That the original Hollywoodland homes offer suitable settings for Hollywood period movies seems appropriate. Most retain an elegant aesthetic to them, how they are situated on the hillsides, how they present themselves to us, the spectators. They were laid out by thoughtful, artistic people who, it seems, wanted to create an environment of beauty , not tract housing as we know it today. Much has changed as new houses have appeared in the neighborhood over the decades. Architectural restrictions were lifted when the developers bowed out in the forties and since then, people build houses to suit their own tastes.
Some houses are great, some are awful.
When land was cheap in the sixties, platform homes perched on steel stilts became the architectural rage. It was an inexpensive way of construction which is no longer allowed by the Los Angeles building code. As the new houses go up, the spaciousness that marked the development disappears. Still a sense of community remains. The commitment from seventy-five years of homeowners blesses the neighborhood with its own vitality and character.