The Blog

Thirty posts in thirty days: done. The destruction of Los Angeles's architectural heritage continues, of course. Nathan will too — just at a pace that allows him to finish his next book.

The Jardinette Apartments at 5128 Marathon Street are among the most architecturally significant structures in Los Angeles — a 1928 Neutra masterpiece, emptied seven years ago and left to rot.

A follow-up to the Tripalink post: Orion Housing markets to Chinese nationals, has been cited by HUD for discrimination, and produces developments that somehow make Tripalink look tasteful.

Tripalink builds housing marketed exclusively to Chinese nationals, has been cited by HUD for discrimination, and produces interiors of staggering awfulness. Nathan lets the pictures do the talking.

The forthcoming development at 1412 North Mariposa is, for once, actually affordable housing — but that doesn't make watching a century-old East Hollywood street lose its character any easier.

The renderings are in for what replaces 849 North Detroit, Jules George Koppel's 1928 Spanish house in the Fairfax district. They are, as predicted, soul-crushingly, unrelentingly awful.

Three 1919 storybook cottages on North Fairfax — the kind that could have stepped out of a fairy tale — are coming down to make way for something considerably less enchanting.

Charles Wiggers built 1449–51 Echo Park Avenue in early 1914. A century later, a giant view-blocking rectangle is slated to land dead-center in a block of irreplaceable vintage charm.

Three vintage homes at 926, 932, and 938 South Kingsley Drive — a snapshot of what Old Los Angeles looked like, as recently as last year. Take a look while you still can.

A modest, vaguely storybook, half-timbered house in Beverly Hills — the kind of graceful understatement money used to buy — is headed out. Beverly Hills isn't what it used to be.

A wooded 1907 cottage on Bates Avenue — the kind of house a kid walks past on the way to Thomas Starr King — has a demolition permit and nowhere to go.

The City's Determination has come down for 957, 963, and 967 Arapahoe in Koreatown. Three vintage structures shall become one large beige nothing. Without further ado.

Here's a house at 1408 West 35th Street. It was built in 1907. And then some — because there's always more to the story when a century-old home lands in a developer's crosshairs.

It makes Nathan sad when any 1946 motel is demolished. The La Cienega Motel may have been remodeled away from its original glory, but it's still a piece of postwar Los Angeles — and it's still going down.

Alex Trebek's former home — the 1923 Walter P. Story estate at 3405 Fryman Road in Studio City, a masterwork of Spanish architecture with genuine historical pedigree — was demolished while nobody was looking.

Not all historic structures fall to demolition permits. On East Fourth Street, a pattern of fires — linked to negligence, misfeasance, and one very litigious building owner — is doing the job instead.

Two craftsman bungalows on Glendale Avenue were incorporated into the Glendale Studios compound rather than demolished — until now. In their place: a beige studio development by New York's East End Capital.

553 North Heliotrope has been minding her own business since 1914, when Albert Beach Crist designed and built her. Meet her now, before Los Angeles decides she's in the way.

849 North Detroit is a 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival home built by Mrs. Catherine Mason — one of the little houses that lends the Fairfax district its grace and charm. Emphasis on 'stood.'

An elegant 1911 home on North Van Ness, on a street replete with gorgeously maintained vintage houses, falls to the logic of Senator Wiener's anti-homeowner legislation.