Horatio West Court, built in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

in 1919, is an early example of attached houses with shared pedestrian and vehicle access. The six little buildings are grouped on a 60-foot lot.Aaron Betsky (June 13, 1991)
Horatio West Court Packs Feel of Openness, Form Into Dense Space
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. It was designed by

Irving Gill Irving John Gill (April 26, 1870 – October 7, 1936), was an American architect. He did most of his work in Southern California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles. He is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve ...

. Horatio West Court divides its narrow lot symmetrically, placing two units on either side of a driveway that runs the length of the lot to a rear parking area, where two garages are topped with little apartments. Each building is a slightly inflected, flat-roofed two-story cube to which a small entrance porch and a walled terrace has been added. The arched entry ways and small patio courts reflect Gill's affinity for the

Mission Revival The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

style.Christopher Hawthorne (July 07, 2005)
It's all about the house
''

''. However, the buildings themselves fall squarely into the

Modern Movement Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. Richard Neutra extensively photographed the Horatio West Court as well as Gill's Dodge House and published in his book ''Amerika: Neues Bauen in der Welt'' (1930). In Leland Roth's ''American Architecture: A History,'' the Horatio West Court is described as "Gill's flat-roof crisply-rectilinear apartment complex.

In ''Coastal California'', John A. Vlahides and Tullan Spitz describe the complex as "one of the best examples of Irving Gill's revolutionary modernism.

The Horatio West Court was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1977, the first building in the City of Santa Monica to be listed in the National Register.

Gallery of images

Horatio West Court 4.JPG Horatio West Court 3.JPG Horatio West Court 2.JPG

References

{{Registered Historic Places Irving Gill buildings Modernist architecture in California Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles County, California Buildings and structures in Santa Monica, California Residential buildings completed in 1919 Landmarks in Santa Monica, California