LA Quick Trip
Earlier this week we took a quick trip down to LA for some business, recreation, and research. Usually that means plants and architecture. It was our first outing of such since the pandemic started but we kept as safe as possible along the way.
We stayed in a tiny apartment in the Ladera Heights Neighborhood of LA, walked the Eichlers of Balboa Highlands, and met up with some friends. However, our trips always seem to revolve around the plants...
We recently planted one of our own Cereus Peruvianus Monstrose in our front desert and can only hope it'll look like this one day...
How about this for a "front yard?"
These were planted beautifully around Loyola Marymount's campus (minus the overflowing trash)...
We found a tiny apartment in the Ladera Heights neighborhood of LA. When booking we knew we were "around" a mid-century modern pocket but didn't realize we were actually in the heart of a historically sound and prominent MCM cluster.
Ladera Heights boasts homes ranging from 1.5 - 3 million dollars. With architects like Charles W. Wong and Robert L. Earl these homes were four-thousand-plus square feet of mid-century modern bliss. Learn more about Ladera Heights at this story from the LA Times.
Little characteristics around the neighborhood clearly stand out...
The houses were on another level...
More like "Halm Springs..."
A local church...
The custom fences were fantastic...
Ladera Heights had some of the coolest displays of breeze block we have seen in person...
Even our airbnb apartment had some character...
Amongst our quick trip we traveled north to Granada Hills to see The Eichlers of Balboa Highlands.
What came first? The car or the paint?
1985-'86 Sacramento Kings...
Orange doors for life!
Little details like this in an MCM tract or subdivision demonstrate the authenticity and originality of the community...
We walked through the Fairmeadow Eichler Tract in Orange, CA last year and became overly inspired by some of the curb addresses. So inspired in-fact we applied the same idea to our Streng Bros. Home.
The Granada Hills Tract is the first we have seen those curb addresses again since that visit to Orange in August of 2019...
Amongst all the fun there was still business to take care of. For starters we had to pickup the holy trinity of Gainey pots from a dealer down south...
We also had the sheer privilege of visiting friends, Ashley & Brian (and Duncan the Dog) of Happy Hour Ceramics. We spent a couple hours at their Highland Park home masked up and socially distanced. We talked some business and had the luxury of touring their personal collection. Duncan even did a bag full of tricks for us! From start to finish Happy Hour's operation is just the two of them. It doesn't get more inspiring than these two.
Amongst talking plants Ashley & Brian gifted us some pretty awesome Euphorbia species. We already planted three in our atrium inside our home. The other two will get potted today.
All in all our quick trip to LA was worth every minute. We'll leave you with this from Downtown Long Beach...
