Formerly the Mutual Housing Association, Crestwood Hills is one of the few fully realized postwar cooperative housing projects in the state of California.
Cory Buckner, architect, preservationist, owner of an original Crestwood Hills home and author of A. Quincy Jones and soon to be published Crestwood Hills: The Chronicle of a Modern Utopia spoke to a packed audience on her fascinating quest through the early history of Crestwood Hills to contemporary times.
In 1946, as returning servicemen experienced a housing shortage in Southern California, four veterans contemplated purchasing an acre of land in order to build four houses with a shared swimming pool. Word spread quickly among their friends and articles ran in local papers resulting in over 400 families interested in their idea of cooperative housing; thus began the Mutual Housing Association.
With the purchase of 800 acres on the edge of the Santa Monica Mountains, the MHA brought together leading figures in postwar architecture. The selection of architects was a joint venture between architects A. Quincy Jones, Whitney R. Smith, and structural engineer Edgardo Contini. Their master plan used the rugged terrain to provide a range of 350 small lots for affordable single-family houses, ranging from just under 1,000 square feet to 1,500 square feet.
Approximately eighty of the MHA designed houses were completed. With the bravado characteristic of the immediate postwar period, the experimental forms of the MHA houses set a standard for excellence in postwar tract housing.
Content courtesy of Palm Springs Modernism. Photo courtesy of Alex and Kristin MacDowell.