LOS FELIZ—For sale and recently reduced! 6,000 square foot Los Feliz mansion in a pre-Columbian style evoking the mystique of a Mayan temple. This fixer-upper was “renovated” in 1994 by the Northridge earthquake, and recent flooding has added an aquatic element to the site. But, with a bit of elbow grease, you can dig out some of the old Hollywood glamour under this pile of concrete bricks.  It can all be yours for the bargain price of $7.495 million.

Why would any buyer be crazy enough to go for this deal? Because this is the Ennis House, meaning Frank Lloyd Wright designed these concrete ruins, and this is the property’s second price chop, after it was reduced from $15 to $10.5 million in February. This latest reduction, announced in June, brings it to 50% off the original asking price.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Everyone knows Frank Lloyd Wright and his iconic work, and one would expect properties like the Ennis House to be snapped up in an instant, by virtue of Wright’s name alone. However, Wright’s four concrete textile-block houses in Los Angeles (the Ennis, Millard, Storer, and Freeman houses) are well known for creating more headaches than headlines, due to expensive and ongoing conservation issues.  Wright’s Millard House in Pasadena has also languished on the market, and both properties are considered to need significant updating and maintenance.

The first Ennis House reduction, announced by Christie’s Great Estates in February, was intended to underscore “the foundation’s commitment to finding the right buyer and enabling that buyer to reinvest in the home’s preservation,” according to Ennis House Foundation President, James DeMeo.

Now, even at the “bargain” price of $7.5 million, it is doubtful many buyers will be able to afford the necessary renovation—the house is rumored to need upwards of $7 million in additional structural repairs and maintenance.

From one particularly picky seller’s point of view, these properties are still rare works of art, and should be treated as such. Yet, from the buyer’s perspective, the evocative allure of owning a Wright house no longer outweighs the conservation concerns, despite the properties’ history and legacy in Los Angeles.

“If you live there, you have to be totally dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright and be willing to spend a lot of money to keep it from floating down the hill,” explained Wim de Wit, Head of the Getty’s Department of Architecture and Contemporary Art. “It demands quite a bit to live in a landmark building.”

But how low must the prices go before these expensive fixer-uppers are again appreciated for their true value?

For now, there is at least one person invested in the future of one of Wright’s homes: its realtor.  Crosby Doe Associates, out of Beverly Hills, owns the listing for the Pasadena Millard House (current asking price: $4.9 million), as well as listings for homes by famed L.A. Modernists such as John Lautner, Rudolph Schindler and Craig Ellwood.

In fact, Crosby Doe deals only in so-called “capital A” architecture, and would surely balk at being described as a “realtor” by profession.  Doe considers himself to be a conservationist and architecture historian rather than simply a real estate broker, and takes great care in ensuring that the architectural integrity of his listings are continued from one owner to the next.  He is as selective with his buyers as he is with his listings.

Doe’s care in the sale and maintenance of each listing has even developed an unofficial catchphrase in real estate circles: “WWCD: What Would Crosby Do?” Many buyers seek Doe’s advice about how to maintain the architects’ intent in their homes.  Even if they do not, he is not shy about letting them know what he thinks.

Of a Richard Neutra house recently sold, Doe complained: “The new owners have ruined it. Inside there is almost nothing left.  And worst of all, they think they have improved on Neutra. It’s as if someone bought a Monet and then said, ‘I don’t like the sky here and I want more flowers there.’”

He has even ruffled the feathers of high-profile clients like Diane Keaton, respected for her passion for Los Angeles architecture, and Madonna, because they made changes not in line with the original design objective of their houses.

In 1922, Wright opened an office in Los Angeles looking for a change, after an unfortunate turn of events at his Wisconsin live-work studio Taliesin, including the brutal murder of his girlfriend by a servant. At 55 years old, he was already considered past his prime, known mostly for his groundbreaking Prairie Houses in Chicago. In the early 1920’s in the growing city of Los Angeles, Wright sought to reinvent himself and his practice, and he began to experiment with concrete.

Wright’s textile-block method was designed to keep the cost of construction and materials down, accessible to any family with a limited budget.  The uniform pieces could be cast and laid by the owners themselves, allowing for easy modifications if need be.  Wright called this method the “Usonian Automatic,” a play on “U.S.A.,” envisioning the future for middle-class living.

Though in the same aesthetic as the Millard House, Wright abandoned all middle-class sensibility with the 1924 Ennis House, his last commission of this type, which was considerably larger and more dramatic.

