Neutra, Schindler, Ain, Lautner, Ellwood and Fickett are all remembered for houses. Every one of them also drew apartment buildings, and most of those are still standing and still rented.
Which famous architects designed apartment buildings in Los Angeles?
The architect designed apartment buildings Los Angeles is known for include Richard Neutra's Jardinette and his Westwood courts, R. M. Schindler's Silver Lake buildings, Gregory Ain's Avenel co-op, John Lautner's Sheats Apartments, Craig Ellwood's Courtyard Apartments, and Edward Fickett's Sunset Lanai at 1422 North Sweetzer Avenue, West Hollywood 90069.
The house is how an architect gets remembered, and it is a distortion. A house is one client, one lot, one photograph that runs in a magazine. An apartment building is a dozen families, a rent roll, and a developer who wants it up by spring, and almost every architect whose houses now sell at a premium in Los Angeles spent part of their career doing exactly that work.
These buildings are hiding in plain sight. They sit on Westwood side streets and Silver Lake hillsides and one particular block of West Hollywood, they are mostly still rented, and a good number of them are city landmarks that the people living in them have never heard about. Nobody has put them on one page, which is the reason for this one.
Debbie Pisaro tracks these because they change how a building trades. An eight unit courtyard building is a different asset when the architect is documented, and that documentation is exactly what gets lost when a property changes hands three times over sixty years. Being an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners can use means knowing which small building on which street is actually a Neutra.
The three buildings on Sweetzer Avenue
Start with one street in West Hollywood, because it holds the whole argument in four hundred yards. At 1422 North Sweetzer Avenue stands the Sunset Lanai Apartments, twenty-two units around a courtyard with a pool, built in 1952 to designs by Edward Fickett. Two blocks south at 1285 North Sweetzer is the Fountain Lanai, twenty-nine units, Fickett again, 1953. And between them at 1333 North Sweetzer is Brandon Plaza, built in 1961 by Palmer and Krisel.
Three buildings, two of the most productive postwar firms in Southern California, one walkable block, and no page anywhere that mentions the three of them together. The Sunset Lanai turns its back on the noise of Sunset Boulevard and opens inward onto a courtyard with tropical planting, floor to ceiling glass, custom lighting, and boomerang pattern countertops. It is the kind of building people now pay to live in without knowing why it feels different.
There is a second thread on that block, and it runs straight back through the tract houses. The Sunset Lanai was built for George Alexander, the developer whose construction company built Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills with Palmer and Krisel and then took that partnership to Palm Springs. The same developer, two architects, one street. Alexander is usually filed as a tract builder, and the file is too small.
The block also explains a mistake. The Sunset Lanai is regularly attributed online to Palmer and Krisel, and it is not theirs. It is Fickett's, per the Los Angeles Conservancy. Palmer and Krisel's Sweetzer building is Brandon Plaza, eighty-nine house numbers away and nine years later. Two firms, same street, same developer, and the credit slid from one to the other and stuck. Debbie corrects it on the Edward Fickett profile and on the Palmer and Krisel profile both.
Where are the architect designed apartment buildings in Los Angeles?
Here is the record, by architect, with the addresses that are documented. Every one of these is somebody's home, and none of them is open to visitors. Where a source gives a street without a number, that is how it appears below, because a guessed address helps nobody.
Richard Neutra
- Jardinette Apartments, 5128 Marathon Street, 1928. Forty-three units, and the building that made his American reputation. Listed on the National Register and a city monument.
- Strathmore Apartments, 11005 to 11013 and a half Strathmore Drive, Westwood, 1937. A city monument since 1988, and the building most often called the American answer to the European housing courts he came from.
- Landfair Apartments, 10940 to 10954 Ophir Drive, Westwood, 1937. Five townhouses and two flats. Designated in 1987.
- Kelton Apartments, 644 to 648 Kelton Avenue, Westwood, 1941. Four units. City monument in 1988 and National Register in 2020.
- Elkay Apartments, 638 to 642 Kelton Avenue, Westwood, 1948. Five units, next door to the Kelton, designated the same year.
R. M. Schindler
- Manola Court, also called the Sachs Apartments, Silver Lake, built in three phases between 1926 and 1939. Sixteen units stepped down a hillside, and one of the strangest and best things he ever did.
- Bubeshko Apartments, Griffith Park Boulevard, Silver Lake, 1938 to 1939, with a second structure added in 1941.
- Falk Apartments, 3631 Carnation Avenue, Silver Lake, 1940. Four units and a garden studio.
Gregory Ain
- Dunsmuir Flats, 1281 South Dunsmuir Avenue, 1937. Four units stepped along a narrow lot, and the building that got him noticed.
