Park La Brea, Los Angeles
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Park La Brea (
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
: ''La Brea''—"The tar", after the nearby
La Brea Tar Pits La Brea Tar Pits comprise an active Paleontological site, paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural Bitumen, asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; ''brea'' ...
) is an apartment community in the Miracle Mile District of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. With 4,255 units located in eighteen 13-story towers and thirty-one two-story buildings, it is among the largest apartment complexes in the continental United States.R. Daniel Foster
"Park La Brea, 70-year-old design still feels the love (and hate)"
''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', February 24, 2012. (In February 25, 2012 print edition, p. E5, under headline "Park La Brea: monster or jewel?")
It sits on of land.


Geography and transportation

Park La Brea is bounded by 3rd Street on the north, Cochran Avenue on the east, 6th Street on the south, and
Fairfax Avenue Fairfax Avenue is a street in the north central area of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It runs from La Cienega Boulevard in Culver City at its southern end to Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood on its northern end. From ...
on the west. The complex is notable for its octagonal street layout, with many internal thoroughfares at a 45° angle of displacement relative to the surrounding city street grid. In 2025, the Wilshire/Fairfax station on the D Line subway line will open at the intersection of
Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard ( wɪɫ.ʃɚ is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue (Santa Monica), Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue (Lo ...
and Fairfax Avenue. The stop will be approximately a 5-minute walk from Park La Brea, allowing the residents of the dense apartment complex to be connected to
Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...
by rapid transit. When fully built, the D Line will reach
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
and the Westwood neighborhood by 2028.


The neighborhood

After the arrival of the Spanish in the 1780s, most of the area that is now Park La Brea became part of the
Rancho La Brea Rancho La Brea was a Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California, given in 1828 to Antonio Jose Rocha and Nemisio Dominguez by José Antonio Carrillo, the alcalde of Los Angeles. Rancho La Brea consisted of one square l ...
land grant, and remained largely devoted to agriculture and
petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
production well into the 20th century. The growth of
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
and the Miracle Mile made the adjacent areas desirable centers for residential development in the 1920s, but the mid-rise apartment towers that give the district its current name were built later, between 1944 and 1948. As the towers are relatively isolated from the rest of the Miracle Mile — set far back from major thoroughfares in a nod to
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
, they developed a reputation as "the projects", since they are reminiscent of such notorious housing developments as Chicago's
Robert Taylor Homes Robert Taylor Homes was a public housing project located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. Constructed in 1962 and demolished by 2007, it was the largest housing project in the United States. The developme ...
and New York's Queensbridge. The street layout was created in a
masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
pattern as a reference to the Masonic heritage of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, w ...
, which built the complex toward the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and immediately thereafter.


Design

The Park La Brea townhouses were designed by Leonard Schultze & Associates (New York) with associate architect Earl T. Heitschmidt in 1941. The architecture has been dubbed Modern Colonial in form.


Education

Residents are zoned to schools in the
Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...
. Three different elementary schools serve portions of this neighborhood:Maggie Barnett
Freshly hip, Park La Brea is an urban oasis
May 23, 2004, ''latimes.com'' (archived fro
the original
on 2008-03-08).
* Carthay Center Elementary School * Hancock Park Elementary School * Wilshire Crest Elementary School All of the neighborhood is zoned to John Burroughs Middle School and Fairfax High School.


See also

* Co-op City * Cooperative Village *
Mitchell Lama Mitchell may refer to: People and fictional characters *Mitchell (surname), including lists of both people and fictional characters *Mitchell (given name), lists of people and fictional characters Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Ca ...
* Parkchester, Bronx *
Parkfairfax, Virginia Parkfairfax is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, located in the northwestern part of the city near the boundary with Arlington County. Nearby thoroughfares are Interstate 395 ( Shirley Highway), State Route 402 (Quaker Lane), and West ...
* Parkmerced, San Francisco * Penn South * Riverton Houses *
Rochdale Village, Queens Rochdale Village (pronounced ) is a housing cooperative in the southeastern corner of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. Located in Queens Community Board 12, Community District 12, Rochdale Village is grouped as part ...
*
Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village ( ), colloquially known as StuyTown, is a large post-World War II private residential development on the east side of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. The complex consists of ...


References


External links


Official Park La Brea website
{{authority control Neighborhoods in Los Angeles Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles Apartment buildings in Los Angeles Planned communities in California Central Los Angeles Westside (Los Angeles County)