Eastside moderns

Some of the homes and apartments that were built during the most recent boom are, well, just plain feo. But an upcoming home tour of Eagle Rock, Echo Park, Glassell Park, Montecito Heights and Silver Lake features some more attractive examples of contemporary house design.

The residences featured on the June 27 Dwell on Design tour of the Los Angeles East Side (don't tell these folks about it) ranges from a Glassell Park home on 7-acres to a metal-and-wood clad Silver Lake "Work House." The house in Echo Park, which is positioned to be cooled by afternoon breezes, also gets a feature story in the LA Times.

The homes may seem out of reach for many homeowners looking for remodeling ideas. Try asking for "hand-crafted integral color concrete tiles produced in Marrakesh" at the Cypress Park Home Depot. You will also face language and concepts that only a SCI-Arc grad would love: "... the boundaries between the familiar signifiers of domesticity are contaminated by the operative functions of work." But, still, the homes on the tour are preferable to any McMansion next door.

Image from Dwell on Design