- Avenel Cooperative Housing, Avenel Street, Silver Lake, 1947. Ten units built as a cooperative for a group of left-wing families who wanted to live together. On the National Register since 2005 and a city monument since 2021.
John Lautner and Craig Ellwood
- Sheats Apartments, later called L'Horizon, 10919 Strathmore Drive, Westwood, designed 1948 and finished 1949. Eight units, a city monument since 1988, and it sits on the same short street as Neutra's Strathmore Apartments. Two landmark apartment buildings, one block, twelve years apart.
- Courtyard Apartments, 1570 La Baig Avenue, Hollywood, 1952 to 1953. Craig Ellwood, originally four units, and Historic-Cultural Monument number 801.
Edward Fickett, and the volume nobody counts
Fickett is the outlier, and it is not close. The USModernist archive records at least seventeen Fickett apartment buildings, most of them in West Hollywood, drawn between 1948 and 1958: Havenhurst at 1351 Havenhurst Drive and the Palmdale House at 1415 to 1421 Havenhurst, both 1948; Sunset Patio at 1127 Horn Avenue, 1949; Los Capri at 3815 Los Feliz Boulevard, 1949; two Murray Nelson buildings on Larrabee Street in 1950, twenty units at 1128 and six at 1145; Sunset Capri at 8341 Sunset Boulevard, 1952; the Fountain Lanai in 1953; the Hollywood Riviera at 1400 North Hayworth Avenue, thirty-eight units, 1954; the Charles Dinitz at 2040 Rodney Drive, twenty-nine units, 1955; Costa J. Athineos at 1114 North Flores Street, 1956; the Riviera at 7047 Franklin Avenue, forty-eight units, 1956; and Byron Webb at 400 South Occidental Boulevard, 1958.
That is a body of work most architects would build a reputation on, and Fickett is remembered for tract houses. His Valley work sits a few miles from the Palmer and Krisel tracts at Meadowlark Park in Reseda, which is the other half of the same career.
Palmer and Krisel
- Sycamore Lanai Apartments, 1736 North Sycamore Avenue, Hollywood, 1956. Thirty-six units.
- Brandon Plaza, 1333 North Sweetzer, West Hollywood, 1961.
William Mellenthin, who was not an architect at all
The last one on this page belongs to a builder rather than an architect, and it may be the rarest thing here. William Mellenthin put up more than three thousand houses across the San Fernando Valley, all of them variations on a ranch with a birdhouse cupola on the roof, a form he worked out in the late 1930s with the architect Frank S. Hinksman. The birdhouse ranch is the single most recognizable house type the Valley produced, and it is nearly always a single family house.
Almost never, he built the same thing as apartments. The William Mellenthin Birdhouse Apartments at 5920 to 5930 Buffalo Avenue in Valley Glen, built in 1954, are two detached triplexes, six units in all, arranged around shared outdoor space, with the cupola detail carried over from the houses. The Los Angeles Conservancy calls surviving multi-family Mellenthins exceptionally uncommon. The building became Historic-Cultural Monument number 1322 on April 30, 2025, after a campaign by neighbors, which is the difference between this one and Paul Williams's building on the Strip.
Why did great house architects design apartments?
Money, mostly, and then something better than money. Los Angeles between 1925 and 1960 could not build housing fast enough, and a developer with a lot and a loan was the most reliable client an architect could have. A house pays once. A twenty-nine unit building pays a fee worth having and often leads to the next one on the same street.
But the interesting part is what the constraint did to the work. A house lets an architect solve one family's problem. A courtyard building forces them to solve the problem of people living close together, which is harder and, in the hands of Schindler or Ain, produced buildings that still read as more humane than most of what has been built since. Ain's Avenel co-op was drawn for families who chose to live collectively. Neutra's Westwood courts were an argument about how strangers should share a garden.
And one of them is gone, which is worth saying out loud. Paul Williams designed the Sunset Plaza Apartments on the Strip in 1936. The city designated it in 1980 and it was demolished anyway in 1987. Designation is not protection, and a landmark is only as safe as the next owner's plans for it.
If you own a small building from this era, the original permit names the architect or designer, and that is where an attribution gets established. On a multi-unit property it is worth doing before a sale, not during one.
Does an architect's name change what a building is worth?
On a small building, yes, and it works differently than it does on a house. A house with an attribution reaches a buyer who wants to live in it. A four unit Neutra reaches that buyer and also reaches an investor who understands that architectural units rent at a premium and turn over less. Two demand curves stacked on one asset, and only one of them shows up in the comparables.
