The flat-roofed homes look like something out of a Rat Pack movie.
Wooden beams, walls of glass, concrete floors, central courtyards, open layouts and expansive backyards with pool.
There are tracts of Eichler homes around California — and in recent years, they have become a favorite of the architecturally minded looking for that midcentury modern look.
This week, the L.A. City Council named a tract in Granada Hills as a preservation zone.
"This is very significant," Ken Bernstein, director of
the city Office of Historic Resources, told the Daily News. "Balboa Highlands is the first
Valley postwar neighborhood to achieve historic district status…. It is, in many ways, a coming of age in the Valley."
Most preservation zones in L.A. focus on older neighborhoods. But there has been more attention focused in recent years in protecting midcentury architecture as well.
According to Curbed L.A., "the Granada Hills area is now the 25th preservation overlay zone in the Los Angeles, and the 3rd in the Valley."
Read more about the history of Eichler homes here. Check out a Times photo gallery here.
–Shelby Grad
Photo: Geraro Molina / L.A. Times