Gregory Ain (1908-1988): housing

Description

Gregory Ain was born in Pittsburg and raised in California; he went to school at UCLA and USC. He worked briefly for Rudolf Schindler and then worked for three years for Richard Neutra, in the early 1930s. Ain was one of the leading modernist architects in Southern California during the 1940s and 1950s. He built many single family homes in the Silverlake and Los Feliz areas of Los Angeles. After World War II, Ain focused on building low cost housing and multi-family units. He partnered with Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day, as well as landscape architect Garrett Eckbo on many of these housing tracts.

Creator

Ain, Gregory (1908-1988), architect

Source

Gregory Ain papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.

Date

circa 1936-1948

Rights

Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.

Collection Items

Gregory Ain: Avenel Homes (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This group of small homes set side-by-side perpendicular to the street on a long lot, created a community feel, while walls and patios defined individual space. The houses were designed to be low cost urban housing, with the homeowners (a group of…

Gregory Ain: Community Homes Inc. (Reseda, Calif.)
The unbuilt Community Homes project, slated for Reseda, Calif,, included a shopping center, school, parkland, and 16 blocks of homes. Ain partnered with Garrett Eckbo, Simon Eisner, and Reginald D. Johnson to design the housing tract. This housing…

Gregory Ain: Dunsmuir Flats (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Dunsmuir Flats is a four unit building, all attached, with each 2-story unit containing 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. It is an example of Modern International Style, with a flat roof and horizontal bands of clerestory windows. All of the bedrooms…

Gregory Ain: Mar Vista Tract (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Originally planned as a tract of 100 homes on 60 acres, the Mar Vista Tract built 52 homes. Ain partnered with Joseph Johnson, Alfred Day, and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo to design the housing tract. The houses were turned in different…

Gregory Ain: Park Planned homes (Altadena, Calif.)
The Park Plannned Homes is a tract of 28 houses in Altadena, designed by Ain with landscape architect Garrett Eckbo. They have elements of an open concept feel, with a modular building design of 12' x 16' modular units that allowed for common…

Gregory Ain: Hacienda Village Extension (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Gregory Ain, along with his partners Johnson and Day, designed this never-built extension for Hacienda Village for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. The Extension of the original World War Two era housing project, would have extended…

Gregory Ain: Leshing Apartments (Hollywood, Calif.)
This 20-unit apartment building project (never built), was written up in Arts & Architecture Magazine alongside the Case Study House program, but was not part of it. The "Garden Apartments" as they were described, were a series of townhouse-style…

Gregory Ain: Daniel / Irons house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This house, set on a steep lot overlooking the Silver Lake reservoir, was built for the director of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild Ursel Daniel. She was single at the time the house was built and later married Martin Irons.

Gregory Ain: Domela house/studio (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This house and studio for Jocelyn and Jan Domela was located in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. Jan Domela was a well-known artist and illustrator for the movie studios.

Gregory Ain: Edwards house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Charles H. Edwards house was Ain's first solo commission after working for Richard Neutra and Harwell Hamilton Harris. The house, sited on a flat lot in the Hollywood Hills, was named House Beautiful Magazine's "House of the Year" for 1938.

Gregory Ain: Eisenstadt house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Ben and Clara Eisenstadt house was built on a hilltop site along Blair Drive in Los Angeles. It now overlooks the Universal Studios lot.

Gregory Ain: Ernst house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for Anselem Ernst was built on a sloping hillside lot in the Los Feliz Oaks neighborhood. The exterior angles and interior use of space and geometry are very reminiscent of Rudolph Schindler, with whom Ain worked for a time in the early…

Gregory Ain: Goldberg house (San Fernando Valley, Calif.)
The Dr. I. Goldberg house was located in the Encino area of the San Fernando Valley. For this house, redwood siding was used. Ain generally preferred stucco since he did not like that the giant redwood trees were cut down for building materials.

Gregory Ain: Ain home (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Ruth March Ain house was built for Ain's second wife, and is located in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles.

Gregory Ain: Becker house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Isador and Rosa Becker house presented a slightly Streamline Moderne style front facade, with curved walls on the exterior. Inside, the house featured a 'reverse' floor plan-- the main living areas were at street level, and the bedrooms were one…

Gregory Ain: Beckman house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The A.O. Beckman house was sited on a flat lot, and Ain configured the house so that many of the rooms had direct access to the outdoors. The house was located in the La Brea neighborhood of Los Angeles, and was featured in both Architectural Record…

Gregory Ain: Byler house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Albert E. Byler house is located near the top of Mt. Washington, with a view towards downtown Los Angeles. The house is small, measuring less than five hundred square feet, with only a main room, kitchen, and bathroom. The exterior was clad in…

Gregory Ain: Hay house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Harry Hay commissioned Ain to design this house for his mother, Margaret Hay. With clearstory windows and a garage at the front of the property and living room facing the private backyard, the house was seen as a perfect place for Harry Hay to…

Gregory Ain: Hural house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Alexander and Flora Hural house featured a dental lab on the upper level. It is located in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles.

Gregory Ain: Mesner house (Sherman Oaks, Calif.)
This house for Leo Mesner is in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles. The only portion of the house visible from the street is the garage, with the main view of the house is from the backyard. Inside, the house is spread out on four levels, each…

Gregory Ain: Museum of Modern Art exhibition house (New York, NY)
The exhibition house Ain designed for the Museum of Modern Art and the Woman's Home Companion magazine was built in New York City in 1950. It was designed to show how modern living could be made accessible to most homeowners, with sliding walls…

Gregory Ain: Orans house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Maurice and Alice Orans House was located on a steeply sloped small lot in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. The garage was built at street level with entrance and exit doors; the curved driveway allows for easy entrance and egress, extra…

Gregory Ain: Scharlin house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Scharlin house in Silver Lake was built for the founder of one of the first co-operative nursery schools in Los Angeles, Rose Scharlin. The house sits at the top of the ridge, on a sloping site far back from the street, with views in multiple…

Gregory Ain: Tierman house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for Samuel and Celia Tierman was sited on a steep lot in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The small house, with a pyramid-shaped roof, stucco walls, and attached garage was part of Ain's philosophy of bringing modern homes to…

Gregory Ain: Wilfong house (Altadena, Calif.)
This house in Altadena for John C. Wilfong was a long, low, glass-walled house with views towards the mountains. The investment banker Wilfong wanted a house where he and his wife could entertain and raise their child. Ain designed a linear house…
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