Visitors and dwellers alike have commented on the results of the careful planning of Palos Verdes Estates and Beverly Hills. Two writers can especially be mentioned, Frances Marion and Frances Duncan. The latter describes in a 1928 article written for the Los Angeles Times, the beauty of Palos Verdes Estates roads and landscapes, and comments on their naturalness, exactly the effect for which Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was aiming:

At Palos Verdes, the roads are especially interesting. In the first place, they are unobtrusive - they follow the lines of the hills so skilfully that they seem to have 'just happened,' also, they are arranged so that in driving, one has a constantly varied view; the planting is anything but monotonous, as if it had been but a fortunate happening.^Ref.27 (Fig.33) (Fig.34)

Figure 33: View, Entrance Drive to Palos Verdes Estates, Palos Verdes Drive/Granvia La Costa

Figure 34: View from Palos Verdes Drive/Granvia La Costa above Malaga Cove, Palos Verdes Estates

Frances Marion, a Hollywood screenwriter, describes in her biography the vistas from her front lawn in the hills above Beverly Hills where she built in 1925 a Spanish hacienda called "The Enchanted Hill" (Wallace Neff, Architect). Her description expresses an image associated more with glittering Hollywood than the Mediterranean ambiance of Palos Verdes Estates when she writes:

Figure 35: Hollywood, California by Night

Below us sparkled the lights of Beverly Hills. The main Los Angeles boulevard that stretched to the sea looked like a ladder of stars lying supine on the ground, while searchlights playing upon the backdrop of the night sky, proclaimed the temporal fame of some fledgling actor or actress.Ref.28 (Fig.35)

The preservation of vistas from residences situated in the hills of Palos Verdes Estates can be illustrated by Kirtland Cutter's designs for the Gard and Sutherland residences. The Gard residence did not have a roof line nor plan which interfered with the vista from the Sutherland residence situated above. (Fig.36) Other districts of Palos Verdes Estates, with highly desirable vistas for homesites were selected even before streets were planned as in the example of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.'s property located on a promontory overlooking the Pacific Ocean to which the street Rosita Place was later cut. There in isolation, the Olmsted family had splendid views from their lawn facing the Pacific Ocean. Another house built at a higher elevation above the Olmsted property had an even better view, recorded in oil paints, of a bright Palos Verdes landscape with vistas from the flower garden in the foreground, to the street beyond. In the painting the Olmsted house is seen in the distance, and farther away are vistas of sky, ocean, and the curving mass of Santa Monica Bay. (Fig.37)

Figure 36: Lower: Residence of Earle W. Gard, Upper: Residences of W. M. Sutherland, Palos Verdes Estates, Kirtland Cutter, Architect Figure 37: Painting, View of Olmsted House, ca. 1930

Figure 38: View, Palos Verdes Hills Figure 39: Fountain in Farnham Martin's Park, contemporary view Figure 40: Fountain in Farnham Martin's Park, Palos Verdes Estates, Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects

Vistas at Palos Verdes Estates seventy years after its meticulous city planning and landscaping are still apparent, although much is hidden by overwhelming verdant growth. It is almost as if the control of the landscaping, both public and private, of the earlier developmental years went out-of-control in later years, evident in a recent photograph. (Fig.38) Many of the carefully planned vistas are no longer apparent and, although the views to the lower elevations, beaches and ocean still exist, many vistas into the surrounding hills do not. This is apparent when comparing an early photograph of the small Farnham Martin's Park, southwest of Malaga Cove Plaza, to a recent photograph. (Fig.39) (Fig.40) Reyner Banham's comments about Palos Verdes Estates in Los Angeles the Architecture of Four Ecologies, seems germane to the present-day obliteration of vistas, especially of the northern hills:

. . . but in Palos Verdes not only can you not see the wood for the trees, you can't see the planning either. Hunt's axial flights of steps from terrace to terrace are almost invisible. Clearly, trees have a special status in Palos Verdes; they come under the combined protection of the Palos Verdes Homes Association and the Palos Verdes Art Jury, which together watch over the maintenance of the social, economic, and environmental character of the city.^Ref.29