Historic Status Is Not Farfetched

The debate over the future of Sherman Oaks’ Chase Knolls Garden Apartments, threatened with demolition by Legacy Partners for a new luxury apartment complex, is a poignant human drama with longtime residents being uprooted from their homes. It is also an interesting policy debate with many issues at stake, including whether a net gain of 140 housing units is more important than housing affordability.

But beneath the storm over Chase Knolls lies a more basic question: What from the San Fernando Valley’s post-World War II building boom is worth keeping, and what should we allow to become disposable?

That’s more than an academic query. The National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s listing of historic structures, has traditionally followed a 50-year rule, generally requiring that a building be half a century old before it can be considered for historic designation. Today, much of the architecture from the Valley’s great postwar building boom is hitting the half-century mark.

To some, the very notion of historic status for a 1940s apartment complex seems absurd. When Councilman Mike Feuer introduced a motion to designate the 1947-’49 Chase Knolls Apartments as a city historic cultural monument, some replied: “How can Chase Knolls be historic? Its buildings don’t look very special, and it’s younger than I am!” Many think that Modernist buildings look awfully plain, with all those angular lines, lots of glass and inexpensive materials, minimalist styles and lack of fanciful ornamentation.

As we enter the 21st century, we’re just beginning to appreciate and see with new eyes our Modern architectural heritage from the mid-20th century. But all too often, we have lost a period’s best buildings before we really began to “see” them. Victorian architecture, so well-loved today, had fallen out of favor as too frilly and formal during much of the 20th century. All of the great Victorian mansions on Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill were demolished in the 1960s, just before San Franciscans began to appreciate their Victorians in the ‘70s and reclaimed them as “painted ladies.”

Later, Art Deco architecture seemed passe, and even Los Angeles’ great Art Deco Wiltern Theater was facing the wrecking ball in 1978, before tastes evolved again in the ‘80s and Miami’s South Beach became the world’s trendiest spot for beautiful people.

To “see” Chase Knolls Garden Apartments, look beyond the design of any single building and notice the remarkable site planning, influenced by the Garden City movement in urban planning. Garden City apartment designers fused Modernist architecture with a clustering of housing units to provide attractive open spaces, the separation of the automobile from the pedestrian and a park-like setting.

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Today, the architects and planners who call themselves New Urbanists are struggling to infuse into their designs a sense of community, a priority for the pedestrian and shared green spaces. Chase Knolls, in contrast to much of the undifferentiated sprawl going up around it, was accomplishing all of that in the 1940s.

It’s not at all farfetched that Chase Knolls should attain historic status, as similar 1940s apartment complexes in Los Angeles have already won historic recognition. The Village Green complex in Baldwin Hills has long been listed in the National Register and is being considered for special listing as a National Historic Landmark. Park La Brea in the Beverly-Fairfax District and Wyvernwood Apartments in East Los Angeles, both comparable to Chase Knolls, have been determined eligible for the National Register.

Los Angeles’ cultural heritage ordinance allows the best examples of a particular architectural type to be designated historic cultural monuments. Although much of the Valley’s postwar heritage may not be worth saving, Chase Knolls is one of those select sites that distinguishes itself from other architecture of its time. It was and is an oasis of serenity in a sea of cheap postwar dingbat apartments, monotonous tract housing and strip malls.

To really “see” Chase Knolls, I had to take my own tour, get out of the car and look past the windows boarded up by Legacy Partners. Some residents and I spent a delightful half an hour meandering down the pedestrian paths, noting the complex’s subtle architectural variations, communing with the birds and squirrels and greeting other residents on their porches or in their semiprivate rear yards. It immediately became apparent that Chase Knolls is a special place--a place truly designed for people--and is a piece of the Valley’s postwar heritage that is worth keeping.

Driving Tour

To give participants a fresh look at the San Fernando Valley’s mid-century architectural heritage, the Los Angeles Conservancy will offer a two-day driving tour of Modernism in the Valley on Nov. 18-19. For more information or to volunteer for the event, contact the Conservancy at (213) 623-2489.