MAGNIFICENT MODERNIQUES
Historic, Well-preserved, and Family Friendly, Modern Master
Gregory Ain's 52-home Mar Vista Tract Is a Place Like No Other

From the pages of CA-Modern magazine
By Dave Weinstein

Hans Adamson sighs with relief whenever he returns to his neighborhood. Los Angeles is a stressful town, but not around the 'Modernique' homes in Mar Vista, where rows of street trees and broad lawns resemble a park, and the flat-roofed homes, which seem both mysterious and jaunty, clearly suggest that you are entering a place like no other.

Outsiders, including architectural historian Neil Jackson, feel it as well. "It is a very special place," he confessed.

This little corner of the Mar Vista neighborhood, near Venice Beach, has been acknowledged by the city as historic. This is, after all, one of the very first tracts anywhere of modern homes, and the architect, Gregory Ain, is a modern master.

In 2003 the Modernique homes became the first postwar neighborhood in Los Angeles to receive a 'historic preservation overlay zone' (or HPOZ) to protect its historic features. Forty-nine of the original 52 homes are listed as 'contributing' to the neighborhood's character. "It is interesting that most of the fronts of these homes have never been changed," says Anni Michaelsen, who has lived in the neighborhood for 38 years. "There has to be some reason."

But beneath Mar Vista's placid surface, drama roils. The development, which was designed to be a slice of utopia, instead was troubled from the start.

Even before construction started in 1947, Ain had to compromise on some of his most deeply held beliefs by agreeing to covenants that ban home sales to blacks or Asians.

The homes were also being sold to individual buyers. The neighborhood began as a cooperative venture, with lots sold to subscribers, but there was not enough interest. Ain, who designed the homes with partners Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day, would almost certainly have preferred that they be sold as part of a cooperative housing project, such as a 280-home cooperative he had designed for Reseda, in San Fernando Valley, two years before. That project died when the Federal Housing Administration refused to finance a racially integrated neighborhood.

Ain, who was raised by Socialist parents, "really believed that he could solve some of humanity's ills through low cost housing," his daughter Emily said in a recent interview. Ain's partner on the Reseda cooperative, the accountant Robert Kahan, recalled: "Ain was determined to build nothing but cooperatives. By that time he was well known and could have done large commercial buildings, he could have been a great success. But his heart was in social housing."

Another disappointment: Mar Vista was a business failure. The project halted after only 52 homes were built. Another 48 had been planned for the two streets just up the hill. Emily attributes the failure to the FHA, which she says was reluctant to finance such odd-looking houses. Historian Esther McCoy, who was friends with Ain, blamed the neighborhood's location, near busy Venice Boulevard. And the homes were selling for $12,000, more than comparably-sized competitors.

But the neighborhood proved successful for people who bought there. Many owners have lived there for three decades or more. Pleasing customers was an Ain trait. "It is amazing how many Ain houses have weathered the years and come out looking as if they were brand new," David Gebhard and Robert Winter wrote in 'An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles.' "The architect must have satisfied the owners."

He certainly satisfied Michaelsen, who raised two children in her home, which remains essentially unchanged. "He was a genius designing these houses," she says. "There's no wasted space here." "The house seems larger because your eyes escape through the windows," adds her neighbor, Bonnie Jones, who has lived in the neighborhood since the 1970s. Bonnie's daughter, Barbara, also lives in a Modernique home.

Still, the drama continues. Although the neighborhood has been 'gentrifying' since the dawn of the 21st century, according to neighbor Ruth Cordish, it remains unclear exactly what changes the HPOZ allows neighbors to make to their homes. Rules that would spell out the details are still being developed -- slowly. Some neighborhood meetings have grown heated. "Some people thought it was just a façade thing," says Landon Moreland, a young father who moved to the neighborhood with his family several years after the HPOZ was in place. "If you don't change the façade, you're good. But it's more than that."

Questions remain about how the rules would affect fences, landscaping, and the size of backyard additions. But about the big issues there is agreement. "No one wants second stories or tear downs or big front fences," Moreland says.

It is the streetscape, after all, that most unifies the neighborhood. Landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, who helped invent modern landscaping, set out rows of melaleucas, magnolia, Chinese elms and ficus. Much more than other modern tracts, including those by Joe Eichler, it is the landscaping that provides the unifying look. Although the developers did not provide parks, the idea was for front lawns to remain unbroken by fences to provide a park-like atmosphere. People still cherish that look.

Less successful, however, was the idea to provide communal backyards, undivided by fences. "That was Ain's vision," says Adamson, who has become the neighborhood's unofficial historian, "but it was not communicated well to the people who bought the houses. One of the original owners said (Adamson's voice takes on a huffy tone) 'We even had to put in our own fences!'"

But Ain and Eckbo did succeed with their fruit tree scheme. "They planted different fruit trees at different houses so people would exchange fruit and meet their neighbors," Michaelsen says. "We had plum and apricot trees when we moved in, and we did just that. Maybe that's how I got to know a lot of my neighbors."

Although the houses are largely identical, varying details and placement on the lot create a lively streetscape. Windows swing out to open. Clerestory windows bring in added light. Kitchens look out onto the street. "People like that because they know who goes where," Adamson says. Glass-filled doorways and walls open to backyards. Unlike many later modern tract homes, these don't use sliding doors.

"It's so peaceful, you know," Michaelsen says of her home. "Everywhere we look out, we see greenery."

