You ... Sea ... EhhhhhhLL Ay!

Just started school on Monday at UCLA and wanted to share some things that I learned. My professor Eleanor Schapa serves as the design review commissioner for the City of Beverly Hills. To get an intro to architecture, we learned about the different types of styles and influences in Los Angeles area. Here are some notes I took, we went over alot of properties but here is a few of my favorites.

The Avila Adobe, was built in 1818 by Don Francisco Avila, and has the distinction of being the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles It is located in the paseo of famous, historical Olvera Street.

• The walls of the Avila adobe are 2-1/2 to 3 feet thick and are built from sun baked adobe bricks.
  
• Based on a Ranch style for LA breezes, not much wood so used stucco. (adobe/mud/donkey urine)
  

Hale House is a Victorian era mansion built in 1885 in the Hghland Park section of northeast Los Angeles. It has been described as the most photographed house in the entire city, and the most elaborately decorated

The house was inherited by Hale's niece, Odena Johnson, who stated her desire to dispose of it as soon as possible. When plans were announced to demolish the house and build a chrome and steel gas station in its place, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission stopped the demolition temporarily by declaring the house a Historic-Cultural Landmark.

After much debate Hale's niece agreed to sell the house for $1 if it could be moved from the site. In July 1970, the house was lifted from its foundation and moved to the nearby Heritage Square Museum in Highland Park. The move cost $10,300 and an additional $3,000 to raise wires so the house could pass under.

• Highly decorated houses are sometimes called gingerbread houses.


• The More elaborate the detail is the more you showed off how much money you had.


• During the renovation of the house, chips from the original colors were found on the house. The exterior was painted to match the colors from the old chips. The interior has been restored to recreate the appearance that it is believed to have had in the 1890s.
  

Stimson House is a Richardsonian Romanesque mansion in Los Angeles, California on Figueroa Street north of West Adams. Built in 1891, it was the home of lumber and banking millionaire, Thomas Douglas Stimson. During Stimson’s lifetime, the house survived a dynamite attack by a blackmailer in 1896. After Stimson’s death, the house has been occupied by a brewer who reportedly stored wines and other spirits in the basement, a fraternity house that conducted noisy parties causing consternation among occupants of neighboring mansions, as student housing for Mount St. Mary's College, and as a convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

• Tower collapsed in the Northridge earthquake, it was re-done by the Walt Disney Imagineers with fake products.

Not necessarily my favorite designs, but the history was fun. These were only a select few of about 50 we went over, others included the Gamble House, (Arts and Crafts design) Banning House (Greek Revival) and Beverly Hills City Hall. (Mission Revival "Churrigueresque") Awesome first day. More details later.