ARCHITECT ARCHIBALD QUINCY JONES DESIGNED HOMES FOR RETURNING U.S. SERVICEMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES TOUR DE FORCE.

Byline: STORY BY SANDRA BARRERA >LA.COM 

Architect Cory Buckner is maneuvering her black Volvo though the winding streets of the Santa Monica Mountains, pointing to low-slung modernist homes that have been declared historic-cultural monuments in recent years.

Many of these architectural treasures are hard to spot amid the overgrown trees and contemporary-style architecture that have sprung up in the last 50 years. But the homes in this rolling Brentwood area known as Crestwood Hills were once part of a cooperative community for returning servicemen and their families as designed by the architect Archibald Quincy Jones.

A prolific but little-known architect, Jones and his work here are the focus of a two-day fundraising tour for the MAK Center for Art & Architecture at the Schindler House, beginning Oct. 6 with a lecture by Buckner who authored the book "A. Quincy Jones."

Among the stops on the self-driven tour are the Gross House, the Schott House and Buckner's own post-war relic that the tall, angular woman says she's still in the process of restoring.

"Somebody wanted to add a second story to it, so one of the first things we did was have it declared a historic-cultural monument to save it," she says about her house, a sleek structure with large plate-glass walls, exposed wood beams, articulated concrete block and a floating butterfly roof.

Buckner's home and the rest of the models on tour were originally designed for the Mutual Housing Association, a nonprofit group that was founded by four musicians who wanted a communal swimming pool and large gardens for the homes they planned on building.

Five-hundred families eventually bought into the cooperative spirit of the planned community.

By pooling their money together, these prospective homeowners purchased 800 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains and hired the architectural team of Jones and Whitney R. Smith, as well as the structural engineer Edgardo Contini to jointly design their dream housing tract.

Each of the winning designs featured oddly angled homes with exposed structural elements and building materials as seen in Buckner's hillside residence, which was originally the MHA site office where draftsmen worked.

"It was supposed to be turned into the arts and crafts building, but instead they turned it into a proper residence and sold it off," adds Buckner, who along with her husband, Nick Roberts, is now the third owner and chuckles that her 25-year-old daughter has already asked to inherit the property from her architect parents -- and it's no wonder.

The 1,800-square-foot home seems as if its floating on a hill near the city-owned park and co-op nursery school, whose happy playground noises can be heard from inside Buckner's bedroom.

She considers the noise a mark of a community on the comeback.

Many young families with children have moved into the area and re-energized the cooperative spirit some 50 years on. But all this has been very recent.

Previous homeowners would often tear down the Jones models to make way for newer construction. If the models weren't demolished, they were altered with swirling stuccoed walls, drywall and fireplaces that were less dramatic than Jones' massive-signature hearths.

None of this surprises Kimberli Meyer, director of the MAK Center.

"Good houses get demolished all the time because of ignorance, and it's true across the board," Meyer says. "But with Jones it's truer than with most because many architects believe he was under-recognized."

And yet the modernist quality of Jones' houses was the reason why Christopher Wargin and his wife, Katja, moved to Crestwood Hills seven years ago.

They managed to snap up the now 1,800-square-foot Arens House, whose original owner was a renowned UCLA mathematician. Wargins, a motion graphic designer who looks a little like the actor Will Ferrell, is only the second owner.

"I was looking for a Quincy Jones," he says. "But I didn't even know these were up here until a friend who lives in the area asked me to bring some stuff to him. And when I drove down, I saw these homes and thought, 'This is exactly what I've always wanted.' "

Sandra Barrera [phone];

[e-mail]

The Mak Architecture Tour

>In a nutshell: The self-driven tour focuses on the career of Archibald Quincy Jones, a prolific Los Angeles-based architect and educator known for his innovative, modernist buildings and pioneering work in urban design. Featured is Jones' work on the cooperative community built for the Mutual Housing Association (MHA) in the Crestwood Hills area of Brentwood from 1946 to 1950.

>Where: Varies. The itinerary will be printed on the ticket.

>When: Oct. 6 and 7, with an opening night lecture by architect Cory Buckner at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 3646 Coldwater Canyon Ave., Studio City.

>Tickets: $95 for the self-driven tour; $75 for Friends of the Schindler House and students with valid I.D. To tour via shuttle bus is an additional $50, and an organic lunch is available for $16.75. A portion of the proceeds benefit the remodeling of the Crestwood Hills Community Center.

>Information: [phone] or www.makcenter.org/MAK_Center_Now to purchase tickets online or download an order form to fax.

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Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) HIDDEN TREASURES

Home tour reveals modern midcentury gems

(2 -- color; 3) The Crestwood Hills home above, with its plate-glass walls, is among those on the MAK Architecture Tour, focusing on buildings by Archibald Quincy Jones. Another typical design element is the floating butterfly roof, below.

(4 -- 6 -- color) The modernist buildings designed by architect Jones in the Crestwood Hills area of Brentwood feature interesting angles, exposed wood beams and articulated concrete blocks, like those above. Architect Cory Buckner's hillside residence, left and below, which as origionally the Mutual Housing Association site office where draftmen worked, will be part of the tour.

(7 -- color) no caption (plaque)

JOHN LAZAR>LA.COM