“In the siting and design of the Ennis house,” according to the late architecture historian David Gebhard in his book, The California Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, “Wright went the furthest in revealing his attachment to the pre-Columbian architecture of Mexico and Central America.” The Ennis House was so sensational that it was used as a movie set several times, including 1959’s House on Haunted Hill.

Though the middle-class ideal of the textile-block method predated L.A.’s popular Case Study House program by several decades, the trend never caught on. In practice, concrete block construction proved to be quite expensive.  For example, in the case of the Pasadena Millard house, Wright contracted the Millards to pay $10,000 to build the house, an already significant sum in 1923; in actuality, it cost $23,000 to build.  


The houses are even less practical to maintain today. While the privately-owned Millard House has been adequately renovated, the foundation-funded Ennis House has fallen under disrepair.

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake and a series of heavy rains in 2005, the city red-tagged the building as uninhabitable and the National Trust placed the house on the 11 Most Endangered list. Under private ownership until 2005, the house is now under the purview of the non-profit Ennis House Foundation.  The Foundation has had modest success raising $6.5 million in funding for the stabilization of the house, and has now decided to put the house on the market in hopes of attracting a private buyer.

In a statement by the Ennis House Foundation on their website, they explain that “the house needs more stewardship at this point than a small nonprofit can sustain.”

The new cell tower during construction. Photo: Andrew Lasky

LOS FELIZ—Recently, Our Mother of Good Counsel (OMGC) church’s bell tower has been encased in scaffolding. The work being done is not for repairs, but rather to hide a cell phone tower along the church’s structure.

Cell phone users locally and elsewhere, demand strong coverage. But homeowners groups complain heartily about the unsightly towers cell providers must erect to provide strong signals.

The church’s new cell tower, according to Father Jim Mott, is to provide better cell reception for all in the area and more importantly, those at Our Mother of Counsel church, which previously had poor reception.

“I feel wonderful about it,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a great help to our community. The reception around here is very bad and we keep getting dropped calls so this will facilitate people using their cell phones.”

However, some are concerned that the cell tower could increase the risk of cancer or other health issues of OMGC students and neighbors.

“I’d be concerned for the children at the school and for people within a block radius,” said Andrew Lasky who lives near OMGC. “It’s like sleeping within close proximity to a microwave.”

But according to the American Cancer Society, there is little evidence that the radiofrequency waves (RF) emitted by a cell tower base are harmful. According to the organization’s website, the energy level of a cell tower’s RF waves is low compared to other types of radiation; the lengths of RF waves are long creating a situation where they are not concentrated enough to affect individual body cells and the level of RF waves at ground level is very low and are not significantly different than the levels of radiation from other sources, such as those from radio and television broadcast stations.

“For these reasons, most scientists agree that cell phone antennas or towers are unlikely to cause cancer,” the site states.

Father Mott said he feels comfortable the cell tower is completely safe.

“When the public hearing was held, there was only one or two people that even came to voice a concern and evidently it’s not a problem,” he said.

Two unidentified persons snuck through the L.A. streets with their weapons of choice: a shovel and a pickaxe. Under the patchy lighting of the streetlights overhead, they led a pack of similarly covert individuals to the desired location.

The party members referred to each other by their aliases. Their leaders were known to them simply as “Mr. Stamen” and “Roly Poly.”

The mission was to plant a “guerrilla garden.” The “gardeners” pick their spot, whether it’s a plot of land next to a freeway bypass or on a city sidewalk, and without a permit or any rights to the land, they start digging and planting.

LA Guerrilla Gardening (LAGG) is a nonprofit organization that began two summers ago in Hollywood. It all started when a group of friends were meeting for “Mr. Stamen’s” 27th birthday party. “Mr. Stamen” rejected the notion of a typical party bar venue for the occasion and chose to plant a garden instead. The party guests were suddenly reborn as “guerrilla gardeners.”

“We had no intention of making it a big thing,” said “Roly Poly,” co-founder of LAGG with “Mr. Stamen.” “[We] weren’t trying to start anything, but it snowballed from there.”

Today, the organization has over 900 members. Its mission is to change Los Angeles one garden at a time.

The “Gorilla Gardners” mostly plant succulents, which are better adapted to Los Angeles’ mostly arid climate. Cuttings are donated from members’ own gardens.

They don’t seem to mind that what they are doing is considered vandalism. For “Mr. Stamen,” the right and wrong of “guerilla gardening” is rather gray—that’s what he likes about it.

“Technically it is vandalism,” he said, “but who’s going to bust us for gardening?”

It’s safe to say that most of the members are drawn to the organization because of its illicit nature.

“The people involved are as interesting as the organization,” said member “Delta Mike,” 30.

