Historic/Architectural Pulse in Orange County? (Long Beach, Santa Ana: real estate, townhouse, neighborhoods)

[mowry101]

My husband, 2 month old son, and I have an opportunity to move to Orange County. My husband would be working in Seal Beach. We are in our early 30's, from St. Louis, and have two large weimaraners. I'm an architect and my husband works for Boeing.

I'm looking for a community/neighborhood with a smaller, older feel, a place with some architectural history perhaps, a walkable city center with mixed use amenities - a less suburban lifestyle if you will. Any areas like this, with moderately priced homes (but with 1,800 sf or more - for less than 500k)?

Also, what is the architectural pulse like in Orange County? Is there any unique, sustainable design going on? What areas would be my best bet to find work as an architect, where I'm not designing cookie-cutter homes and P. F. Cheng's?

Thanks for your help!

[Coldjensens]

Orange County is the world headquarters for cookie cutter homes. Real estate is too expensive to allow lot by lot development. Everything is mass produced and comes out of catalogues. There are a few exceptions here and there, mostly in wealthy areas or the few older areas that have not been torn down and rebuilt.

Places that you may like are Old Town Orange, downtown Laguna Beach, perhaps some parts of fullerton. Some of the nicer areas of old Santa Ana (Floral Park, French Park, Henninger PArk, Wilshire and Washington Square neighborhoods, parts of Park Santiago). Seal Beach is not bad. Parts of Long Beach are cool (Long Beach is not Orange County, but it is close). There is some, kind of neat, unique architecture out in Silverado Canyon.

Sometimes they build some really unique buildings here and there. These are generally commercial buildings office buildings or homes for really rich people. For example, the disney building in LA is a unique newer building.

Life in Orange County is very much about conformity. South Orange Couty will amaze you. City after city after city all the same. Same house styles, colors and materials, same strip malls, same parkways and sidewalks and bike trails. It is all very nice and pretty in a manufactured sort of way, but all the same. You could be blind folded and moved to a different city and not be able to tell. Since they will not be building much residential for a while, you will not have much opportuinity for residential design and it will frustrate you if you did get any of that work. Take your five favorite architectural element catalogues, piced together four or five house plans that use different mixutres of hte same elements (becuase it is cheaper to build them that way) and you are done.

Some beach communities tend to be different, but they are mostly overbuilt rectangles with lots of windows and balconies.

I am guessing that Old Town ORange, Santa Ana and Long Beach will be your favorite places.

[Coldjensens]

Here is a typical example. Multiply this by 200,000 and you have South OC. If you can design this, you can take over the design for the remainder of OC development. And Yes. The garage door is often the entire front elevation of a house. Pretty isn't it?

[DinsdalePirahna]

I lived in Saint Louis (Lake Saint Louis) for 2 years. Glad to be back in Southern California. its expensive but worth it.

You are not going to get Saint Louis Prices here (I had a 1800sf lake front home [2200sf if you counted the finished basement] on 1/2acre for $225K - i just didn't like Missouri) Looking to buy a Townhouse now.

Most of the big Architecture firms are located in Irvine and Newport Beach. Try Ware/Malcomb, HOL, Pelli among many others.

The recession hit many hard so there are a lot of architects looking for work. You could also try firms like Schlemmer+Algaze who do high end space planning and interiors for high-end clients.

You may want to look at Seal Beach Village if you like older homes. I'm guess that your husband will probably be working in Seal Beach or Huntington Beach and this would be an easy (bikeable, if you like cycling) commute.

Belmont Shores in Long Beach, Old Town Orange and Fullerton also have older architecture. Stay away from South County (Everything looks the same) if you want old-school charm unless you plan of living in Laguna Beach or San Clemente.

[NaplesRes]

Originally Posted by mowry101

My husband, 2 month old son, and I have an opportunity to move to Orange County. My husband would be working in Seal Beach. We are in our early 30's, from St. Louis, and have two large weimaraners. I'm an architect and my husband works for Boeing.

I'm looking for a community/neighborhood with a smaller, older feel, a place with some architectural history perhaps, a walkable city center with mixed use amenities - a less suburban lifestyle if you will. Any areas like this, with moderately priced homes (but with 1,800 sf or more - for less than 500k)?

Also, what is the architectural pulse like in Orange County? Is there any unique, sustainable design going on? What areas would be my best bet to find work as an architect, where I'm not designing cookie-cutter homes and P. F. Cheng's?

Thanks for your help!

Go take a look at Belmont Shore and Belmont Heights. I think it's exactly what you're looking for. Price will be an issue though. A 2BR, 1000 sf house in those areas is typically going to start around 550k.

[mowry101]

This is great, thanks everyone.

[mowry101]

I do love those clay tile roofs.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by mowry101

I do love those clay tile roofs.

I love them individually. Unfortunately 200 of them all the same all only a few feet apart create the overall appearance of a giant scab on the earth when seen from a distance. I prefer an ecletic mix of materials and styles.

Individually, tile roofs are awesome. They look great, last forever and require little maintenance.

[Fontucky]

And they don't burn during wildland fire season, unlike their predecessor cedar shake.

[nurserosie]

Originally Posted by mowry101

I do love those clay tile roofs.

agreed re the fire thing..wood shake roofs no longer allowed on new construction(of which there is none)

you will have to look far and wide to find non cookie cutter homes..and half a million might not buy you one..

just a heads up...