apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I just love this feature! Maybe offering a free copy of the Apartment Therapy book will get you inside :-).

I'm hoping someone ventures into the Anaheim/Fullerton area one of these days - I remember a whole slew of 4 up/4 down apartments on Dakota St in Anaheim... but they're probably not there anymore.

Anyway - thank for this great post - sorry you got yelled at.

i'm hoping to make it to anaheim soon- i know there's some great jewels there! stay tuned...

I have never been to the west coast, and these posts make me ACHE to go, and live there in an awesome apartment. I so wish these came with interior shots. But it sounds like you were pressing your luck getting exteriors!

VERY cool!

I love old buildings and it's sad that many times they are found in shambles. It makes me happy to see such a pristine example.

Jonathan, if/when you do make it to Anaheim, if you find yourself in the vicinity of Anaheim Blvd and Vermont St, could you take a couple of pictures of the large house - although I was told it was turned into a restaurant now - and the house directly across the street? I used to live in the little house. I was lucky enough to get to see inside the big one in the mid-70's and it was a beautiful example of the craftmanship at the time that it was built - late 1800's, I believe. Beautiful paneled walls that looked and felt like satin, ornate moldings and ceiling medallions...

Anyway, if you could, I'll gladly give you my email - I know this isn't right forum for that, and thanks for indulging my comment here.

I love this post. It doesn't have to be instructional; it's inspirational and evocative. It's Saturday! Everybody take a day off and enjoy.

A lot of things look fabulous, but aren't. We can truly enjoy looking at the chrome chaise, but understand deep down that we really don't want to lounge on it. That doesn't diminish our enjoyment in looking at it.

Victorians at one time were "dime a dozen", and yet they're still an inspiration for many of despite their "design for livability" issues. It doesn't take away from the fact that these period architecture remain an inspiration for many of us. Hardly cookie cutter. A home is what you make of it and I bet there are a few stylish interiors people have created with the inspiration of such a timelessly modern complex exterior (love the lettering).

mgb: you nailed it on the head. You don't have to want or love something completely to appreciate it.

The Victorian vs. MCM discussion is one reason it'd be so cool to see the interiors, too. Other than the entrance, this complex does look like a pretty typical mid-price apartment development of its era, with any charm coming from the reality that a lot of these were torn down, updated beyond recognition, or thoroughly slummified, so a "nice" one has gained some visual cachet.

But what are these, really, in terms of livability? That's going to follow much more from the interior plan, which we're not seeing.

In the cases where I've been able to view apartments of this era (either because I've lived in them or because the development went condo and put models on view), the interior plans tended to be meager and about as inspiring as public housing projects. Square boxes with 8' ceilings and metal window frames tend to look and live cheap.

On the other hand, if you want "meager," live in a truly lower-middle-class Victorian back East for a while -- all of Louisa May Alcott's criticisms of the pretentiousness of people who had fancy, ill-designed houses for show will suddenly make sense. Most of what we admire from that era was higher style of the professional classes.

If someone would put out a book of mid-century apartment interiors, I think I'd buy, just from curiosity.

I've lived in Victorian era housing myself in San Francisco, have friends who are blessed enough to own a few (pre dot-com era SF), alongside enviously looked at quite a few down here in Los Angeles (Angelino Heights), and not all Victorian housing is spacious. In fact some are cavernous, dark and confining. Some people discount Victorians as a superfluous moment in architecture, while others find it "artistic" like yourself.

A plain rectangle can be attractive, depending on how it's designed and decorated. But really, it's okay not to "get it". Loud and clear it's not what you like. But we've all got bellybuttons and opinions here. Some people will never get certain types of food, music, or architecture because of certain preferences and personal history. Some people pine poetic about sushi, while others call it simply fishing bait. Are people wrong in any way for appreciating and enjoying what started off as an Edo era blue collar snack as something special? Of course not. But seriously, what's so special about plain raw fish on top of white rice? Subjectivity is a funny thing.

My first apartment was in a building that looked very much like this, but not in a complex - just on a street that had a bunch of similar apartment buildings. It was just a box divided into living, dining and kitchen areas, bedroom and bathroom, and had green carpet (hey, this was late 70's!) and firnished with mostly hand-me-downs. What made it so special for me, was that it was my first apartment. No parental rules, I could eat when I wanted and what I wanted, I could stay up all night and watch TV without disturbing anyone. I made all the decisions as to where the furniture went..

Asthetic (sp?) wise, it was pretty plain. But I still look back with fondness on that little place.

And me being who I am, I just gotta love someplace with a name like "Oceanair" ;-)

Gotta fire my proof-reader, too; that should have been "furnished"

The difference is that, dark and cavernous or not, wood crown molding, wood baseboards, glass french doors, plaster of paris walls, steam radiators, wood double hungs, & hardwood floors beats cheap drywall, aluminum frame windows, vinyl cove base, hollow core doors, dirty wall to wall carpeting and electric wall heat any day of the week.

There's a reason garden style box apartments are a dime a dozen - they probably only cost a dozen dimes to construct.

Cheap or no, I love buildings from the MCM era and many of these were indeed modest to mid level units for the then burgioning working class generation of young adults working their first real jobs and needed a place to live.

True, they are nothing more than boxes stacked on top of each other, often with paper thin walls, although I'd wager that had had 6" wall studs between units but that's it though.

I lived in a 20's era studio that was not all that sound proof and it was easy to hear people clomping around upstairs, music from loud stereos etc. Now, I live in a 1960 vintage 14 unit building that is made out of reinforced concrete slabs that had a modern style to it, but sadly not all original now though but is as solid as they come and getting disturbed by your neighbors is almost impossible there since there is concrete in the dividing walls between units as well as the exterior and the floor/ceilings.

I would say mine was probaly a step or two above more modestly built units but still affordable for many when first built. I once saw a 1 bedroom, 2nd floor unit in 10 unit (I think building with 5 up, 5 down configuration, built in 1958 and totally original, down to the original bright yellow cooktop, wall oven and matching fridge in a small "U" shaped kitchen with dark brown cabinets. Oh I would've loved to have lived there, but it was not ment to be.

I've seen similar that weren't nearly as nicely done and the kitchens were even smaller.

So a lot of what I find is how the place is laid out, including the kitchen to be a large part of what determines liveability IMO.

Keep in mind that many of the Victorians which have survived the decades were high-end models, and some of those have been extensively remodeled and improved over the past century or so. Relatively few crappy Victorians have survived unchanged and unimproved.

In contrast, there's still a lot of low-end MCM rental crap out there, although they're now being slowly demolished here in SoCal to make room for Vegas-esque pink palaces.