i took these photos in westwood in 2019. most of these are apartment buildings in the neighborhood around UCLA. i was particularly obsessed with all the dingbats that have survived in the neighborhood, and wanted to document my favorites.
a dingbat is a small apartment building (generally no more than three stories) with street-level parking tucked beneath. they became extremely popular among developers in mid-century los angeles, who often dressed up the cheap boxy facades with flashy signs and spacey decor. the latter gave the dingbats their name, after the typographical ornaments. the combo of cheap materials, boxy design and kitsch have made dingbats the target of a lot of criticism over the years, much like five-over-ones today. but as they've fallen out of fashion, aged, and gradually started to disappear, dingbats have become icons of mid-century LA.
unfortunately dingbats were never really built to last and, especially in a university neighborhood like westwood, newer and far bigger apartment buildings are starting to replace them. the dingbats below are living on borrowed time—if they're even still alive.
