Village Green, Los Angeles
Baldwin Hills Village | |
Village Green interior view in Los Angeles. | |
Location | Los Angeles, California |
---|---|
Coordinates | 34°01′11″N 118°21′39″W / 34.01972°N 118.36083°W |
Area | 64 acres (26 ha) |
Built | 1942 |
Architect | Clarence Stein; Reginald D. Johnson |
Architectural style | Modern Movement |
NRHP reference No. | 93000269 |
LAHCM No. | 174 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | April 1, 1993[1] |
Designated NHLD | January 3, 2001[2] |
Designated LAHCM | May 4, 1977 |
Village Green, originally named Baldwin Hills Village, is a neighborhood at the foot of Baldwin Hills, within the city of Los Angeles, California. Village Green consists of a large condominium complex that is both a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and a National Historic Landmark. Designed in the late 1930s and completed by 1942, it is one of the oldest planned communities of its type in the nation.[3] Village Green was named by The American Institute of Architects as one of the 100 most important architectural achievements in U.S. history.[4]
Geography
[edit]Village Green is located between Obama Boulevard and Coliseum Street, and between Hauser Blvd. and slightly west of La Brea Avenue, in the northwestern South Los Angeles region. The Baldwin Village neighborhood is just east of Village Green and La Brea Avenue. The site design consists of outer vehicular circulation roads, with spur roadways between some of the buildings of the complex. At its center is an elongated oval greensward, lined and crossed by paved walkways. Smaller garden courts extend outward from the central area between the residence buildings. The spur roads provide access to garage buildings, which also historically housed access to common facilities such as laundry rooms. The residences are one or two story frame structures finished in plaster, with the living units organized so that the living room and master bedroom face one of the garden spaces.[3]
History
[edit]Origin
[edit]The Baldwin Hills Village complex was built in 1942 as one of the most ambitiously planned communities in Los Angeles at the time, with 627 apartments grouped in buildings on a very large landscaped site. The Modernist Garden city style complex, which encompassed 627 units, was designed by architect Reginald D. Johnson, consulting architect Clarence S. Stein, with the firm of Wilson, Merill & Alexander, and landscape architect Fred Barlow, Jr. It also featured a mural by Italian-American artist Rico Lebrun.[5] The units seldom have more than two bedrooms, and tend to attract seniors and younger professionals as residents. As one of the first such establishments, the Village Green was also designed with the requirements of car-owners in mind.[6] The development "was designed with all the roads and garages confined to the edges of its eighty-acre expanse."[7]
Landmark status
[edit]As Baldwin Hills Village, Village Green was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in 1977, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and a National Historic Landmark historic district in 2001.[2][3]
Gallery
[edit]-
Village Green street sign in Los Angeles
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A view inside Village Green, 2022
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Village Green Office Building, 2007
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Village Green identification sign, 2011
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Baldwin Hills Village National Historic Landmark plaque
See also
[edit]- List of National Historic Landmarks in California
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles, California
- List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles
References
[edit]- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b "Baldwin Hills Village". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
- ^ a b c National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination (pdf), National Park Service, May 19, 2000 and Accompanying photos, exterior and interior, from 19 and 19. (10.0 MB)
- ^ Village Green 75th Anniversary Talk, by Gailyn Saroyan, retrieved November 15, 2021
- ^ Rico Lebrun and His Mural for Baldwin Hills Village, a Talk by Gailyn Saroyan, retrieved November 15, 2021
- ^ Sam Hall Kaplan: LA Lost & Found, New York 1987, p. 109.
- ^ Kaplan, Sam Hall (1987). L.A. Lost & Found. Crown Publishers, Inc. p. 105. ISBN 0-517-56184-0.
External links
[edit]- Village Green Owners Association Web Site
- baldwinhillsvillageandthevillagegreen.blogspot.com
- Village Green History Talks by Gailyn Saroyan
- Neighborhoods in Los Angeles
- Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles
- Crenshaw, Los Angeles
- Planned residential developments
- Residential condominiums in the United States
- Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
- Historic districts in Los Angeles
- National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles
- National Historic Landmarks in California
- Apartment buildings in Los Angeles
- Residential buildings completed in 1942
- Modernist architecture in California
- Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California
- 1942 establishments in California