The author wishes to thank the Travel Committee of Libraries and Media Services at Kent State University for research support at the Library of Congress where the Records of Olmsted Associates are housed. Further appreciation goes to the following: Catherine Mulholland, Chatsworth, California, author of the most definitive work to date on the development of the San Fernando Valley, The Owensmouth Baby: The Making Of A San Fernando Valley Town, for allowing use of three reproductions from her book and for advice regarding development of the San Fernando Valley; Joyce Connelly, at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts for providing valuable information about the collections there and at the Library of Congress; the Staff of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress; Pamela Post of the Architectural Drawing Collection/University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara for making available slides of the Rudolph Schindler drawings; Christopher A. Pine, Senior Planner of the Beverly Hills City Planning Commission, who provided information about Wilbur D. Cook and the past and present growth of Beverly Hills; and a Los Angeles colleague and friend, Lindy Narver, of the Beverly Hills Public Library and the Henry E. Huntington Library, whose sleuthing of archives has provided valuable references and photographic materials on the history and zoning of Beverly Hills, and whose grandfather was one of the earliest residents to build there on Rexford Drive.

INTRODUCTION

The suburban community of Palos Verdes Estates was created on an unusual landscape, and the firm of Olmsted Brothers was devoted from 1914 until 1931 to enhancing that landscape with the best design principles for city planning and residential architecture. The imagery of the Mediterranean was of utmost importance to the planners and the maintenance of the beauty of the topography of the landscape through framing of vistas--natural and landscaped--street systems integrated with the topography, sizes and shapes of lots conducive to creative placement of residential architecture and the control of aesthetic quality in each district by deed restrictions. The ultimate goal for building Palos Verdes Estates was to create an "Ideal City" and a "City Beautiful," on a remote peninsula, yet close enough to the burgeoning metropolis of Los Angeles to permit rapid access. The aims of the planners of Palos Verdes Estates were certainly noble and their energy and idealism permeated every aspect of the community's developmental and building phases. It was "organic unity," "harmony" of design, and maintenance of picturesque images of residential architecture integrated with the natural beauty of the landscape that was at the forefront of every decision made at Palos Verdes. These concerns are expressed in writing and in photographs advertising the new community, exemplified by the following:

Figure 1: Introductory Statement and Drawing from The Palos Verdes of Today

LONG ago, before time was, Mother Nature created a landscape more beautiful than all else in Southern California---hillslope, canyon, mesa and majestic cliffs overlooking silver beaches and sparkling blue ocean. Inspired by its grandeur a group of men visioned its possibilities as a homeplace and vowed they would build the Ideal City theron. They promised that when they built they would not destroy nor spoil, but would perpetuate its matchless charm. So they set out to create the Suburban City Beautiful for all those who love the nearness of ocean, mountain and valley. How faithfully they have upheld their ideal is pictorially shown in the following pages.Ref.1 (Fig.1)

Although the development of Palos Verdes Estates as a totally planned community was unique on such a large scale in the Los Angeles area, it can be compared to Beverly Hills, a speculative real estate subdivision, laid out in 1906; it too had curvilinear streets which followed the topography of the hills, and took into consideration for its street system and residential lots vistas of the Pacific Ocean, the mountains, secluded hilltops and canyons. Like Palos Verdes Estates, the laying out of streets for residential and commercial sections of Beverly Hills was mandated through careful planning and reinforcement through zoning. But unlike Palos Verdes Estates, Beverly Hills had no thematic design program for visually unifying the residential architecture, nor a body of architects to review plans.

Palos Verdes Estates and the two suburban areas being cited in this paper represent only a small portion of the land development for single-family dwellings in the Los Angeles area from the 1880s on. The suburban developments were motivated by population growth which Robert Fogelson describes as "extraordinary":

Its [Los Angeles'] population quadrupled in the 1880s, doubled in the 1890s, tripled in the 1900s and doubled in the 1910s and again in the 1920s. . . . None of these other cities [San Francisco, Denver, Portland, and Seattle] matches Los Angeles' pace during the 1910's and 1920s. Hence Los Angeles grew by almost as much as all its rivals combined between 1910 and 1920 and by more than twice as much between 1920 and 1930.^Ref.2

In contrast, in another location of Los Angeles County, the San Fernando Valley was subdivided by real estate speculators into farms, ranches, and the townsites of Van Nuys, Marian, and Owensmouth. These Valley townsites are points of reference illustrating the typical Los Angeles gridiron system of street planning, lacking attention to environmental or architectural concerns. A general study of the overall plan for these three townsites in the San Fernando Valley is more typical of Los Angeles suburban growth patterns and quite unlike the planning for Palos Verdes Estates and Beverly Hills; differences and similarities are apparent when comparing Palos Verdes Estates and Beverly Hills with the San Fernando Valley developments, and then again when comparing Palos Verdes Estates with the more similar Beverly Hills.