Village Green, Los Angeles

Baldwin Hills Village
Village Green Signage located at the intersection of Rodeo Road and Hauser Street
Location Los Angeles, California
Coordinates 34°01′11″N 118°21′39″W / 34.01972°N 118.36083°W / 34.01972; -118.36083Coordinates: 34°01′11″N 118°21′39″W / 34.01972°N 118.36083°W / 34.01972; -118.36083
Area 64 acres (26 ha)
Built 1942
Architect Clarence Stein; Reginald D. Johnson; et al.
Architectural style Other, Modern Movement
NRHP reference # 93000269
LAHCM # 174
Significant dates
Added to NRHP April 1, 1993[1]
Designated NHLD January 3, 2001[2]
Designated LAHCM May 4, 1977

Village Green, originally named Baldwin Hills Village, is a neighborhood at the foot of Baldwin Hills, within the city of Los Angeles, California. The neighborhood consists of a large condominium complex that is both a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and a National Historic Landmark. Designed in the late 1930s and built out by 1942, it is one of the oldest planned communities of its type in the nation.[3]

Geography

Village Green is located between Rodeo Road and Coliseum Street, and between Hauser Blvd. and slightly west of La Brea Avenue, in the northwestern South Los Angeles region. The Baldwin Village neighborhood is just east of Village Green and La Brea Avenue. The site design consists of outer vehicular circulation roads, with spur roadways between some of the buildings of the complex. At its center is an elongated oval greensward, lined and crossed by paved walkways. Smaller garden courts extend outward from the central area between the residence buildings. The spur roads provide access to garage buildings, which also historically housed access to common facilities such as laundry rooms. The residences are one or two story frame structures finished in plaster, with the living units organized so that the living room and master bedroom face one of the garden spaces.[3]

History

Origin

The Baldwin Hills Village complex was built in 1942 as one of the most ambitiously planned communities in Los Angeles at the time, with 627 apartments grouped in buildings on a very large landscaped site. The Modernist Garden city style complex, which encompassed 627 units, was designed by architect Reginald D. Johnson, consulting architect Clarence S. Stein, with the firm of Wilson, Merill & Alexander, and landscape architect Fred Barlow, Jr. in the "" style. The units seldom have more than two bedrooms, and tend to attract seniors and younger professionals as residents. As one of the first such establishments, the Village Green was also designed with the requirements of car-owners in mind.[4]

Landmark status

As Baldwin Hills Village, Village Green was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in 1977, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and a National Historic Landmark historic district in 2001.[2][3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Baldwin Hills Village". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
  3. 1 2 3 National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: (pdf), National Park Service, May 19, 2000 and Accompanying photos, exterior and interior, from 19 and 19. (10.0 MB)
  4. ↑ Sam Hall Kaplan: LA Lost & Found, New York 1987, p. 109.


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