Best Apartment Views

at 40 mph

So many boulevards, so little time. The city is lined with wonderful winding streets that just scream to be driven on: Linda Vista Avenue in Pasadena, Huntington Drive in El Sereno, Silver Lake Boulevard in — well, you know. But there’s a three-block stretch, just south of Melrose, crammed with so many beautiful apartments you can’t help but slow down, which is a good thing because the road jogs just when you least expect it.

As you speed south on Vine Street — where Vine turns into Rossmore and, not coincidentally, Hollywood turns into Hancock Park — you will encounter shade trees and nearly every apartment style known to Los Angeles. There’s the Chateau Rossmore, a stately Tudor graced with leaded glass and mint-green zigzag tile steps; the Majorca, a midcentury masterpiece with protruding brickwork; and the Mauretania, a Depression-era Streamline Moderne with elegant curves. The glamour is palpable as you pass the El Royale, a seven-story Spanish Colonial Revival with a rooftop sign, home to stars such as Harry Langdon (and where an apartment cost as much as $900 per month — in 1929!). Then there’s the seven-story, 96-room ­Ravenswood, which served as home to Mae West and Clark Gable in the 1930s.

By the time you’ve reached Beverly Boulevard, you’re back in the land of single-family homes, small mansions in the Spanish and Tudor styles. The ride is still nice, with the canopy of trees arcing over both sides of the street. But all too soon, the bliss is over, at Wilshire Boulevard, where Rossmore comes to an end.

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