BALBOA HIGHLANDS - GRANADA HILLS
Lights, cameras, and actions point these Eichlers
to a distinguished future as a 'historic' neighborhood

From the pages of CA-Modern magazine
By Dave Weinstein

Dante Pascual and Bill Huntley, fans of all things modern, grew increasingly gloomy while house-hunting through Balboa Highlands, Joe Eichler's only subdivision in Los Angeles County. "The first time we saw this place," Pascual says, "we thought, 'Man, all these homes have been altered.' It didn't look that good."

But that was six years ago. Today, many Eichlers that had taken on a Spanish tinge, or had been Southwestern-ized, have been lovingly restored to their modern splendor. This includes the flat-roofed house that Pascual and Huntley rescued, an atrium model like all the homes in the 100-plus-house subdivision. "We're seeing more people trying to bring their houses back to the modern," Huntley says.

The changes are affecting the entire neighborhood. Balboa Highlands aims to become Los Angeles' second official historic district made up entirely of modern tract homes. And the woman who is leading the effort, Adriene Biondo, a neighborhood resident and chairman of the Los Angeles Conservancy's Modern Committee, hopes its success will convince other neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley to reconnect with their inner modernity. "We're in a unique position to help pave the way for other significant tracts here," Biondo says, such as the Palmer & Krisel-designed Corbin Palms of Woodland Hills.

If this sounds like a stereotypical Hollywood happy ending, it should. Many people, after all, believe that if it weren't for Hollywood's love for the houses of Balboa Highlands, the current renaissance would not be happening. If you caught the 2006 Super Bowl, or watched the TV shows 'Numb3rs' (sic) or 'CSI Miami,' you've seen Balboa Highlands. The same qualities that appeal to fans of modern design -- the openness of the homes, their light, their style -- also appeal to Hollywood.

Balboa Highlands, built in 1963 and 1964, has become one of the most popular locations in the valley for TV shows, commercials, catalogue and magazine shoots, and the occasional feature film, says Nola Talmage, a scout for World Locations. Interest remains high even though Balboa Highlands is located at the extreme northern end of the valley, away from many studios.

The neighborhood sits on a hill in the community of Granada Hills, and many of its homes have wonderful views of the Santa Susana Mountains just a few miles away, and the San Gabriels a bit further. It also overlooks Los Angeles' second largest park, O'Melveny Park, with rugged trails that lead into the mountains.

"The tract has a lot of homeowners with pride of ownership in their homes, so the neighborhood is relatively intact," Talmage says. "There are so many homeowners who know they have something beautiful and worth being preserved. There are not many neighborhoods like that left in Los Angeles."

Pride isn't the only reward when film crews take over your house. They pay well for the privilege, $5,000 a day or more; the pay is less for print work. Bernard and Lila Grossman were well paid for an episode of 'Numb3rs' that took over their home for several days. Their house also was used for a Taco Bell commercial, starring the voluptuous Carmen Electra, shown during the Super Bowl.

The better looking a home is, of course, the easier it is to attract the studios. This opportunity encourages people to work on their homes. "Some owners do the shoots just to get money to restore their homes," Huntley says. The Eichler he shares with Pascual was used for one feature and several still shoots. "These houses just absorb money," says David Block. He and wife Adeline, whose home was used by 'CSI' and for the feature film 'Employee of the Month,' have helped to finance their restoration through film shoots.

Every crew comes with a site manager who makes sure furniture isn't broken and that nothing disappears. Still, a Hollywood shoot can be hard. "It's such an invasion," Adeline says. "It's a horde of ants coming through the house. They touch everything. They take your favorite stuff and throw it in the corner. You have to be Zen about it." 'CSI' even removed one of the Blocks' windows.

"Yes, it's nice to get the money," David says. "If we didn't need it at certain times, we wouldn't do it." Still, 'Employee of the Month' "shows our home very well," Adeline says. And its stars, Matt Dillon and Christina Applegate, spent quality time in the Blocks' bed.

Pascual points out another advantage of going Hollywood: "Those guys eat well. Steak lunches -- and fish. They had real steaks cooking on the grill for the entire crew." And they shared with the homeowners. Pascual and Huntley, whose Eichler would resemble a museum of classic modern furniture if it weren't so livable, spent three years restoring it. "We wanted the home to look like it did back in 1963," Pascual says.

The Blocks' house, which had been in foreclosure when they bought it, also required heroic intervention. "It was a wreck," Adeline recalls. They restored what they could and added features to harmonize with the original, including porcelain tile flooring, and cabinetry that matches the 'flying coffin' cabinet that floats above the cook top. Their house, which was included on the 'How Modern Was My Valley' home tour, was one of the houses that inspired neighbors to restore their own homes.

"Most properties that have sold in the last five years have been to people who are into mid-century modern, who maintain and try to re-gentrify them," Adeline says. "That is the trend. There are exceptions. Some [houses] have already been so altered, there's no going back." A surprising number of homes, however, are essentially intact inside and out, including that of original owners Larry and Frances Beidelman, who chose their Jones & Emmons A-frame model in 1963. Some neighbors call the Beidelmans' "the museum house." Even their stove is original.

