Edward Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks are 1955 and 1956 post-war tract homes on Sheridge Drive, Meadville Drive, Woodcliff Road, Cody Road, and Stonewood Terrace, listed in the USModernist catalogue. William Krisel and Dan Palmer designed five more in the same hills. Every address here carries its year and builder.
Nineteen tract houses on the same few streets, drawn by two of the busiest housing architects of the 1950s and built by many different builders.
Edward Fickett spent his career on housing, and in the Sherman Oaks hills that meant tract houses, dozens of them, on Sheridge Drive, Meadville Drive, Woodcliff Road, Cody Road, and Stonewood Terrace. The USModernist catalogue lists 14 of them, most from 1955, and five more on the same streets by William Krisel and Dan Palmer. Debbie Pisaro lists them here, address by address, as an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles buyers can call before they tour.
These are not one-off commissions, and that is the interesting part. A tract architect drew a plan, a builder repeated it, and the credit on the house tells you who drew the plan and, often, someone different who built it.
Where are the Edward Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks?
Fourteen addresses come up, thirteen of them in the USModernist catalogue of Fickett's work and one, on Scadlock Lane, from a Modern Living LA post. The lists below give them by street, with the year, the builder, and the source.
Meadville Drive
Sheridge Drive
Woodcliff Road
Cody Road
Stonewood Terrace and Scadlock Lane
Who was Edward Fickett?
Edward Hale Fickett was born in Los Angeles in 1916 and died in 1999, and Wikipedia records that he was appointed to the Federal Housing Advisory Board in 1959 and named an American Hero by the American Institute of Architects after his death. Debbie's Edward Fickett page covers the rest of his Los Angeles work, including the neighborhoods he helped develop across the Valley.
What is the GMB Corporation group?
GMB Corporation is the builder USModernist lists on Sheridge Drive, on 3696 Meadville Drive, and on 3641 Woodcliff Road, all 1955. The same catalogue records a 1954 GMB tract of about 30 post-and-beam houses in six designs, priced to include landscaping and carpeting, that won a design prize at the National Association of Home Builders convention in Chicago. It does not say where those houses stand, or whether any are on these streets.
Other builders worked the same hills. USModernist credits Elwain Steinkamp as builder of Fickett houses on Cody Road and Stonewood Terrace, and Lee L. Lauger as builder for Homemaker Homes. A buyer looking at any one of these houses is looking at a plan that the builder repeated, and the neighbors' plans are often the best evidence of what a house looked like when it was new.
Which houses in the hills did Krisel and Palmer design?
USModernist lists five houses in the hills that William Krisel designed with Dan Palmer, from 1955 and 1956. Krisel and Palmer's Valley tracts are on Debbie's Palmer and Krisel page. A sixth Krisel house, the 1957 Sundberg Residence at 3666 Scadlock Lane, is covered on the Richard Dorman page.
Stonewood, Shernoll, and Cody
Two of the five carry Elwain Steinkamp's name as the house name, and an Elwain Steinkamp is credited as builder of Fickett houses on nearby streets. A single street here can hold houses from two different architects.
What does a tract architect mean to a buyer?
A named architect on a tract house is a credit for the plan, not a promise about the individual house. The sources on this page give no floor areas or lot sizes, so the useful questions are what has been changed since 1955, what the permit file shows, and whether original drawings exist for that plan on that street.
One of the houses, 3743 Cody Road, was restored with an addition in 2023, according to USModernist, and that is what to look for: a record of what was done and by whom. If you own one of these houses or one like it, a home valuation is where the conversation starts.
Debbie is not the listing agent for any house on this page. She represents buyers on architectural homes across California, regardless of who holds a given listing, the same standing practice whether a home is on or off market.
Where do these houses sit among the Sherman Oaks hills?
Three neighboring pages cover other architects of the same hills: Richard Dorman and the Sherman Oaks Estates, the architectural homes of Royal Woods, and the Neutra Platform Houses of Sherman Oaks. Debbie's guide to the Valley's mid-century neighborhoods covers the wider map, including Corbin Palms in Woodland Hills.
