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Commission to weigh Echo Park bungalows' bid for history
Property owners want to demolish bungalows at 1456 Echo Park Ave. to make room for 12 smaller homes, but a resident's proposal wants the bungalows to be named historic cultural monuments. The city's Cultural Heritage Commission decided today to take the proposal under consideration.
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Via Los Angeles City website
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An Echo Park resident's journey to save a 1920s-era bungalow court from extermination took another step Thursday afternoon when the city's Cultural Heritage Commission decided to consider a proposal to nominate the bungalows as historic cultural monuments.
The proposal, put forth by resident Lena Kouyoumdjian, garnered plenty of neighborhood support as well as the backing of L.A. City Councilman Mitch O' Farrell.
The commissioners lauded the proposal's presentation at Thursday's commission meeting, with commissioner Barry A. Milofsky stating that the commission's purpose is to "designate monuments based on their own qualities," and that the bungalows at 1456 N. Echo Park Ave. –also known as Wurfl Court – certainly qualify.
Commission president Richard Barron told KPCC that bungalow courts are "an important building type to the city of Los Angeles, and we've nominated several bungalow courts to be cultural monuments in the past."
In her proposal, Kouyoumdjian outlines how the property was built in 1922 for MGM Studio prop master and set builder Louis Wurfl. A cluster of seven detached one-story units make up the court and have undergone only minor alterations over the years, the proposal states.
"There is no housing structure more quintessentially Los Angeles than the bungalow court," Kouyoumdjian writes in her proposal. "The loss of this bungalow court would mean losing a huge piece of Echo Park and Los Angeles history as well."
Bixel House LLC has been listed as the owner of the property, and its plan for Wurfl Court is to demolish the seven units to make room for 12 small lot subdivision single-family homes.
The next step is for the commission to actually head out to the property for a closer look to "kick the tires," Barron said, and examine its merits as a possible historical structure. It then gets put back on an agenda for a final recommendation.
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"I think this bungalow court has a very good chance of being promoted as a monument to city council," Barron said.
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