Located on “The Choicest Land in All Los Angeles” as the original Crestwood Mutual Housing Association brochure enthused, less than one third of the planned community of 150 (built) “homes of the future” in Brentwood’s hills remain. The iconic nature of this example of Southern California Modernism is underscored by its recognition as City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument number 721. Designed and sited to maximize views out to the Pacific, the open plan interiors expand through original Arcadia glass doors to the terrace and wide vistas. One has the feeling of being inside a pavilion floating in the air just above West Los Angeles.

With careful updating and a bath expansion by Princeton & USC-educated architect Sergio Zeballos in the mid-1990s, the integrity of the original program remains intact. Trees and mature succulents planted along the rear property line provide privacy and all but come inside through back windows & clerestories, giving the atmosphere of a “machine for living in the garden.” A better prototype of postwar California Modernism as it flourished for the next two decades+ after 1950 is hard to imagine. Mills Act benefits. 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, one-car carport.