Around the Valley, there is a noticeable increase in the construction of apartments. Especially in Studio City, along Moorpark, and near CBS Studios, there are numerous developments going up.

Compared to a few years ago, the residential buildings are now predominately modern and less pseudo-Mediterranean. The “Dwell Magazine” influence has crept eastward like the fog from Venice and Santa Monica. It is now settling in the San Fernando Valley where polyurethane balustrades, mouldings and Grecian architectural details once ruled.

A 1940’s ranch home on Laurelwood Drive near Carpenter Street is one of the last single family survivors on the block. Three new condominium developments have gone up along this block in the last year.

In Santa Monica, near Harvard and Colorado, office architecture seems to borrow from Scandanavia with horizontal strips of wood and tall, steel casement windows.

On Kester Street in Van Nuys, just one block north of the notorious “Busway”, a very modern apartment house with diagonal walls and large windows, is going up. Seems the Busway-with its verdant landscaping and bike paths-
is already having a beneficial effect in the creation of housing.

Hi-rise apartments going up across the street from the North Hollywood Red Line and adjacent to the Orange Line’s Busway are merely one part of a massive retail and residential project meant to tie into public transportation. In the future, people in this area will use something called “legs” to walk to something called a “train” or a “bus”.