Utility lines attach to houses discreetly, through rear alleys. A lack of street lights adds to the rustic air. Ain designed the homes using pre-cut studs and prefabricated cabinetry.

Inside, Ain proved that a small house, even at slightly larger than 1,000 square feet, can seem spacious -- if not exactly big. "Finger-tip mobile walls convert the modern home to a choice of one, two, or three bedroom accommodations," the Modernique brochure promised original buyers. "Modernique design saves time, steps and energy."

In Michaelsen's model, the kitchen is to the left of the entry, the living room dead ahead, bedrooms to the right. Modernique homes bragged about their flexibility, and nowhere is that better seen than in the kitchen-living area.

Modernique homes may have open plans. But they are open plans that can close up tightly -- and cleverly. The main living area can serve as kitchen, living room, and dining room. Or the 'dining room' can be closed off via a folding door to become a master bedroom, guest room, or office. And to the rear of the house, a single large bedroom can become two smaller rooms by sliding a wall into place.

Cabinets divide the narrow, galley kitchen from the living room. A pass-through between kitchen and living room functions as the home's command-and-control center. "The center of the house is this table," says Bonnie Jones. "If anyone wants to sit down and do any work, this is where they sit." When Max and Rita Lawrence founded the modernist firm Architectural Pottery in 1950, it was on this table that they threw their pots. The kitchen can be shut off from the living room using built-in Venetian blinds to hide the pass-through.

"I don't think there's a better-designed small house that can be used with as much versatility as these," says Amanda Seward, who helped the neighborhood win its historic designation. The various folding and sliding doors do not, however, provide much sound insulation.

Ain and Eckbo clearly succeeded in their goal of creating a family-friendly neighborhood. It was a great place to grow up, Barbara Jones remembers. Kids played ball in the streets. Were the houses too small for families with children? Residents, some of whom raised three, laugh. Michaelsen asked her two children if they ever felt cramped.

"They said, 'We were never in the house; we were always playing outside,' which is true. They didn't spend time in their room. My youngest son, he's a realtor, he said, 'Mom, times have changed, because kids today have a computer, they have a television, they have whatever games there are, so they spend all their time in their room. We didn't.'"

Today, the neighborhood is again filled with young families. "There are 11 kids on this block now," Michaelsen says. "For a while there were none." And the neighborhood is undergoing a resurgence as newcomers restore Ain's homes. Les Major, a Hollywood animator, and Pascale Vaquette moved to the neighborhood because of the architecture and carefully renovated their home, removing unsympathetic additions. They arrived in 1996, before the mania for mid-century hit. "Our contractor said, 'This is the first time I made a house smaller,'" Major remembers.

Many houses have had garage additions and major interior renovations. But, Adamson says, "There are a much larger number than you think that are completely original and there are a large number of houses that have had insignificant changes."

The Modernique homes make up one of the very few modern neighborhoods in Los Angeles south of the San Fernando Valley, says Brian Linder, whose the Value of Architecture team at Keller Williams Realty has sold four homes in the neighborhood. Because the homes are so attractive, they sell for more per square foot than other postwar homes in the area, he says. And the historic overlay "locks them in at a higher value, and preserves that value for the future."

Because of architectural controls, and greater appreciation for Ain's designs, heavy alterations appear to be a thing of the past. "I think the people who are moving in now are trying to put it back together, more or less," Michaelsen says.

Among those are Todd Jerry and his wife, Ing Lee, who bought their house in 2002 and have two young children. Benefiting from the HPOZ, they expect to save $10,000 on their property taxes by taking advantage of the Mills Act, a state program that provides tax relief to property owners who agree to preserve the historic architecture and to plow the savings back into the property.

Jerry is using the savings on landscaping and kitchen improvements, and hopes to do a small addition. "We appreciate architecture. It doesn't inhibit us," he says of the Mills agreement, "because I think anything we do would be respectful of the architecture."

It was the fear of people being disrespectful that led to Mar Vista's historic designation. Dwayne Howard recalls that McMansions were going up a few blocks away -- though not yet among the Ain homes. Meanwhile, owners and would-be buyers of some Ain homes were talking about expanding into their front yards, and adding a second story.

A group of neighbors began talking up the virtues of historic designation. The city encouraged them, and the Los Angeles Conservancy provided expertise and helped dispel rumors. Proponents held neighborhood meetings, asked if people liked the idea (most did), and were soon attending meeting after meeting -- 28 in all, Michaelsen remembers.

A few neighbors strongly opposed the plan. To protect the houses, proponents got the city to issue an interim control ordinance while the historic designation was being finalized. The day before the control ordinance went into effect, a man who had fought the plan tore down his house. "All the neighbors were lined up on the sidewalk taking pictures," Major says. Seward adds, "It got real ugly."

The historic designation went into effect in 2003, but exactly what it covers remains to be defined by the historic preservation board, which includes an outside architect, Adamson, Michaelsen, Caldwell and others. "We are supposed to be working on the detailed plan for preservation," Adamson says. "But it only comes up when there is a big controversy. Then everybody has an opinion."

But Bonnie Jones is encouraged. "Most people now want to go back to the original, so they are using the board as a resource." Caldwell adds, "People come to us asking, 'How can we turn our house back into an Ain house?'"

Photos: John Eng, Jim Simmons, Adriene Biondo; and courtesy Value of Architecture

• Gregory Ain's Modernique Homes can be found along Meier, Moore, and Beethoven streets, between Palms Boulevard and Marco Place, in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles. The neighborhood website is marvistatract.org.

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