Crestwood Hills: The Chronicle of a Modern Utopia

The fascinating story of people and mid-century modern architecture, merging and prevailing to create a neighborhood in Los Angeles.Their Crestwood Hills is like no other place in the vast metropolis—its history is the result of the singular optimism that defined Southern California in the post-World War II era. A handful of the region’s optimists banded together to form a cooperative intent on building a utopian community. And they did. Author Cory Buckner follows the Mutual Housing Association as it purchased the land, designed and built houses for its members, and faced mounting difficulties establishing a truly communal community. Buckner shares the dramatic ups and downs of Crestwood Hills as it made its way to becoming the only successful large-scale modern housing cooperative in the West. Buckner provides more than 200 vintage and contemporary images, documenting homes as they were in the beginning, complete with floor plans, and today, as the homes have evolved and become local landmarks.Cory Buckner is a practicing architect and author in the Los Angeles area. She has a degree in Fine Arts from Chouinard Art Institute and an M.Arch from UCLA. In 1994, she and her late husband, architect Nick Roberts, purchased one of the original homes in Crestwood Hills designed in 1949 by architects A. Quincy Jones, Whitney R. Smith and structural engineer Edgardo Contini. After restoring the house, she spearheaded a preservation movement in the neighborhood, which had at one time 150 houses by Jones, Smith, and Contini. Through her efforts, nineteen of the remaining original houses have been designated Historic/Cultural Monuments by the City of Los Angeles. She was awarded the Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award, “For the inspiring effort to protect and restore the original Mutual Housing Association homes in Crestwood Hills, preserving important examples of Southern California Modernism, and enhancing the sense of community in a unique neighborhood.” Read more