Los Angeles is known for its downtown skyscrapers, hillside mansions and California bungalows. But an iconic apartment campus with a design reminiscent of the movie "Lord of the Rings" is spotlighting the city's residential legacy of movie fantasy architecture.
The property — on the market for the first time since construction began in the 1940s — serves as its own five-building village and has been designated a historic landmark.
It's not only got sweeping shingled roofs and twisted clinker brick chimneys, but diamond-paned and stained-glass windows. They combine to bring a fairytale vibe to a dense residential corridor lined with modern condominiums. The property is offered via a trust sale for $2 million, averaging about $216,667 for each of the nine occupied units, records show.
The property is an example of a Hollywood-inspired, playful building design that's still tucked away in often forgotten pockets across the nation's second-biggest city. The storybook style originated in Hollywood around the 1930s as the imagination of Walt Disney mixed with architecture and soon spread across the country, according to David McCullough, principal landscape architect at Los Angeles-based McCullough Landscape Architecture.
Disney artists, inspired by their day jobs creating visuals for films like Snow White, took that design sensibility to their residences in Los Angeles. The prominent manifestations of this style take on the appearance of what the Disney artists were thinking at the time.
“Hobbit House,” “Hansel and Gretel Home,” and “The Witches House” were a few of the names coined for these homes and properties in Los Angeles.
“These hand-made houses are surreal, contrasting starkly against the often-manufactured character of Los Angeles’ architecture,” McCullough told CoStar News.
Snow White cottages
Other Los Angeles examples of the style that takes inspiration from idealized interpretations of European homes include the Snow White Cottages at 2906-2912 Griffith Park Blvd, designed in 1931 by architect Ben Sherwood; and Henson Studios at 1416 N La Brea Ave, built in 1919 by architects Meyer & Holler.
McCullough added that this style is known by “exaggerated features, smooth curvilinear shapes, natural materials, and most commonly having an appearance of a hand-crafted quality.”
Despite the unique nature of the buildings, the asking price is lower than other similar commercial real estate in Culver City, where multifamily market pricing averaged $473,000 per unit in the past year, down by 15% from a recent peak in early 2022, according to CoStar data.
But the modern world may be able to help make the fairytale property more profitable through investments in new systems, appliances and other energy-saving renovations.
"New ownership should be able to recognize immediate cost savings by reducing expenses and increasing rents as tenants move out over time," said Christopher Huddleston of The Sher Group in a statement marketing the property for the seller.
Disney designer Lawrence Joseph built the property as his primary residence in 1948 with additional apartment units developed over the following 20 years. Joseph, a skilled carpenter, helped design environments and create storyboards for the studio's animated movies. The studio premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 as the world's first full-length animated film.
Also known as the Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments, the property at 3819 Dunn Dr includes five one-and-two-story structures with built-in furniture and nine parking stalls.
Joseph finished construction in 1970 but continued to upgrade the cottages until his death in 1991. His widow Martha preserved the property in its original condition despite commercial development of the surrounding area in the meantime, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy.
In 1996, the city designated the property a historic cultural landmark due to its "unusual storybook architecture, woodwork and unique craftsmanship," according to the conservancy.