MODEST MODERN
Encino Village of San Fernando Valley gains fame with
its quirky mix of well-preserved architectural styles

From the pages of CA-Modern magazine
By Dave Weinstein

Modern architecture is often accused of being cold, austere, and unlivable. Fans of course don't buy it. But there is at least one attribute fans will agree on -- modern architecture tends to be pure. If you ask a committed modern architect to design a Colonial home, or to incorporate shutters into a design, you can expect derisive laughter -- or worse.

What can you say then about the charming San Fernando Valley enclave of Encino Village, in Encino, where low-gabled modern ranches sit alongside 'Colonials' that come with weathervanes?

It set folks to wondering.

"Lee and BJ and I were like, 'Hmmm.' The houses are so well done, the neighborhood is so well laid out. There must be more to the architecture than we know about," says Alegre Ramos, who with neighbors Lee Bothast and BJ Farrar set out to solve the mystery.

Their historical quest, which began six years ago, took them through cyberspace and to the city planning department, and had them calling the archives of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas -- and it was productive.

"When I moved here six years ago, nobody had even heard of Martin Stern," says Bothast, a realtor and architect. Today Stern is admired throughout the 400-plus-home neighborhood for designing all of its homes -- the 'moderns,' 'transitionals,' 'ranches,' and 'Colonials.'

The quest did something more. It spurred on many neighbors to take greater care of the neighborhood's very unique architectural heritage. More than modern tract developments that are modern through and through, Encino Village suggests the bureaucratic, aesthetic, and marketing battles that hindered the growth of modern suburbs in the postwar years.

Was Martin J. Stern, Jr., who designed the homes for the Marwill Corporation, a committed modernist? That's what resident Joshua Tunnick believes.

"From what I've seen of the bones of the house," says Tunnick, an architect who has been remodeling his home, "I think Stern designed a modern house and they said, 'Make it palatable to the masses.'"

Or could it be, as Farrar suggests, that the Federal Housing Administration preferred to help finance neighborhoods with "more-conservative models?"

Further research is clearly warranted. Stern (1917-2001), who won fame later in his career as a leading casino-hotel architect in Las Vegas (the MGM Grand), also made a mark early on in L.A. for designing the late and lamented Googie-style Ship's Coffee Shop restaurants. "They were my favorites! I loved them," says Adam Lombard, an Encino Villager who never dreamed he'd be living in a home designed by Ship's creator.

But even the modern homes in Encino Village have conservatism about them. Los Angeles preservationist Adriene Biondo calls them "modest modern." Most of the homes are a hybrid post-and-beam construction, mixing posts holding beams with standard stud construction. And the posts and beams are generally hidden behind siding, though they are, however, visible in many ceilings. The Colonials are standard stud construction.

"I don't think of this as pure modernist, or as anything close to it," says Eric Klusman, a newcomer to the neighborhood who knows modernism as the former owner of Gregory Ain's Hay house. "The Hay house is International Modern. That's never applied to this neighborhood. But this neighborhood has enough touches of modern so that it's interesting."

So much so, says Karen Hallberg, Eric's wife, that Encino Village is winning fame. "It's on the mid-century modern aficionado's radar."

Encino Village is well regarded throughout the valley, say Eddie Bernard, a broker who has handled hundreds of sales there for 27 years and has remodeled more than 15 neighborhood houses. "If you see my listings for homes in the neighborhood," he says, "you'll see 'prestigious' in there."\

With homes that range in original size from 1,260 to 1,533 square feet and with three original bedrooms (or four, if owners were willing to sacrifice their convertible 'den') and two-car garages, Bernard says, Encino Village always offered more than nearby neighborhoods. Encino Village was built in two phases between 1955 and 1957, with houses selling for $16,500 to $18,500, on what used to be RKO Studio's 'Encino Ranch.'

Among the hundreds of movies filmed onsite were 'Racketeers of the Range,' 'Prairie Law,' 'Blood on the Moon,' and one that really perks people's interest, Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life.'

One of the greatest feel-so-good-you-weep Christmas films ever, 'It's a Wonderful Life' is a tale of love, despair, and redemption set in Bedford Falls, the perfect small town, with Jimmy Stewart as a self-sacrificing small-town business owner, Lionel Barrymore as the villainous banker -- and Henry Travers as the hero of the tale, a befuddled yet effective angel.

When neighbors discovered that the set of Bedford Falls, including its all-American main street and its hideous honky-tonk, once occupied their quiet suburb, Ramos says, "People were impressed. People loved the whole 'It's a Wonderful Life thing.'"

Loran Markson was a young architect when he and his wife Gerry bought one of the neighborhood's first houses, when alfalfa fields were their neighbors and freeways were non-existent. The drive from Los Angeles required navigating the steep, narrow, winding Sepulveda Boulevard, where head-on collisions were common. "It was scary to try to get here," Gerry recalls.

San Fernando Valley, one of America's archetypal, postwar suburbs, is rife with modern neighborhoods -- and many are being rediscovered by the cognoscenti. Encino Village is one of the better-preserved specimens.

And it is one of the first such neighborhoods that will be surveyed by the city of Los Angeles' Office of Historic Resources as part of its effort to identify architecturally and historically significant buildings.

With its canopy of liquidambar, Modesto ash, and magnolia grandiflora, and a street layout composed of two concentric ovals, surveyors will find lots to like. Because the neighborhood has limited egresses, Ramos brags, "the neighborhood has an enclosing feeling, and people feel safe."

"It feels like a cul-de-sac," says John Fernandez-Salvador, an architect who recently renovated his home. "It has a sense of arrival. Other neighborhoods are transitional; you drive through them." He points out another appeal. "It's a dog neighborhood." Neighbors often get together in the evening while promenading their pooches.

