Preserve Vintage Architecture

There’s a lesson--or two--for San Fernando Valley developers in the growing popularity of vintage apartment complexes in Hollywood and West Hollywood.

Up until a few years ago, most investors wouldn’t touch these aging buildings. Now, landlords are realizing that renters like the amenities of an earlier age--high ceilings, hardwood floors, balconies and pantries.

Money spent catching up on deferred maintenance, shoring up structural damage and generally sprucing up heirloom apartments yields returns because people are willing to pay higher rents to live in an apartment with character. The average price per unit has more than doubled in the last four years, driving bargain seekers into the surrounding neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park.

How does this affect the Valley, which, mid-century monuments like the Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake aside, is not exactly known for its vintage architecture? It’s one more argument for preserving the architecture that the Valley does have, such as Chase Knolls Garden Apartments in Sherman Oaks.

Yes, the 1940s-era complex is a few decades younger than the Hollywood beauties, which were built in the 1920s and ‘30s. But like many of them, Chase Knolls is built on the courtyard model, with individual doorways arranged around a central open space or “garden.” As an example of its own Modernist era, it has the kind of character and charm that attracts tenants.

Unfortunately, its new owners don’t see it that way. Legacy Partners bought the 260-unit complex a year ago intending to raze it and build new, luxury apartments.

Current tenants and architectural buffs won a reprieve last summer when the Los Angeles City Council named Chase Knolls a historic cultural monument. But it is only a temporary stay until an environmental impact report can determine whether preserving the complex’s park-like setting would pencil out economically.

The experience of landlords in Hollywood and West Hollywood suggests that it just might.