“Emily,” 27, first joined LAGG in June. She is a Bikram Yoga teacher who calls herself a rebel.

“You gotta stick to the rhythm, but you also gotta improvise a little—like jazz. It¹s all about the next rebellious act,” she said.

“La Fleur,” 35, a real estate consultant, planted eight “guerrilla gardens” in May. Recently while visiting the gardens to water them, he said he experienced a bit of nostalgia.

“There was a familiarity with the plants. I was like, ‘I planted that one, I remember that one, I had to help that one out’. In a sense, they are our friends,” he said.

In all, the organization has planted at least 20 impromptu gardens throughout the city.

Though their altruistic acts of vandalism are illegal they have never received punitive measures. Even Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge has shown support by coming to one of the digs and offering high fives and ice cream.

Defending LAGG, LaBonge said that they aren’t “altering” the land, but “enhancing” it instead. “I applaud anyone who enhances any public space,” he said.

LaBonge himself—along with a few of his city beautification team members—also have undertaken a few “guerrilla gardening” projects of their own. “In my office, we’ve picked a few projects in a guerrilla effort,” he said.

One of which will very soon on the northwest corner of Glendale Boulevard and Riverside Drive.

“We’re going to transform that little space to make it more appealing,” LaBonge said. “Anytime you put a little color, a little love, a little care to a bit of land, it reaps a lot of benefits to the people who see it.”

There are two guerrilla gardens in Los Feliz. One is in front of Club Spaceland on Silver Lake Boulevard and the other is at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Bates Avenue.

For the “guerilla gardeners” the door is always open for new members. If ever you find yourself walking by, they said, feel free to water them. And if you feel a little rebellious, you can go out to LAGG’s next dig.

“There’s a misconception that you need to know how to garden [in order to be a guerilla gardener]. But when it comes down to it, you put a seed in the ground and water it,” said “Roly Poly.” “It’s not that intimidating.”  Visit www.laguerrillagardening.org.

This will be the third time that the city’s library hours have changed since last December. Overall, some 100 library employees lost their jobs system wide in the recent rounds of cuts.

This means that local library users will have access to fewer books, fewer CDs and DVDs and less Internet access and fewer activities for children and teens.

“[The budget cut] cut services especially for kids and everyone that is looking for jobs,” said Melissa Potter, senior librarian at the Silver Lake branch. “The change in hours will cause a huge inconvenience for people who use the library facilities on a regular basis, [like] people who come to the library to apply for jobs and check their e-mail.”

Melissa Potter

“The change in hours will cause a huge inconvenience for people who use the library facilities on a regular basis…”
– Melissa Potter, Silver Lake Library

One of the most popular programs at the Los Feliz branch is story time for children. With the new budget cuts, story time will not be as often and when it does happen, will be shorter in duration.

For some, the impact will be felt each week.

“We come to story time almost every Wednesday. It’s great to have free programs,” said Devin Dworsky, a nanny of two children, Chloe and Ryan. “Ryan loves books and reading and he’s met a lot of his friends here. It’s a good social atmosphere and it’s nice to have something to do that isn’t expensive,” she said.

According to Mark Stong, president of the fundraising group “Friends of Los Feliz Library,” there has been a 30% staff cut systemwide and a 38% cut in hours in programs to the general public.

Since December 2009, Friday morning hours were eliminated and in April 2010, Sundays were as well.

“Time will tell,” said Stong, “the impacts on the community. . . we don’t have a crystal ball to see how this will all turn out.”

Stong said the cuts will not affect the work of the fundraising group, including its popular monthly book sale.

“We’re positive thinkers,” he said.

The system includes the Central Library downtown, eight regional libraries and 64 branches.

For information about locations and hours visit: www.lapl.org.

SHUTTERED: A store sits empty at the edge of Atwater Village’s business district on Glendale Boulevard. The shuttered business, along with a few others, signify the neighborhood’s struggle to balance trendy boutiques and restaurants with an economy that may not be ready to support them. Though the area still sees plenty of foot traffic, it wasn’t enough to keep some businesses afloat. Photo: Michelle Kunz

ATWATER VILLAGE—If Evita Corby didn’t have more than the local foot traffic generating income for her Glendale Boulevard business, she would definitely be worried.

The owner of Velvet Threads, a vintage and designer clothing store at 3203 Glendale Blvd., also commissions clothing rentals for movie studios, which, she said, is what is keeping her in business.

“I’ve seen three boutiques close in the last year,” she said. “Business has definitely changed. I was doing double what I’m doing now. People are being more savvy with money and as cheap as my prices are, I’ve had to drop them.”

