House 1: Charming Storybook
I love my new Wilshire Vista neighbourhood. Dating back to the early 1920s, Wilshire Vista features a variety of architectural styles, including English Tudor Revival, English Country, French Normandy, Storybook, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Mediterranean Revival.
I’ve discovered that the area – which is between Pico Boulevard and San Vicente, and between Fairfax and Hauser – has some really wonderful homes (besides my own). It also has a few ugly ones – usually houses that have been “modernized” with no sensitivity to their original style.
So, come along with me on a tour of Wilshire Vista and I’ll show you some of the best – and one of the worst – architectural creations.
House 1: This is a lovely example of a Storybook home, though I think my own Storybook is more charming. I particularly like the treatment of the turret and the use of stones around the arched entryway.
House 2: Lush Colonial Revival Retreat
House 2: The owner of this Spanish Colonial Revival home has created a lush retreat. You can tell the home-owner has added to the original structure but maintained its design integrity. I’d happily spend a week in what could be a South American dictator’s country estate.
House 3: Ugh. The owner of this monstrosity has taken a perfectly sweet Storybook home and bastardized it with a middle modern section that sticks out like a sore thumb.
House 4: This elegant French Normandy style home, defined by its turrets, also features some great detail, including exterior bas-relief friezes and corbels.
House 3: Modern update ruined a perfectly lovely Storybook home
House 5: This English Tudor Revival duplex is simply perfect. I particularly love the charming staircase, the ivy-covered front wall and the brick entryway.
As you can see, within just a few blocks radius, you can take a trip to other times and places. Let your imagination fly and you can see yourself chasing a wench during the reign of King Henry VIII, strolling through the bucolic Normandy countryside, celebrating a fiesta with a Spanish conquistador in colonial California, and reliving the deliciously creepy “Hansel and Gretel” story.
Try this in your own neighborhood. You might just find you have a new appreciation for the power of architecture to transport you.
House 4: Elegant French Normandy house
House 5: English Tudor Revival perfection