Opposite

In a typical Hollywood street of small houses, each house is detached from the street by a landscaped zone. Cars are limited to the street and are parked in the rear of the houses. The sidewalk is articulated as a distinct public pedestrian zone.

A

B

C

D

E

Top

Courtyard housing, organizational typology. A single-bar type; B, L type; C, double-bar type; D, U type; E, completed courtyard type.

Above right

Typical single-bar court in Echo Park.

Above left

Single-bar court, 1327-1339 Lilac Terrace, Echo Park, diagram.

34

Right The transformation of the U-parti type courts from a detached-unit, single-story building to an attached, two-story building. (Based on observed Los Angeles court examples.)

# The Villa Primavera

West Hollywood, 1923

The Zwebells' first known exceptional courtyard housing ex-
periment was the Villa Primavera (also referred to as the
Mexican Village). It was situated in a part of Hollywood
where in 1923 only one other house existed. The change in
style to Spanish Revival in this work and in subsequent proj-
ects executed in the 1920s seems to be more a response to
popular demand than a doctrinaire architectural attachment
to Mediterranean forms.

For the first time we can see the essential ingredients of the
developer courtyard housing type. The Spanish-style
wood-and-stucco structure completely surrounds a court-
yard that is animated by a tiled fountain, outside fireplace,
and lush foliage. Parking is cleverly integrated into the over-
all design, in this case by incorporation into one side of the
building mass. All ten housing units have their primary ac-
cess and existence dependent upon the court. Interior zon-
ing capitalizes on views of the central space. Services are
typically placed on exterior walls and away from the court-
yard itself.

The Villa Primavera is located on a corner site with major
entrance set back and minor entrance flush to the street. Its
rambling appearance belies a plan configuration that is
nearly a perfect square. Everything but the two-story east
wing is on one level. The living units on this side are minia-
ture in scale but still possess a certain charm—each has a
corner fireplace, small niches, exposed timber ceiling, and
tiled floors. The dwellings on the other sides are somewhat
larger and much more spatially complex—harbingers of the
Zwebells' later development.

Above
Villa Primavera, 1923, roof plan.