RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

The quest for a California style of architecture to establish a regional identity has been discussed at length by a number of cultural and architectural historians.^Ref.35 But it was at Palos Verdes Estates where there was a concerted effort to create an entire community which would perfectly merge the Mediterranean-like environment and the architecture into a "Californian" image. In fact, a campaign was waged in the 1920s by Palos Verdes Estates designers and planners to officially recognize the "Californian" type of architecture that was built there. One of its biggest advocates was Art Jury president Myron Hunt. The favored "Architectural Styles for Projects" and the "Types" of residential architecture were defined in the minutes of the seventh meeting of the Palos Verdes Estates Art Jury on January 17, 1923.^Ref.36

The term for the new architecture, "Californian," it seems, would be appropriate for the Anglo-American residents moving into Palos Verdes Estates, and the term would be in a sense more American, than for example, references to "Hispanic," "Mission," "Mexican" or "Spanish Colonial Revival" architectural styles. Palos Verdes Estates was developed in the period after World War I and marketed to Anglo-Americans as a totally planned community. This was a period of "One Hundred Percent American" and buyers might be put-off by the foreign origins of the architecture as well as its stylistic derivatives from sources such as mudejar, churrigueresque, plateresque or toscano. The deed restrictions for architectural types at Palos Verdes Estates and its three residential districts were nevertheless based on pre-Anglo-American California architecture. Residential architecture at Palos Verdes Estates used modern materials and construction methods along with hand-crafted terra cotta and glazed tiles, paving stones, wood beams, brackets, wrought iron, etc. Specifications for exterior wall materials and their colors, and roof pitches were explicitly stated in the deed restrictions. The Art Jury approved, on a case-by-case basis, details such as types of windows and moldings, exterior ornament, landscaping, etc.

Official pronouncements from the Art Jury and journal articles of the period used "harmony" and "harmonious" frequently to describe architecture which integrated with neighboring residences and sites. The Art Jury decided on what was aesthetically harmonious for the three residential districts as explained in the following excerpt from the types of approved Palos Verdes Estates architecture:

In this hilly country, roofs will be much seen from above, and their form and color are important to the success and attractiveness of the property. The design of the building must be of such a kind or type as will in the opinion of the Art Jury, be reasonably appropriate to its site and harmonize with its surroundings, including the architectural character of neighboring improvements for which designs have previously been approved. The word "type" is used rather than 'style' because attempts to reproduce 'archaeological' or 'period' styles shall be discouraged.^Ref.37

Figure 62: Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Don Gilmore, Palos Verdes Estates

However purist the intentions of creating a standard "Californian" type of architecture at Palos Verdes Estates, especially in District I and to an extent in District II, historical revival styles were permitted in District II and especially in District III. It seems curious that architects were permitted to design residences at Palos Verdes Estates that had stylistic affinities to the Norman, English Tudor, French Mansard, and Georgian Revival. Perhaps revival styles were allowed because less expensive geographical locations on heavily wooded hillsite lots would not interfere with the Mediterranean image created for the more expensive and visible homesites located at lower elevations of the penninsula. Then too, future lot and house owners at Palos Verdes Estates might have wanted choices for selection and not everybody may have preferred the Californian style of residential architecture that was mandated for District I and favored at District II. Since that district had more of a Mediterranean ambiance to it, Tudor Revival architecture would have looked out of place, but in the hills with their surrounding woods, the imagery projected would have been quite like northern Europe or perhaps the eastern United States. (Fig.62) Charles Cheney, writing in a 1928 journal article, explains the reason why Type III architecture of the northern type was permitted at Palos Verdes Estates:

Type III of steep-roofed northern, Norman etc. limited to a few blocks here and there to take care of the easterners who cannot forsake their steep-pitched, snow roofs even though hardly appropriate for a snowless country.^Ref.38

Figure 63: John Gilbert's Spanish Home in Beverly Hills, California, ca. 1929 Figure 64: Bungalow, Los Angeles, ca. 1920s

The approved Type III historical revival residential architecture at Palos Verdes Estates could certainly be transported comfortably to Beverly Hills where residences were built in similar styles. These were constructed in Antebellum, Tudor, and Spanish Colonial Revival styles fashionable during the 1920s. Actor John Gilbert's hilltop Mediterranean residence in Beverly Hills, with its low red tile roof and white stucco exterior walls embellished with a second floor wooden gallery, had all of the picturesque elements that might meet approval for Palos Verdes Estates District I or II architecture. (Fig.63)

At Beverly Hills, residences were apparently not restricted to one type or another; early photographs of streets show rather large craftsman bungalows, of brown stained clapboard with wide front porches, quite like those built anywhere in the United States before World War I. Their smaller counterparts, bungalows resembling those found in house plan books, were built cheaply by contractors or residents themselves in the San Fernando Valley towns and at other Los Angeles subdivisions. (Fig.64)

Figure 65: Page 8, Types of Architecture Approved for Palos Verdes Estates, "Definitions of Types of Architecture"

Specimens of Palos Verdes residential types approved for each of the three districts were photographed and published in the Palos Verdes Art Jury Bulletin, along with reprints from the deed restrictions, listing the Types of Architecture Approved for Palos Verdes Estates. (Fig.65) Finished residences were photographed in rather undeveloped landscapes. Prospective home builders were able to select lots in the districts zoned for single-family residences. Residential architecture in each district had to comply with the approved type and the task of the Art Jury was to review the plans for each house, approving or making recommendations for modification. The districts are as follows: District I, Ocean Bluffs; District II, Mesas Crowning the Hills; and District III, the hilly regions of Palos Verdes Estates.