Notes from Another Los Angeles: Gregory Ain and the Construction of a Social Landscape by Anthony Fontenot
SAH/SCC
members are no strangers to the work and social concepts of Gregory Ain, FAIA (1908-1988).
The collected works in this book—including a 64-page portfolio of Julius Shulman
photos, scholarly essays, article reprints, and lecture notes from SAH/SCC Co-Founder
Esther McCoy (1904-1989)—put Ain’s process of solving “common architectural problems
of common people” into its politically liberal context. The book focuses on Ain’s
seminal housing projects: Dunsmuir Flats (1937), Park Planned Homes (1947), Avenel
Cooperative (1948), Mar Vista Housing (1948), and Community Homes Cooperative (1946-48,
unbuilt). Nicholas Olsberg looks at the work and its place in the realm of California
Modernism. Former SAH/SCC President Anthony Denzer delves into Ain’s 280-page FBI
file when the architect was under surveillance suspected of being a Soviet spy—a
fascinating look at the institutionalized paranoia of the McCarthy-era Red
Scare. The book includes several writings by Ain, himself. Descriptions of the five
projects, including plans and contemporary photos of the built homes, round out
this densely packed book. The authors’ timing is apt, as low-income and affordable
housing, as well as cooperative living models, are hot topics today. It’s a primer
for developers and architects of housing from the innovative design side, and perhaps
more importantly, as Fontenot states, “to engage in some of the more difficult questions
related to inequality and segregation that continue to shape our cities.”
