to be preserved, she said, adding that walking into the apartments is like walking onto the set of a 1940s movie.

“We cannot be so careless to disregard our historic housing, especially in the San Fernando Valley,” Singleton said.

Two architects retained by Legacy Partners said the apartment complex is not a notable example of the Garden City or Modern movements, and the architect on the project was “undistinguished.”

Robert Chattel, one of those working for the developer, said he has lived in Sherman Oaks near the apartment complex for about 20 years.

“I have never felt compelled to stop and take a look at it,” Chattel said. “I do not find it interesting.”

Benjamin Reznik, an attorney for Legacy Partners, said the proposal to designate the building is motivated by tenants who do not want to lose rent-controlled apartments, not by the historical merits.

“To make this a historical monument would be an abuse of the process and dilute the monument status,” Reznik said.