Spotlight On Playa Vista

I have been showing a client a lot of condos in Playa Vista recently and as I talk to different people about how much I like the area and what a great job they have done with the neighborhood, I am surprised how many folks still don't know much about Los Angeles's newest community. The story behind the first new planned community on the Westside in 50 years is pretty interesting so I thought I would provide some insights as to how the Playa Vista of today came to be.

Situated about a mile from the ocean, Playa Vista is adjacent to the newly restored Ballona Freshwater Marsh. The land where Playa Vista sits has an incredibly rich and varied history and the original inhabitants were the Tongva Native Americans who lived in the Los Angeles Basin for thousands of years. There was a Tongvan sacred burial site located in Playa Vista that was discovered after construction of Playa Vista had begun, and in 2008 the remains were removed and then laid to rest and covered with white seashells during a sacred burial ceremony near the Westchester Bluffs.

In the 1800's and through the turn of the 20th century, the Rancho La Ballona cattle ranch and a large dairy farm dominated the area. In the 1930's and 40's, entrepreneur and visionary Howard Hughes created an aerospace empire in Playa Vista where he designed and built the “Spruce Goose”. At 319 feet and 11 inches, this precursor to today’s jumbo jets still holds the record for the largest wingspan of any plane ever built. By the mid-1990s, Playa Vista converted the former Hughes Aircraft hangars, including the one that held the Spruce Goose, into Hollywood sound stages. Scenes from movies such as Avatar, Transformers, Iron Man and Titanic have been filmed at Playa Vista.

The idea for current day Playa Vista began in 1998 when it was selected by President Clinton as one of the six communities in the nation to be a pilot project of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). Phase 1 of Playa Vista began in 2001 and development in the community is still going on today. Playa Vista balances housing, business, neighborhood shopping, parks and habitat protection in a truly self-sustained community. The community includes homes built for today's lifestyles by many of the nation's leading builders and the diverse collection of residences includes detached single-family homes, town homes, condominiums and urban-style lofts...all with state-of-the-art amenities. One of these forward-thinking amenities is that residents are serviced with 100% recycled water, and Playa Vista was the first community in the United States to be awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® prior to construction because of its trendsetting Sustainable Design Guidelines. Playa Vista is also a linchpin of Silicon Beach and is home to leading Tech and Gaming Companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, You Tube, Belkin and Electronic Arts.