For all his talent and celebrity, Frank Lloyd Wright wasn't able to make a success of his early attempt to create a successful system for building affordable houses. That his former protege Russell Barr Williamson went on to work on the same endeavor would surely have rankled the curmudgeonly and egotistical Wright.
How this L.A. suburb fell in love with Craftsman homes – Los Angeles Times
Editor’s Note: May be behind a paywall. All photos from LA Times.
How this L.A. suburb fell in love with Craftsman homes
A Craftsman style home in Bungalow Heaven. Common features of a Craftsman home include low-pitched roofs with deep overhanging eaves and large front porches supported by sturdy columns. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)By Sam Lubell, Oct. 8, 2025 3 AM PT
When Annette Yasin and her husband, Tom, moved to Pasadena from Michigan more than a decade ago, they purchased a condo near Bungalow Heaven, a 16-block area northeast of Old Town known for its substantial collection of Craftsman bungalows. After regular walks in the neighborhood, the couple came across a home on Mar Vista Avenue and quickly fell in love.
The residence, known as the Dr. Robert H. Sutton Bungalow, is a great example of what makes Craftsman architecture so seductive to so many. Outside, its low-sloped roof, wide eaves, textured wood and brick surfaces, and its shaded porch set behind broad overhangs are welcoming and human scaled. Inside, chocolate brown wood is everywhere: walls, beams, window sills, paneling, wainscoting, furniture, not to mention built-in cabinets, benches and window seats. A large bank of windows lets in lots of light, but is protected by all those overhangs, so you don’t feel exposed — or overheated. Everything fits and flows together — spaces, furnishings, lighting fixtures, artworks.
“It’s cozy. It’s warm,” says Yasin, standing in her dining room, which is filled with Craftsman-style furniture either purchased or built by her now-late husband — a G.E. engineer who retired early and leaned into his passion for woodworking.
For over a century, Craftsman homes have been beloved across Southern California, from Orange and Long Beach to West Adams and Santa Barbara. But nowhere are they as prevalent as Pasadena. And in recent years, popularity has soared, as people crave its well-made, no-nonsense, and nature-embracing ethos. So much so, Pasadena Heritage’s Craftsman Week, taking place Oct. 12-19, has expanded from a weekend to a weeklong event this year.
“It’s the rusticity of it,” adds Juan Dela Cruz, a Bungalow Heaven resident and Craftsman homeowner who is guiding me on a tour of the neighborhood along with John G. Ripley, another local Craftsman owner and co-author of the book “Pasadena’s Bungalow Heaven,” ahead of Craftsman Week. “You notice the timbers overhanging. Sometimes you’ll see the roughness in the wood, or you’ll see a three-dimensional relief in the grain. It gives you that connection with nature; that connection with the source from which it came — the tree,” says Dela Cruz.
Annette Yasin, left, stands in the doorway of her kitchen in her Craftsman home, which includes a tiled fireplace. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)Craftsman had its heyday from around 1900 to the early 1920s. It grew out of the British Arts and Crafts Movement, a design philosophy reacting to the Industrial Revolution, with its mass produced goods and fast-paced lifestyle, and the Victorian era, with its frivolous excesses and formal, boxy spaces. It promoted, among other things, handcraft, honesty, unified design, natural materials and design simplicity.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: How this L.A. suburb fell in love with Craftsman homes – Los Angeles Times
#2025 #America #Bungalows #California #History #Homes #Libraries #Library #LosAngeles #Neighborhoods #Opinion #Pasadena #TheLosAngelesTimes #Travel #UnitedStates
Backpack and Snorkel
Backpack and Snorkel
İsmail Arslan
Bobby T 
Lambda Moses
DrWeb