Tenants at a pink 1940s-era Los Angeles apartment complex where the Barbie doll’s creators once lived won a historic designation for the property, blocking redevelopment by new owners.
The Los Angeles City Council named the 54-unit Clinton Manor Courtyard Apartments a Historic-Cultural Monument, preventing demolition or major alterations to the “culturally significant” complex without the approval of the city's Cultural Heritage Commission.
After the property’s longtime family owners sold the complex last year to a Sacramento-based private buyer for $16 million, tenants — concerned with redevelopment proposals that could replace garages and other structures with additional units —formed the Clinton Manor Coalition to preserve the property, located at 5134 Clinton St. in Hancock Park.
The preservation win highlights a development dilemma taking place inside and outside Los Angeles, as builders work to ramp up inventory to meet local housing goals and demand for new, upscale homes, while some locals push back against such high-density efforts that change the look and feel of neighborhoods across the city, causing displacement in some cases.
“We are concerned about development pressures on the property, including the proposed demolition of its service areas and the loss of its historic character,” longtime resident Melissa Butts wrote in the application to the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The iconic pink complex was built in 1940. Some of its earliest tenants include Ruth and Elliot Handler, future founders of toy giant Mattel and creators of the iconic Barbie doll. The Handlers used their apartment and on-site garage as a working laboratory for their plastics company where they conceptualized what would become the best-selling doll. Though Barbie wasn't released until 1959, years after the couple had left Clinton Manor, the Handler's did give birth to their daughter and the inspiration of the doll's name, Barbara, while living at the property.
High-density development push
Despite the property's cultural significance, residents prioritized a real estate angle in their efforts to preserve the property.
Clinton Manor embodies "the kind of housing Angelenos want," the conservancy wrote, with open space that encourages neighbors to mingle; density balanced with privacy; lush landscaping; and a sense of history and place off of high-traffic corridors.
The Conservancy called the property a model of Southern California indoor-outdoor living. Historic preservation groups and the City Council agreed the 43,000-square-foot complex exemplifies the kind of multifamily housing at risk of disappearing across Los Angeles.
As demand for new units increases, older, lower-rent properties like Clinton Manor are increasingly targeted for redevelopment. The City Council's decision reflects a broader effort to balance growth with the protection of architecturally and culturally significant buildings that provide much-needed affordable housing.
The median annual household income for the property's residents is $55,000, compared to the Hancock Park average of $91,0000, according to CoStar data.
Los Angeles officials recently passed an ordinance that lets developers build taller and denser multifamily properties provided they locate them near public transit and include a certain percentage of affordable units. The ordinance is part of the city’s plan to address California’s affordable housing crisis by making room for 450,000 new units of housing by 2029.
The ordinance excludes single-family neighborhoods, despite a prior attempt to extend the ordinance to such regions. Local neighborhood groups including the Hancock Park Homeowners Association were vocal opponents of such an extension.
Los Angeles is just one of the major U.S. cities rezoning large areas to make room for more housing. Pittsburgh, for one, is changing its zoning to encourage more mixed-use development and more affordable housing in new multifamily developments.
Premium rents
The Hancock Park complex includes three, two-story apartment buildings and a single-story duplex situated around a 24,000-square-foot courtyard garden, which serves as an ideal example of the courtyard apartment typology and the American Colonial Revival architectural style, according to professionals cited by Butts.
Its relatively inexpensive building materials like stucco and wood, and its simplified revival design elements are typical of builders’ priorities during the Great Depression: density, economy and fantasy, according to architecture experts.
Located near two major film studios, the property offered studio and service workers "access to picturesque living within a developing urban environment," according to Butts.
The property's developer Aetna Construction Co., a midcentury mass housing pioneer, would go on to build large-scale housing developments across Los Angeles. Clinton Manor serves as a crucial link in the company's evolution from multifamily to single-family development, according to the Conservancy.
The Mid-Wilshire neighborhood where Clinton Manor is located has some of the most expensive rents in Los Angeles, already one of the priciest cities in the country. Area rents of $2,830 per month are 62% above the national average of $1,746, while renter demand in Mid-Wilshire has sent the vacancy rate down from 6.8% to 6.2% in the past year.