She also works next door in Studio City, and many of the homes she sells never reach the open market, which is explained in pocket listings explained. The full library is on the debbiepisaro.com home page.
Debbie founded Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and explains the thinking in two pieces, why we built Coastline 840 and why California agents choose boutique. For an architectural real estate agent Los Angeles owners call when a house has a name attached, start with her architectural homes specialist page or her page on historic and architectural homes.
Fickett and Krisel in Sherman Oaks, answered
Where are the Fickett houses?
USModernist lists Edward Fickett houses in the Sherman Oaks hills on Sheridge Drive, Meadville Drive, Woodcliff Road, Cody Road, and Stonewood Terrace, nearly all from 1955. Modern Living LA credits him with 3908 Scadlock Lane. Debbie Pisaro lists each address on this page with its year, its builder, and the source that names it.
Who was Edward Fickett?
Edward Hale Fickett was a Los Angeles architect, born in 1916 and died in 1999, who worked mostly on housing. Wikipedia says he was appointed to the Federal Housing Advisory Board in 1959, and that the American Institute of Architects named him an American Hero after his death. He was a draftsman under Paul Williams early in his career.
What are the Sheridge Drive houses?
USModernist lists four Edward Fickett houses on Sheridge Drive at 3704, 3712, 3726, and 3734, all dated 1955 and all built by GMB Corporation. They are named for their first owners, the Dorman, Seidenbaum, Dawson, and Almo families. The same builder is credited on Meadville Drive and Woodcliff Road.
Who built the Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks?
Several builders did. USModernist credits GMB Corporation on Sheridge Drive and parts of Meadville Drive and Woodcliff Road, Elwain Steinkamp and Lee L. Lauger on Cody Road and Stonewood Terrace, Sherwood Construction on Meadville Drive, and Wallace McDonald on Woodcliff Road. The architect is the same and the builder changes from street to street.
Did William Krisel design houses in Sherman Oaks?
USModernist lists five houses in the hills that William Krisel designed with Dan Palmer, dating from 1955 and 1956, on Stonewood Terrace, Stonewood Drive, Shernoll Place, and Cody Road. It also lists a 1957 Krisel house at 3666 Scadlock Lane, which the Dorman page on this site covers. Debbie keeps a page on Palmer and Krisel.
Is the Willa Jean Dorman House by Richard Dorman?
No. USModernist lists 3704 Sheridge Drive as the Willa Jean Dorman House and credits the architecture to Edward Fickett, which suggests the name is the original client's and unrelated to Richard Dorman. Richard Dorman is credited with other houses in the same hills, and Debbie Pisaro covers those on a separate page.
Who was GMB Corporation?
GMB Corporation was a home builder. USModernist lists it as the builder of a group of 1955 Fickett houses in Sherman Oaks, and it records GMB's 1954 prize-winning tract of about 30 post-and-beam houses, without saying where they stand. Nothing more turned up on the company, so this page makes no claim beyond that.
What should a buyer ask?
Ask what has been changed since 1955, what the permit file shows, and whether the original plans survive. A tract house was built to a plan repeated on other lots, so the useful evidence is often in a neighbor's set. Ask who the builder was, too, because on these streets the builder changes from house to house.
Who is a good real estate agent for architectural homes in Sherman Oaks?
Debbie Pisaro is a 24-year veteran, founder of Coastline 840, and an Inman Luxury Leader, representing buyers and sellers across Sherman Oaks and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. She specializes in architectural and historic homes across California, and she is not the listing agent for any house on this page.
Coastline 840 · 160 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90026 · DRE #01369110
Debbie Pisaro, DRE #01369110, is the founder of Coastline 840, a boutique California practice, and an Inman Luxury Leader with 24 years of experience in architectural, historic, and design-forward homes. Many of the homes she sells never reach the open market. Coastline 840 is a DBA of Side, Inc., CA DRE #02014153. She writes about California real estate at debbiepisaro.com, losfelizliving.com, and coastline840.com. Published October 2026.
USModernist, Edward Fickett · USModernist, William Krisel · Wikipedia, Edward H. Fickett · Angeleno Living, Sherman Oaks · Modern Living LA, Sherman Oaks
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.
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