Neighbors Edgar and Fay Law have watched for 38 years as neighbors altered their houses, sometimes beyond recognition. In 2005, Biondo urged the Los Angeles City Council to issue an 'interim control ordinance' to prevent further ill-considered changes while the neighborhood sought historic designation. The ordinance requires review by the Los Angeles Planning Department before issuing building permits.

Biondo, who has been working for four years on the historic designation -- called an 'HPOZ, for 'historic preservation overlay zone' -- believes it will be awarded next year. If Balboa Highlands earns the designation -- the decision is ultimately up to the Los Angeles City Council -- it will be the city's 23rd historic district. The only other postwar neighborhood that made the cut is architect Gregory Ain's Mar Vista, in Venice, built between 1946 and 1948.

Jay Platt, preservation advocate for the Los Angeles Conservancy, believes the neighborhood will qualify. "To my eyes," he says, "most of the buildings in Balboa Highlands contribute" to the neighborhood's historic character. The designation will allow owners of 'contributing' houses to apply for property tax reductions under the state's Mills Act.

The designation would restrict exterior changes to homes, based on guidelines that would be developed following neighborhood hearings. There would be no restrictions on interior changes. Additions and alterations would still be permitted, Platt says. A board made up primarily of residents knowledgeable about the neighborhood's architecture and history, and including at least one architect, would review proposed alterations.

Biondo says support for historic designation in the neighborhood is strong. David Block, who worries that oversight could be too strict, likes the idea -- in concept. "If it can prevent people from destroying the look of the neighborhood, we're all for that," he says.

Balboa Highlands' history involves more than architecture. In the San Fernando Valley, one of America's greatest postwar swaths of suburban sprawl, the neighborhood won fame for being among the first integrated communities.

The Laws, who are African-American, first moved to a different part of the valley, in 1967. They recall neighbors who threw eggs at their house and killed their cat. Edgar Law, an architect who had helped develop low- and moderate-cost housing in the Bay Area for the city of Richmond's redevelopment agency, knew about Eichler's commitment to integration. So when his wife Fay discovered there were Eichlers in the valley, they jumped. They never ran into racial problems at Balboa Highlands, which was home to a couple of other African-American families and many Asians. Both Laws were involved with the Fair Housing Council, Fay editing its newsletter.

The Balboa Highlands' neighborhood was rural in the mid-'60s, with orange groves stretching between the tract and the mountains. "We never bought any fruit," Edgar remembers. There were no freeways.

The neighborhood had always been tied to Hollywood, however. The area was once home to celebrity 'ranches' owned by Jimmy Cagney, John Wayne, and other stars.

Eichler's homes attracted professors from the new Cal State Northridge, engineers and designers from the aerospace industry, and directors, technicians, and writers from the movie studios. Animator Roy Morita ('Rocky and Bullwinkle Show') lived in the neighborhood, and Jodie Foster grew up there. Balboa Highlands remains home to cinematographers, producers, and set designers, including production designer Tom Duffield, who gave films 'Batman Returns' and 'Edward Scissorhands' their distinctive look.

But what Lila Grossman remembers of the old days has nothing to do with Hollywood. She recalls her children taking piano lessons across the street, children of all races playing together, and fish trucks delivering the bounty of the sea to the neighborhood's many Asians. "There was such community," she says, "and I had never known a community because I had grown up in [the city of] Los Angeles."

Balboa Highlands remains attractive. Its homes, designed by Jones & Emmons and by Claude Oakland, include classic steep-gabled A-frames, low-gabled models with unusual canopies over the front door, and flat-roofed models with saddlebag-like front bays. There are fireplaces of concrete blocks or brick (on occasion, misshapen Craftsman-style clinker brick), and atriums shaded by slats.

In business terms, Balboa Highlands was not one of Joe Eichler's great successes, though Eichler visited the site and gave the development his personal attention. Fewer than half of the planned 250 houses were built. Eichler's company had very little experience building in such a hot region. They ran the air-conditioning ducts in the concrete slabs, with mixed results, Ned Eichler, Joe's son and a manager of the firm, has said. There were also problems with local contractors and the unions. Ned Eichler had never liked the idea of building in Los Angeles in the first place, considering it a distraction from the firm's work on its home turf in Northern California.

In 1971 and again in 1994, major earthquakes shook the area. The '94 Northridge Quake, which registered 6.7 on the Richter Scale, killed more than 50 people in Southern California and destroyed portions of several freeways. Its epicenter was less than five miles from Balboa Highlands. The Laws remember seeing neighbors pitch tents outside their damaged homes. But no Eichlers were immediately lost to the '94 quake, although homes nearby were. "Everybody was so envious of our houses," Fay Law says. "It's post-and-lintel," Edgar Law adds. "It really stands up well." Nonetheless, at least two Eichlers suffered major damage, including cracked concrete slabs. Since then, Law has done some significant earthquake retrofitting.

Granada Hills gets windy -- and there's always the heat, which hits the low 100s in the summer and stays there. "It's terrible," David Block says of his atrium. "It's like a little heat generator." But the atrium was one reason the Blocks bought the house, and they have never dreamed of filling it in. "It's spectacular to be standing here in the evening when it's dark and looking out through the atrium at the stars," Adeline Block says. "You can actually stargaze in here."

Photos: John Eng, Adriene Biondo, and Bernard & Lila Grossman

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