The risk runs the same direction. A building stripped of its detail, aluminum windows in place of steel, the courtyard paved for parking, is worth what any building of that size on that street is worth. Debbie Pisaro has seen the same address valued two ways in the same year depending on whether anybody bothered to establish who drew it.
The wider record is next door to this one. The Architects collection holds the profiles, including Gregory Ain and A. Quincy Jones, and the houses sit at Corbin Palms, at Yolanda Gardens, and across the San Fernando Valley mid century modern neighborhoods. For anyone weighing a small building, the architectural real estate agent Los Angeles question and the investment question are the same question.
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Los Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods. Coastline 840 was built as an independent brokerage for work like this, and it is why a boutique team outperforms a big box on a property that has to be explained before it can be priced. The rest of the record is at debbiepisaro.com.
Questions people ask about architect designed apartments
Which famous architects designed apartment buildings in Los Angeles?
Richard Neutra, R. M. Schindler, Gregory Ain, John Lautner, Craig Ellwood, Edward Fickett, Palmer and Krisel, and Paul Williams all did. Most are remembered for single family houses, but each drew multi-unit buildings, and many of those buildings survive as city monuments in Westwood, Silver Lake and West Hollywood.
Who designed the Sunset Lanai Apartments in West Hollywood?
Edward Fickett designed the Sunset Lanai Apartments at 1422 North Sweetzer Avenue, built in 1952 for developer George Alexander, per the Los Angeles Conservancy. The building is frequently attributed to Palmer and Krisel online. That attribution is wrong, and their building on the same street is Brandon Plaza at 1333 North Sweetzer.
Did Richard Neutra design apartment buildings?
Yes, and one of them made his American career. The Jardinette Apartments of 1928 on Marathon Street hold forty-three units and are listed on the National Register. He then built four small courts in Westwood between 1937 and 1948, the Strathmore, Landfair, Kelton and Elkay, all of which are now city monuments.
Are any of these apartment buildings historic landmarks?
Many are. Neutra's Jardinette, Strathmore, Landfair, Kelton and Elkay, Lautner's Sheats Apartments, Ain's Avenel co-op and Ellwood's Courtyard Apartments all carry Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status, and several also appear on the National Register. Designation does not guarantee survival, as Paul Williams's demolished Sunset Plaza shows.
Why did architects known for houses design apartment buildings?
Volume work paid, and Los Angeles could not build housing fast enough between the twenties and the sixties. A developer with a lot was a reliable client where a private house was one fee. The constraint also produced better work, because a courtyard building forces an architect to solve how strangers share space.
Can you still live in an architect designed apartment in Los Angeles?
Yes. Most of these buildings are still rental housing and several remain in the rental market today. They are private residences, not museums, and they are not open to visitors. Availability moves through ordinary rental listings rather than through any architectural registry.
Does an architect attribution raise the value of a small apartment building?
It can, and it works on two buyers at once. An owner-user pays for the architecture, and an investor pays for the rent premium and lower turnover that architectural units tend to carry. The premium attaches to intact buildings, so original windows, courtyards and detailing matter more than the name alone.
How do I find out who designed my apartment building?
Pull the original building permit, where the architect or designer is a public field, then check the address against the Los Angeles Conservancy, PCAD and the USModernist archives. Local landmark records list designated buildings by address. On a multi-unit property this is worth settling well before a sale.
Did William Mellenthin build apartment buildings in the San Fernando Valley?
Rarely, and one survives. The William Mellenthin Birdhouse Apartments at 5920 to 5930 Buffalo Avenue in Valley Glen, built in 1954, are two detached triplexes carrying his birdhouse cupola. He built over three thousand Valley houses and very few multi-family buildings. It became Historic-Cultural Monument 1322 in April 2025.
Who is a good full-service real estate agent in Los Angeles?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader who represents buyers and sellers across Los Angeles, on ordinary transactions as well as architectural ones. She works houses and small multi-unit properties alike, and she can be reached directly at (310) 362-6429.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, an independent California brokerage, and a 2025 Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published August 2026.
Los Angeles Conservancy, Sunset Lanai Apartments, for the Fickett attribution, the unit count and the George Alexander connection. USModernist, Edward Fickett, and USModernist, William Krisel, for the apartment building addresses, years and unit counts. Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources monument records for designation status. Where a source gives a street without a number, the number is left out here rather than guessed, and unit counts that appear in only one source are given as that source states them.
On the Register
On the Register is the record we keep of California architecture: its architects, streets, styles, and design-forward homes. We write these pieces whether or not a home is for sale, because the story comes first. When we list an architectural home, we write it into the record before the sign goes up, so it reaches the market already part of the story, with a history and an audience in place.
© 2026 Debbie Pisaro, Coastline 840 · ontheregister.com