Adding to its appeal to dogs, Encino Village backs up to one of the largest open spaces in the valley -- the 2,000-acre Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, a flood control basin that serves as an immense park complete with trails, ball fields, playgrounds, golf courses, and a wildlife refuge.

"It's a neighborhood in the old-fashioned sense of the word," says Melissa Effron Hayek, who is raising two teenagers there with her husband.

"It's very Mayberry," says Rick Knave, whose wife, Lois, serves as a neighborhood watch captain.

Lee Bothast, who's raising three children with his wife, said he'd planned to stay a couple of years when they arrived six years ago. But they've settled in because the sense of community is so strong, with block parties, progressive dinners, and a book club. "I'm a sucker for that," he says.

Paul Lagos, who grew up in the neighborhood, recalls the days of disco back in the '70s when hundreds of kids would crowd the park, roller skating to the beat. "It was pretty cool," he says. But disco's dead. "If you want peace and quiet," he concludes, "come here."

Although Encino Village doesn't have a formal, dues-demanding neighborhood association, it does have the Encino Village Heritage Association, a small, informal, group clustered around Alegre Ramos. It was the Heritage Association that conducted the historical research.

It's also has the larger Encino Village Neighborhood Alliance, which Ramos chairs. Among the alliance's tasks is communicating with the police about loiterers and parking. Ramos says the neighborhood is low crime. The alliance also puts on the progressive dinners and other social events.

The neighborhood's got a mix of ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, neighbors say. People tend to be well educated and many work in creative pursuits, says Ramos, who runs a 'green' landscaping and interior design company.

"One of the good things about the SF Valley is it's not hip," she says, "so it only attracts people who want to live here. It doesn't attract people because it's cool."

There is, however, much about the homes that is cool. The homes may not have the abstract, radical appearance of an Eichler or a Palmer & Krisel tract home, and the glass may not be as expansive. But the Sterns still have sliding glass doors opening to a rear yard (though many sliders have been replaced with French doors).

Clerestory windows in the modern and transitional models bring in light and views. Some homes even have indoor clerestory windows with frosted glass between rooms. Soffits with up lighting in living areas add visual interest.

Roofs are low-slung gabled, and sometimes dual-pitched. Oddly angled canopies often welcome visitors at the front door, along with built-in masonry planters. Exterior siding is redwood board-and-batten or stucco, often with sections of brick, or of slump stone that suggests adobe.

Some homes are built on concrete slabs; others have standard foundations with a small crawl space. (Tunnick calls it "a slither space.")

Inside, all the homes except Colonials have open, cathedral ceilings; moderns and ranches have exposed beams; transitionals have sloped plastered ceilings. Only Colonials have attics. Brick or slump stone fireplaces are either in the center of the wall or in the corner. Interior siding is wood or plaster and floors are hardwood or oak parquet.

The living-dining area is a single space separated from the kitchen by a counter. The den, which faces the living space, can be closed off to become another bedroom -- a strategy also adopted by Ain and other modernists whose goal was to design inexpensive, compact homes.

"They're small houses," says Steve Lombard, Adam Lombard's husband, "but they're very usable. There's not a lot of dead space."

Over the year, many of the homes have been altered. One has turned into an 'adobe'; a few have sprouted second stories. Still, the neighborhood retains its overall integrity and is well maintained. "There are only ten to 15 that are real schleppy," Rick Knave says. "That's very good for a neighborhood this size."

There are no regulations that preserve the neighborhood's architecture -- though that may change following the city's historical survey. Lee Bothast, for one, would welcome a historic preservation overlay zone. "I think the homes merit that," he says.

Today, neighbors say, the trend is towards preservation. "People who live in houses that have not been altered are tending not to alter them," Steve Lombard says.

He and Adam, who share their home with their son, Justin, are "bringing it back to the '50s," Adam says. When they bought their house 12 years ago, it was wallpapered in silver Mylar and had crystal chandeliers everywhere. "They had a chandelier in the bathroom," Adam says.

Others are updating their homes to emphasize their modernism. Tunnick, who believes Stern was forced to compromise on his modern principles, plans some corrections.

Tunnick ripped the brick section from the front of the house. "It's totally inappropriate for the style," he says. "I'm not sure why they did that. And they painted the redwood, which is totally inappropriate for the style. I'm not sure why they did that."

Greg Thirloway, a landscape designer, and his wife Heather Lee, an actress, turned their home into what Thirloway calls "a polished version" of its original design. He created freer flow by removing some hallway doors, and he exposed the original beams that a previous owner had hidden. His water-thrifty garden is beginning to inspire his neighbors, most of whose lawns go for lush green.

Even Eddie Bernard, who is often criticized by his many friends in the neighborhood for not keeping things period, is changing his view.

"People are getting more attentive to the '50s. For the ones I've been remodeling, I've just been doing whatever sells," he says. "But the '50s are getting more attention. It's more popular. So I'm moving towards preserving the look. People are calling me up and asking, 'Do you have any that are original, do you have any that haven't been touched at all?'"

Roger Mocenigo and Debbie Hopp, among the newcomers who are restoring their homes, are replacing derelict cabinets in kind and retaining the original aluminum windows -- which have become something of a rarity in the neighborhood.

Hopp has deep roots in architectural restoration, having restored a Craftsman bungalow in Pasadena, a Victorian home, and, with her family, an early 18th century Colonial in Massachusetts. "From that," she says, "I have a feeling for how people will feel about these houses 200 years from now."

Photos: John Eng; and courtesy University of Nevada Las Vegas (Special Collections)

• Encino Village is bordered by Louise Avenue on the west, the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area on the east, Burbank Boulevard on the south and Oxnard Street on the north. For more information, visit the Encino Village website.

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