Bungalow courts exist in a delicate balance.
A balance between open space and urban density. They take a different approach than most
apartments, and distribute units across smaller, detached structures with grass and gardens between
them. They’re like tiny single family homes, but far more affordable. And they’ve become an iconic
part of Southern California’s housing stock. But almost no one builds them anymore. And despite
being desirable and relatively affordable places to live, they’re being demolished and replaced
with other buildings. So why is this happening? Should we protect them from demolition?
Should we accept that modern housing is just better? Or is there a case for building
new Bungalow Courts? Well, it’s complicated. But let’s go back to where
it all started, in Pasadena. In 1909, architect Sylvanus Marston built 11
buildings on one parcel, facing one another around a shared driveway and a courtyard. He
called his creation the Saint Francis Court, which architectural historians recognize
as the first ever Bungalow Court.
But St. Francis Court doesn’t exist
anymore. It was disassembled to make way for road construction long ago. But some of
its buildings were preserved, about a mile away. Now on their own lots, these look
just like normal houses. If anything, they’re well-preserved examples of
early 20th century arts and craft architecture. But over time, the built
form of bungalow courts would evolve. As greater Los Angeles grew in population from
the 1910s through the 1930s, developers wanted to provide a higher level of housing density
while preserving the characteristics that made single family homes so desirable. It was a
sort of rejection of the traditional dense apartment buildings common in Chicago and New
York, and even in other parts of LA at the time. What was originally a novel idea quickly
became commonplace. And while Saint Francis Court was built to cater to wealthy
midwesterners settling in California, Bungalow Courts would become a more affordable
type of housing, with compact units. The most popular format consists of
two rows of single-unit bungalows, neatly aligned and facing one another. Some
courts open up to the street with wide, expansive green space, while others are more
closed off and are hidden behind gates and bushes. Another common theme in bungalow courts are
larger buildings placed furthest away from the street, which could be a duplex, or even
a multi-story structure. And on smaller lots, bungalow courts can be arranged in a single
line. But some of the most fascinating examples are hillside bungalow courts that surround a
staircase. Many of these can be found on or north of Sunset in LA. I just find the way they
conform to the landscape to be so interesting since so many modern buildings will just dig
out the hillside to build a parking garage. Also, some structures blur the lines between
bungalow courts and courtyard apartments, with longer connected rows of units
that still have open space between the rows. These can allow
for slightly more density than a traditional bungalow court while
still offering a similar look and feel. In a few places, bungalow courts can feature
commercial space. These are quite rare, but are fascinating because they expand upon
what is traditionally a purely residential built form. This one features a seafood
restaurant at the bottom of a hillside court. Over the years, bungalow courts have had a
variety of different architectural styles. The earliest examples, like Saint Francis
Court, were built in the American Craftsman style because that’s what was popular at the
time. But later on, various revival styles would become popular, like Colonial Revival,
English Cottage Revival, or Tutor Revival. Especially popular in Southern California are Spanish Colonial or Mission
Revival bungalow courts. Into the 30s and 40s, Bungalow courts adopted
the simpler Minimal Traditional style, which was bland and utilitarian compared to
the styles that preceded it. But there are some rare examples of Art Deco bungalow courts
from that era, like this one in Pasadena. But regardless of architectural style, bungalow
courts offer a unique living experience that other apartment buildings just don’t. I’ve never lived
in one, but it seems like the shared space offers a sort of intimacy and community that neither
traditional apartments nor single family homes have. Instead of the outdoor space being a park
like in some apartment buildings or a private yard like in single family homes, bungalow
courts have shared space that everyone must enter and exit to get to their units. In some
neighborhoods, you can see families hanging out in the shared space, and children playing
together. Not to say that people don’t do this in other housing typologies, but it’s neat
to see how bungalow courts facilitate this. So why did Bungalow Courts fall out of style?
Well, it was a variety of new regulations, one of which being parking mandates
that LA and surrounding cities began to enforce in the 1930s. With the requirement
to build one or a few parking spots per unit, it was easier to just build single family homes.
