STREET SYSTEMS

The complex street system of Palos Verdes Estates was planned to follow the contours of the seven major geological terraces of the peninsula. Streets were laid at places where grading was possible. A sketch, dated 1916 by John C. Olmsted, shows a street curve with a notation indicating the place where it needed to be cut for grading. (Fig.41)

Figure 41: Sketch for road grade, 21 December 1916

The primary factor determining street layout at Palos Verdes Estates was the irregular terrain; other factors related to the overall design program include: access to business and residential subdivisions via primary and secondary streets; minimal gradients for major streets traversing the peninsula and those connecting to them; and preservation and creation of vistas from streets and residential subdivisions.

Six street entrances were planned for the Palos Verdes peninsula, three from the east and three from the north. (Fig.42) The main broad street, Granvia La Costa (Palos Verdes Drive), considered a parkway with a landscaped center strip, was designed for the unrealized Pacific Electric Railway to run down its center. (Fig.43) Granvia La Costa served as the northern entrance and traversed the peninsula south to the town of San Pedro. It also linked northeastward to another street, Granvia Valmonte (Palos Verdes Drive), and to subdivisions at higher elevations. Also planned were a series of ten interconnecting secondary streets with maximum gradients of five to seven percent. A parkway called Paseo Del Mar afforded scenic views of the Pacific Ocean from a lower elevation.

Figure 42: Street Map, Palos Verdes Estates

Figure 43: View of Center Strip, Palos Verdes Drive/Granvia La Costa

Figure 44: "Palos Verdes-Malaga Cove and Montemalaga Districts from the air-January, 1927" Figure 45: Aerial View, North from Santa Monica Boulevard Between Rodeo and Beverly Drives, Beverly Hills, 1921 Figure 46: Major Street Plan, Beverly Hills

A typology analysis for the Palos Verdes Estates street system could be termed warped parallels combined with serpentine lines. An aerial photograph dating from 1927, after streets were cut, provides an image of the complex street system. (Fig.44) To a limited extent the street system of Palos Verdes Estates shares the curvilinear characteristics of those at Beverly Hills since both follow natural contours of the land. Typology descriptions assigned to Beverly Hills streets might also be described as warped parallels, while others form serpentine, and gridiron patterns. The residential section of Beverly Hills, north of Santa Monica Boulevard (also referred to as "Beverly Hills Parkway"), follows the gradually sloping topography of the hills. (Fig.45) The residential streets curve north to Sunset Boulevard, another major east-west parkway traversing from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. (Fig.46) Only three curving streets, Lomitas, Elevato and Carmelita, intersect the north-south residential streets, creating long blocks. The street planning was praised in a journal article dating from 1930:

The length of the blocks along the major streets were made particularly long, thereby fulfilling the recently accepted principles in good city planning for residential subdivisions in that long blocks reduce unnecessarily frequent street intersections and cut down on the high cost of street construction. ^Ref.30

Figure 47: Existing Land Use, Beverly Hills, by Harland Bartholomew & Associates

Figure 48: Aerial View of convergence of six streets, south of the Beverly Hills Hotel, 1918

Unlike the specialized street planning of Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes Estates, the almost flat terrain of the San Fernando Valley (except for the Los Angeles River and the Tujunga Wash) and the speculative nature of the townsites and subdivisions did not inspire the developers to plan curvilinear street systems with picturesque vistas planned with parks and gardens. Rather, Valley streets were planned on a grid, with north-south streets intersecting at right angles with east-west ones. (Fig.49) Sherman Way, the primary east-west street was planned as a two-way parkway divided by a landscaped center strip. Secondary north-south streets intersect Sherman Way at regular intervals.

Figure 49: Detail, Map of the San Fernando Valley, ca. 1940

Figure 50: Cover of Owensmouth brochure

The San Fernando Valley townsites were planned like typical American towns with little concern for an interesting street system. The cover of a brochure advertising Owensmouth (Canoga Park) illustrates the gridiron street system. (Fig.50) Two main streets with interurban lines running down their centers converge in the foreground of the commercial district. Residential streets beyond are arranged with streets crossing at right angles, segmented into small lots with bungalows set on them. A modern planning map of Reseda (Marian) shows the gridiron system of streets. (Fig.51) It seems that some streets in the residential areas of the map are short or end abruptly, creating an interrupted parallel pattern. This inconsistency is probably due to the fact that lots varied in size at certain subdivisions because land was plotted for farm acreage, later to be subdivided into residential lots of varying sizes. Streets were later cut to the lots, creating in places variations in length. Van Nuys was the first to develop residential tracts and its street system has a more uniform gridiron pattern, evident on a 1942 zoning map. (Fig.52)

Figure 51: Map of Reseda, Generalized Circulation

Figure 52: Zoning Map, Van Nuys, City of Los Angeles

In contrast to the San Fernando Valley "bare essential" street system planning, the kind of organic street planning characteristic of Palos Verdes Estates' subdivisions is evident on a map entitled "Plan of Portion of Malaga Cove." (Fig.53) This, the only realized subdivision at Palos Verdes Estates, was organized around a U-shaped shopping plaza, situated westward toward the Pacific Ocean. Areas surrounding the plaza were zoned for multi-unit housing, churches, a library, and a small community park. An elementary school was located west at a lower elevation on the ocean bluffs. Granvia La Costa, the main street, passes in front of the shopping plaza. The Palos Verdes Estates community was carefully zoned through deed restrictions so that deviations from the general plan would never occur.

Figure 53: Plan of Portion of Malaga Cove showing zoning and scheme for improvements, Charles H. Cheney, Consultant in City Planning, Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects

All three suburban developments had commercial districts, but planning for them differed in each case. At Palos Verdes Estates they were the focus for each of the five subdivision, easily reached from the residential areas. In Beverly Hills, the shopping district was relegated to the southern section of the community, and the San Fernando Valley townsites had commercial districts zoned at major street intersections. In all three cases the commercial districts were meant to serve the communities in which they were located, although Beverly Hills' exclusive shops were eventually patronized by those living outside of the community.