1923: Myron Hunt’s Tenure as President

Myron Hunt, a prolific, innovative architect who designed over 400 buildings across California throughout his career, writes about the beginnings of the Art Jury: “The first six months of the Jury’s work was devoted to weekly meetings that lasted all day and often far into the night. At these meetings, the current work of the Olmsted Brothers, the landscape architects in charge of laying out the project, and of H.C. Cheney, city planner, was discussed and criticized. Then Mr. Olmsted and his partner, with Mr. Cheney and their chief assistants would join in the Jury’s general discussions. They made many most helpful suggestions in the drawing and making of restrictions.”

Under Hunt’s guidance during his seventeen years as Art Jury President, a California style of architecture was established in Palos Verdes, characterized by stucco and adobe, light colors, and tiled roofs. Hunt himself designed one such archetypal Palos Verdes building, the Malaga Cove Library.

 

Photo courtesy of: Phillips, John. Palos Verdes Estates (Images of America) (p. 53). Arcadia Publishing Inc.