Comments on: Crestwood Hills, An Architect’s View

By: Diane Phillips

Diane Phillips — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:04:30 +0000

I enjoyed reading this. One detail: the Bel-Air fire was in 1961, not 1965. Our family watched it on television, unaware that the very next year we would be moving into the area — we were planning to go to Burma! Moving day was Halloween 1962. The band music and party sounds drifting up from Crestwood Hills Park made moving a lark rather than a chore; we knew we would love living there.

By: Cory Buckner

Cory Buckner — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:51:38 +0000

The article on Crestwood Hills was published in The Getty Bulletin, Volume 10/number 2/ winter 1997, under the heading ‘Broadacre in Brentwood’, by Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman (pages 24 – 26).

By: Caroline Constant

Caroline Constant — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:50:31 +0000

I am curious as to what the previous respondent means by the Getty magazine article from the 1990s about the origins of the Crestwood Hills project. A specific reference would be greatly appreciated, as I am unable to trace this article.

By: Gene Goldenfeld

Gene Goldenfeld — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:35:45 +0000

I was just forwarded an email about the MAK tour last weeken and hadn’t known there was a Crestwood website, let alone such a nicely presented one. Cory Buckner’s article here is interesting and has things from the early days I never knew about. Have you considered, or tried to get for posting, the Getty magazine article from the 1990s about the origins of the Crestwood Hills project? It also discusses the architectural history in some detail from a different perspective, with more emphasis on the social (or political) side of the community’s origins and early development. About those building plus land figures, my dad always mentioned $20k as the figure for building ours. The story was that with the start of the Korean War (”Conflict”) in 1950, the cost of materials skyrocketed and many of those on the list dropped out. By the way, that bottom photo looks quite familiar from its surroundings, specifically a lot like our family house on Bramble Way (monuments page no. 632, seen from the other end), but I can’t tell for sure whether it was ours or the Mellinger house next door to the west (sold to Travis family in the 1950s).