PLUNGES, PRESERVATION, AND POSSIBLE FUTURES
& LA’s lost public baths, a new Chávez Ravine archive, and a $16.9 million estate that may not survive its next owner
SANCTUARIES LA EXPLORES THE QUIETER SIDE OF LOS ANGELES THROUGH DESIGN.
ROOTED IN THE BELIEF THAT SANCTUARY EXISTS EVERYWHERE, OFTEN HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT.
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Welcome to a special Sunday edition of From the Field — an occasional dispatch from Sanctuaries LA — what I saw, what’s worth knowing, and what’s coming up in the city.
Volume 006
This week I started the L.A. Conservancy Community Leadership Bootcamp that teaches you how to nominate places as Historic-Cultural Monuments. I applied because I want to better understand the tools we can use to protect and rehabilitate properties across Los Angeles — especially the Sparkletts factory, which is now officially an HCM but still needs a future. With the historic designation, the factory side was taken off the market for repairs and will apparently be re-listed. Anyone have a connection to investors with $14 million interested in adaptive reuse?! Serious question.
On Friday I met Courtney of S.P.A. to talk about the spectacular public plunges that once existed across Los Angeles — and how we might bring communal bathing back. We dreamed about the future of Sparkletts, the Bimini Baths, and other bathing sites around the city. How we could uncap springs. How we could bring the water back to the people. You know, normal end-of-week conversation about repairing the infrastructure decisions we made more than a century ago.
Later this month I’m finally getting out of Los Angeles for a few California detours. First, I’m heading into the redwoods for a friend’s fortieth birthday. She has organized a full summer-camp situation for forty of her closest friends, complete with river tubing, walks through old-growth forests, beach rituals, and game nights. This feels like the ideal way to host a milestone birthday, and I will be taking notes for my own future fortieth.
I’m also heading to Terranea in Rancho Palos Verdes for the easiest possible coastal vacation with a sixteen-month-old. More from both soon.
UPCOMING
S.P.A. is hosting their Summer Bathing Club at the misleadingly named Descanso Garden Spa — not actually at Descanso Gardens, but in Tujunga — this Monday at 5PM till late. Maybe see you there?
Last week I met Max Kutner of Zephyr Letter, who is staying in West Hollywood while he explores stories around Los Angeles. He’s hosting his first event next week: a bicoastal meetup on Tuesday August 18 at Kibitz Room, the club attached to Canter’s Deli.
WORTH KNOWING
A reader tipped me off to the proposed redevelopment of the Woodland Hills Country Club, a nearly century-old landscape associated with golf-course architect William P. Bell and the beginnings of what was then Girard, now Woodland Hills. A developer has proposed 398 homes on roughly twenty acres of the property, while preservation advocates have submitted an HCM nomination for the larger historic landscape. The project is currently pending after multiple hold letters from the Planning Department. I’m still learning about this one, but I’m interested in the larger question: Why do housing, history, and functioning wildlife corridors so often get positioned as mutually exclusive? Latest update here.
Part of the twenty acres of the Woodland Hills Country Club. Palisades Village officially reopened yesterday. I know, I know — I’m not necessarily cheering for Rick Caruso either. But I am excited for the Palisades to get its village back after everything the community has endured. Transparently, I also think the Palisades Village is cute. There’s complimentary parking through September 30, plus Mahjong, Rummikub, and weekly children’s programming. My son has attended the Kids Club music classes at the Americana many times. I will say, the man can program a kids’ club.
Loyola Marymount University has launched a digital archive preserving photographs, documents, and oral histories from Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop— the three Mexican American neighborhoods displaced from Chávez Ravine. It documents not only what was destroyed, but the full lives that existed there beforehand: homes, churches, gardens, celebrations, and relationships. Preservation isn’t only about the buildings that survive; it’s the history and the people. Explore the story here.
I was sent a tip about Chapter USA in Echo Park. The owner recently moved to Los Angeles from Korea and runs a fun little clothing shop where he upcycles many of the pieces — often right in front of you. Swing by the next time you’re in Echo Park. The duds are cool.
ON THE MARKET
Villa d’Este, Holmby Hills — $16.9M — A 1928 estate on 1.63 acres with an original greenhouse and a two-story 1930s theater featuring hand-carved ceilings. The listing invites either “a complete reimagination” or “a spectacular new build.” Would love to see this one preserved and restored. Here’s the hoping that the new buyer cares about history.
5730 Cazaux Drive, Los Feliz — $1.55M — One of the most beautiful listings I saw this week: a remarkably intact 1956 mid-century home in Los Feliz Oaks, designed and built by Stephen Briggs for his own family. It has had just two owners in seventy years, and that continuity of care is visible in the preserved wood ceilings, original brick fireplace, and lush hillside.
19559 Cave Way, Topanga — $1.14M — I love a Topanga wood cabin and this 1954 home has all the trappings of an ideal hideaway. At just 958 square feet, it holds warm wood interiors, a vaulted den and loft, a detached studio space, and a garden tucked beneath old oaks.
775 Montecito Drive, Montecito Heights — $849k — This one feels like a steal. I love the wood of the staircase. And those views? A genuinely great starter home.
Shelby x
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Message Shelby Nico Diamond