Jardinette Apartments: A Rare Look Inside a Living Landmark

Richard Neutra, Architect
Jardinette Apartments, 1928

California Register of Historical Resources
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark

Hidden in plain sight near Melrose and Western, this 43-unit apartment building is architect Richard Neutra’s first US project, widely considered one of the first Modernist buildings in America, and an early example of the International Style in this country.

Designed under the auspices of the Architectural Group of Industry and Commerce, Neutra’s sometime partnership with fellow Austrian architect Rudolph Schindler, the building incorporates European Modernist principles, while earning international recognition in its own right., It impressed Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius during his 1928 visit to Los Angeles, and was chosen as one of few American projects in MOMA's seminal "Modern Architecture" exhibition in 1932.

This is where Neutra first experimented with concepts that informed pretty much all of his later projects: clean lines, flat roof, a lack of ornament, industrial materials (in this case poured-in-place concrete), a strong connection to the landscape (oriented around a verdant courtyard), the dissolution of the boundary between indoors and out (apartments opening onto expansive cantilevered balconies dripping with vegetation), not to mention his signature ribbon window system.

After decades of benign neglect, the property has finally been bought by a thoughtful local steward, Cameron Hassid of Apollo Capital., He has spearheaded an extensive remodel now nearing completion, in collaboration with the city’s Office of Historic Resources, architectural historian Barbara Lamprecht, and June Street Architects.

The LA Forum is offering an exclusive tour of this landmark at a singular moment: an extensive renovation is currently underway, and we've been granted rare access while work is still in progress.

The renovation is still ongoing, which means our tour will offer something unusual: the building mid-transformation, its bones exposed, history legible in ways that a finished restoration can sometimes obscure. It's a rare opportunity to see not just what Neutra built, but how it was built.

Tickets are nonrefundable.

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L.A. FORUM TOUR: JARDINETTE APARTMENTS

A RARE LOOK INSIDE A LIVING LANDMARK