Earlier this year, local business owners began to notice that some of the staple women’s clothing and accessory boutiques on Glendale Boulevard were closing their doors.

Movements, 3125 Glendale Blvd., left in early January, with Violet Willow, 3127 Glendale Blvd., following in March.

In late July, All Aboard! Boutique, 3195 Glendale Blvd., closed for good and Carolyn Hamilton, owner of Importante at 3149 Glendale Blvd., decided to relocate and conjoin with a similar room decor and accessory shop in Hollywood called Mush, located at 5661 Hollywood Blvd.

“One (boutique) would close, and then another and another,” Hamilton said. “Two years ago, there was an excitement of Atwater. At the time we had five art galleries. Now, we have one and a half, and a few good restaurants, but retail is just dying here.

Hamilton said she decided to move after a friend offered to let her rent out some of the space in her own shop.

“I’m going to pay her rent, I bring over my inventory, we both promote the same store and it’s a way to keep costs down,” she said.

Gina Harth, owner of All Aboard! Boutique, originally opened up in March 2005 in Echo Park, and later moved to Atwater Village because of a sudden increase in her rent that she said she could not shoulder.

Harth has shared her store space with The Little Knittery since she relocated within Atwater Village last year, but even after splitting the costs of rent, Harth said she has still seriously worried about being able to pay her overhead costs since January.

“It’s been too hard to survive here. It’s been an ongoing struggle. Every month was a little better, but then it suddenly dropped off. It hasn’t been what I made in Echo Park,” she said. “Other businesses in the area have closed down. This area isn’t really known as a shopping area anymore. It’s more of a service area now.”

Andy Hasroun, president of the Atwater Village Chamber of Commerce and owner of 55 Degree Wine at 3111 Glendale Blvd., said it’s not the state of the economy or the neighborhood to blame for the failure of local businesses. It’s the fault of the businesses owners themselves.

“A successful business person is the person that knows how to maneuver in bad times,” he said. “It’s knowing how to work around it and keep it alive in bad times, and doing whatever it takes to keep your doors open. If that means being there 15 hours a day, just do it. Deal with it. That’s what I do and believe in.”

During the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council (AVNC) meeting last month, the board announced that they would be hosting “Summer Nights on the Boulevard” this year in order to continue to support local businesses.

Summer Nights on The Boulevard will take place from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Aug. 26th and again on Sept. 23rd on Glendale Boulevard.

The board is also helping to promote the chamber’s “Shop Atwater First” campaign that was inspired by AVNC Co-Chair Leonora Gershman-Pitts.

“The point is to always shop Atwater first, until I absolutely cannot get what I need here and I have to go to Silver Lake and Los Feliz,” she said. “We want our stakeholders to know that you can get almost everything that you need right here in Atwater. It benefits all of us.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Ledger went to press, Carolyn Hamilton, of Importante contacted us with concerns she had about our story. See an edited version of the letter from Hamilton here.

Letter From Carolyn Hamilton Regarding “Atwater Village Struggling as Businesses Close”

Carolyn Hamilton, of Importante, was interviewed for our August 2010 lead story, “Atwater Village Struggling as Businesses Close.” As the Ledger went to press, we received a letter from Hamilton with some concerns she was having regarding her interview on the matter with reporter Caitlyn Foyt.

What follows is Hamilton’s edited letter:

My concern after our brief conversation was that some people (myself included) might have given you the impression that Atwater Village is in dire straits and that our future is hopeless.  Even though I am indeed moving on I really don’t believe this to be the case.  The community has been hit hard, it’s true, just as other neighborhoods have been rocked on their heels.

In the five years since I set up shop here the changes have been many.  Atwater was pretty sleepy back in the day but quickly it became known for cutting edge art galleries (five on Glendale Blvd. at one time), innovative workout studios and eventually our boutiques and restaurants.  It was around this time that I, with my co-organizer Sonic Muze, started the Artwater Festival to celebrate the creative energies coming out of our little neighborhood.  All of the businesses pulled together for two years running to put on a great show and show our appreciation to our patrons.  It was an exciting time.  And it was only a couple of years ago.  Then the recession hit.  The galleries were the first to drop, relying as they do on people’s disposable income.  Then the domino effect kicked in and you know the rest of the story.  Except this is just a chapter not the end of the book.

This city is full of DIY types with a vision who will snatch up the available leases and give it a good go.  Atwater Village will be vibrant again.  The AVNC has said they will continue with last year’s highly successful “Summer Nights” series and Sonic Muze has even made noises about reviving the Artwater Festival in 2011.  The neighborhood will bounce back.

Thanks for your interest.

Carolyn Hamilton
Importante