Elegance in Mid-Wilshire

The way it's supposed to be.

Someone just plunked down $645,000 (at least that was the asking price) for this rather nice 1800-sq.ft. 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 3-car-garage condo in the Chateau Chaumont on Serrano at James M. Wood Boulevard (fka 9th Street) in Mid-Wilshire.

I've admired this building for several years, not only for its build quality and Italianate poise but also for its impeccable upkeep.

The once-genteel neighborhood is a bit rough around the edges, but just kitty-corner is Leland Bryant's delightful St. Germaine, and there are many other fine examples of L.A. traditional multi-family architecture in the immediate area, some with chickens running around in the front courtyard.

A proper foyer.

The apartment (if anyone refers to this as a "unit" I will personally slap him or her silly) has a semi-oval foyer that welcomes you gently instead of opening onto a makeshift dining area, as in many a contemporary condo. And check the sheen on those hardwood floors.

There's actually a real, honest-to-Zeus dining room, in addition to a working fireplace in the living room.

Real living, real dining.

Architects in past decades managed to put the kitchen—a service area, after all—toward the rear of the apartment, instead of making it the first thing you see when you enter. A lost art. Perhaps in the near future the laundry room will serve as the showpiece of one's dwelling?

My congratulations to the buyer of this piece of Los Angeles heritage. Here's the listing, which may or may not still be available.

Bucolic in the Valley

No, those aren't extras from Brokeback Mountain. It's a sheep ranch on Whitsett Avenue in what is now Studio City, circa 1890s.

How green was my Valley.

You can find more gems like this in the Oviatt Library Digital Collections of Cal State University Northridge.

Crime of the Week

This Sotheby's listing reports "No expense spared on this gorgeous [sic] remodeled home in Prime Bel Air location."

Note to Sotheby's: A pig with lipstick is still a pig, and a dingbat with "custom hardwood and slate flooring throughout, gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, stone fireplaces, remodeled baths, recessed lighting and french [sic] doors" is still a dingbat. Sorry.

A dingbat with lipstick.

Los Angeles in motion

Thanks once again to Bobolini of Fahrenheit Studio for turning me on to this amazing stop-action video of L.A. by photographer/visual artist Michael Marantz. It's obvious from watching this that Los Angeles has just as much energy as New York; it's just spread out over a much greater surface area.

Los Angeles: in motion (larger version)
from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Vacant lot blues

I happened across this telling vacant lot on Melrose the other day. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Click the image for a larger view.

This lot, to judge from the weeds, is not even used as a valet parking lot for the Larchmont Grill, across the street.

Interestingly, I don't find it sad . . . at least, no more sad than a good blues lament. If there were ever an argument for the sociologically expressive power of graffiti, this lot is something of a masterpiece. Perhaps it should be preserved the way Pompeiian graffiti has been preserved: as an indelible expression of our unique moment in time.

Crime of the Week

Larchmont-adjacent gemisch.

The taste for pre-fab Corinthian columns is not limited, it seems, to Encino's nouveau riche enclaves. This house is Larchmont-adjacent (to use the parlance of real estate agents) and on a street with many nicely maintained cottages and bungalows.

Here, however, the builder opted for an inarticulate stucco box with a hodge-podge of mail-order "features" slapped on: skinny, entasis-free fluted columns which, fortunately, don't really have to support anything; an off-the-shelf Georgian-style door surround, surrounding a vaguely Mediterranean door; a crude balcony befitting a '50s public housing project; an afterthought of an oeil-de-boeuf; prison-like gratings on the lower windows.

When it tuned out that this malproportioned mess lined up perfectly on the grid with the unattractive (although better designed) office building behind it, I felt I had to include the latter as well.