Architecture Field Trip - Mar Vista Tract

What to do when you happen to be on the west side of LA with a pocket of time before picking up your tour client? Take a brief tour of your own of course!

The Mar Vista Tract of homes designed by architect Gregory Ain and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo had been on my architecture fieldtrip wishlist since I moved to Pasadena in 2020. Given that it’s a distance from home, it remained on the wishlist until this week.

I was excited to view Ain’s work for the first time. Ain was a significant "second generation" modernist architect who had worked with and was influenced by the first generation of California Modern masters - Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler. Ain believed in bringing good design to the masses, a philosophy I can get behind :)

While in Mar Vista, I had a conversation with some neighborhood residents who happened to be taking a stroll. They mentioned how the homes remain single story and retain much of the original features due to the area being recognized as historically important.

In 2003, the Mar Vista Tract became the LA's first designated historic district containing solely Modern-style, post-World War II homes. Additional historical info, house blueprints and color palettes can be found at this LINK

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