And by the next building boom of the 50s and 60s, developers shifted to small apartment
buildings with tuck-under parking, called Dingbats, which had a similar demise when
parking requirements were further increased, forcing developers to build bigger
buildings with larger garages. But outside the moving goalposts of parking
requirements, cities started to use zoning to regulate density and prevent growth, which made
it harder to build more than one unit per lot, whether that was an apartment
building or a Bungalow Court. Today, bungalow courts are mostly a relic of
the past. But it’s fascinating how different cities within Southern California treat
their legacy. Within the city limits of LA, a few bungalow courts are historically designated
at the local, state, or even national level, but most of them are not. Some of them are
being demolished in favor of denser, modern, housing. In a city where much of the residential
land is zoned for single family dwellings only, multi-family parcels are valuable. This Bungalow
Court, called the Stires Staircase Bungalows, was determined to not be historic by the city,
and will likely be demolished for a new apartment building. LA has about 350 bungalow courts left,
and they will probably continue to disappear. But in Pasadena, Bungalow courts are
treated like an essential part of the city’s history. Out of 142 in the city,
around 60 have a historic designation, and many more are eligible for historic
designation. They’re all listed in the city’s online database that shows you where
they are. And lots of them have unique names which give them this sense of importance, like
Cypress Court, Gartz Court, or Bowen Court. And even today, the legacy of bungalow courts
influences Pasadena’s urban form. As a tribute to the bungalow court, City council passed a
requirement that all new apartments outside downtown must be centered around a courtyard
with landscaping. And some new housing in the city takes direct inspiration from
bungalow courts, although they’re more like semi-detached apartment or condo buildings,
with multiple stories and higher lot coverage. Pasadena also goes the extra mile to prevent
their bungalow courts from being demolished. This is Wilson Court in Pasadena, and in
2018, it was moved two blocks to make way for a new research building at Caltech. It’s
been faithfully restored as student housing, and it’s a great place to see
a bungalow court up close. One more interesting part about Pasadena’s
bungalow court lore is that Sylvanus Marston’s St. Francis Court was not really the first bungalow
court. According to urban designer Todd Gish, a public housing project built a year
earlier in the El Sereno neighborhood of LA looked a lot like what we would call a
bungalow court. And perhaps it’s really hard to say what the first bungalow court was. After
all, multiple small dwellings clustered together is nothing new or novel. There just came a
time when architects started to refine the style and market it as something special. And
in a place like the US, where single family housing is seen as the “default”, something
different like a bungalow court is novel.
So is there a future for bungalow courts? Well
at least in South LA, there clearly is. Here, an affordable housing developer called Restore
Neighborhoods LA recently built one of the first true bungalow courts in over 70 years. It’s called
Bungalow Gardens and was only feasible because of extra incentives for affordable housing projects
that allow more density and no parking. The final result looks quite nice and was built for a
fairly reasonable budget: $225,000 per unit. For reference, the average affordable housing
unit in LA costs around $500,000 to build. Obviously, one new bungalow court isn’t much of
a comeback, but there could be more on the way, especially with recent changes to California
state housing policy intended to relieve the housing crisis. Back in 2016, the state
passed a law allowing property owners to build an additional residence (SB 1069),
called an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). Another state law called SB 9 allows two
main dwellings on single family lots, regardless of local zoning. And the bill also
allows lots to be split for each house. Once this gets done, each one can still have their
own Accessory Dwelling Unit in the backyard, effectively creating a small
4-building Bungalow Court. Instead of just being for rentals like
traditional bungalow courts, the small, separated dwellings allowed by these laws
could become a lucrative home ownership opportunity in places where most people
cannot afford a full-size single family home. This goes further with another law (SB 684)
which will allow streamlined approvals for small-lot multi-family housing, and
streamline the way these lots can be split to provide homeownership opportunities.
Another law (AB 1033) would allow accessory dwelling units to be sold off as condos.
Further, LA has a small-lot ordinance to allow certain lots to be split up for smaller
units, and the results have been promising. Unfortunately, the development allowed by SB 9
and the other laws can be difficult because of building size restrictions, an owner-occupancy
requirement, and issues with local zoning. Ironically, Pasadena got in trouble with the state
over SB 9, by trying to block its implementation using an excessively broad interpretation of
the law’s exemptions for historic districts. But hopefully future state legislation and updates
to local zoning might be able to fix this. But with all this in mind, it’s easy to
wonder: why not just build regular apartments or condos instead of something like bungalow
courts? Depending on the zoning, apartments can be several stories tall and can much more
efficiently fit housing units into one lot. And this is clearly the path lots of developers take
in LA when they have expensive, developable land. But some huge factors here are construction scope
and cost. Bungalow courts are typically just one story, and don’t need elevators, hallways, or
other expensive infrastructure and equipment like apartments do. Architect Alfred Twu
has pointed out just how much the lower construction costs can affect affordability,
even when land costs per unit are higher. The simplicity also makes bungalow court-style
development a lot more attractive for regular homeowners who would never dream of building an
apartment building. Each unit can be built out gradually as an ADU, possibly without the need
for a bank loan. Also, Bungalow Courts can just be really nice. They offer this sort of gentle
density that a lot of people find attractive. Something like a new type of Bungalow
Court probably isn’t enough to fix the housing crisis in much of LA proper,
where the housing shortage is so bad that dense apartment buildings need to
be part of the solution. And in some cases this might require demolishing
older housing like bungalow courts. But in more suburban areas of Southern California,
much of the available housing stock are expensive, single family homes, because everything
else is illegal to build. Here, something like Bungalow courts can do a lot to
enhance walkability and make homeownership more affordable by gently increasing density.
And maybe they won’t look like Bungalow Courts at all. Lots of people demand larger
living spaces and more amenities than what a traditional Bungalow Court could offer, so
maybe they would grow in size and height. All this would require changes in zoning, or an expansion of state laws that
override local zoning. In greater LA, 78% of residential land only allows single
family housing, and if land zoned for greater density is scarce, developers will use it for
the highest density they can get to pencil. Bungalow courts are not a silver bullet for
walkability or fixing the housing crisis, but there are so many possibilities when small,
detached homes are legal to build on small lots. Portland, Oregon has seen some success here.
And in Southern California, the same benefits can be realized but on a much larger scale. But
first, we need to legalize Bungalow Courts again.
