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From Tracts to Infill: Fifty Years of SFRs in Los Angeles

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[Image via Los Angeles magazine]

Like an architectural VH1, Los Angeles magazine attempts to define the last five Los Angeles decades in houses, "drawing from each decade a home emblematic of its time." From the sixties: the Granada Hills Eichler tract by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons. From the seventies: Architect Donald Hensman's own open floorplan pad in the Hollywood Hills, recently restored. From the eighties: Ed Niles' post-modern and site-sensitive Sidley House in Malibu. From the nineties: Marc Appleton's Mediterranean revival in Pasadena. And from the aughts: Architect Steven Ehrlich's own solar-powered, radiantly-heated house in a dense Venice neighborhood. And here's a slideshow of all five by photographer Tim Street-Porter. Los Angeles suggests it's "the view-rich hilltops, rugged canyons, cool coastline, and expansive flatlands" that have encouraged architects to fill up the city with beautiful SFRs, but hey, let's not forget the Angeleno's historic tendency toward independence from everything but his car. Sure, it's early to speculate (but please do in the comments!), but maybe the house of the teens won't be a proper house at all.
· Five Decades, Five Classics [Los Angeles]