And All the Houses in the Street Have Got a Name…

Friday fun link: the names of Santa Monica apartment buildings. After the revolution, comrade, they will all be independent republics.

[Via Things.]

Comments

[crap-action-jackson]

There's a book like this - forget the title though - but it shows the facade of each building too. More about the classic 60s/70s California style than the just the names though.

[joe]

In DC, the buildings all have names like "The Windsor" and "the Taylor House."

It's funny how asperations change from place to place.

[Mike Laursen]

Thanks. One thing I really miss about living in L.A. were all the great Spanish street names. "La Cienega" ... say it, now say it again, can you feel the little Ricardo Montalban that lives inside your throat?

[VM]

can you feel the little Ricardo Montalban that lives inside your throat?

mmm. Corinthian leather throat.

[Mike Laursen]

All the apartments where I live now have names like "Pineview" or "Meadowood". Doesn't have the same zazz as "Wonder Palms".

[highnumber]

I am going to start calling my house "Shangri-La." I can't believe it never occurred to me before.

Or should I wait until I get rid of the lavatory in the back yard?

[thoreau]

I used to live in "Coco Palms" in Goleta, CA. Soon I'll be moving to "The Atrium" in West Covina.

Like most apartment complexes in California, neither of them look all that impressive on the outside. One of the places that I visited in West Covina even has a manager who looked like she might be a washed-out actress.

[smacky]

highnumber,

No, leave it. It is the Shangri-Loo.

[Brian Sorgatz]

It reminds me of a point that Paul Krassner, I think, made in The Aristocrats: Mediocre things are so often puffed up by flattering names. A greasy-spoon diner may call itself The Gourmet Corner.

[Jesse Walker]

Or should I wait until I get rid of the lavatory in the back yard?

Depends. Do you still dream of that car?

[highnumber]

No, those days are gone.

[Jesse Walker]

Go ahead and name it. You'll be in your place and you'll know where you are.

[VM]

and what a nice loo it is!

[highnumber]

Sweet! I'll just sit back in my old rocking chair. I'll need not worry nor care.

[Todd Fletcher]

There are still a few places like these left standing in the older parts of Phoenix. It's pretty comical to see complexes with names like "Tahiti Breeze" and "Harbor Mist" in a place that gets all of 7" of rain a year.

[emmajane]

Our building in D.C. is "Imperial House"--a nice enough building but certainly not Imperial. I love that on Massachusetts Ave. in DC there's a strip of buildings--The Winthrop, The Boston House and the Bay State House--right in a row.

[joe]

I live in a decidely non-imperial city, and if I were to refer to my house by a name, I'd call it "L*** Street."

In an old-fashioned city, you live in your neighborhood just as much as you live in your house.

[Rich Ard]

James Lileks?

[Rhywun]

I was thinking of Lileks too; and this.

New York's apartment houses, too, have names evoking olde Britain more than anything else.

[lunchstealer]

Ruta? Isn't that the planet of the little jellyfish critters that are fighting the Sontarans?

[lunchstealer]

Seriously, though I think I'd have to live in a place called "Tiki".

[Rudiger]

I live in LA and used to rent an apartment in a similar-looking building (this one, however, was in an area my roommate and I refer to as "The Void", as it lies on the border of Mar Vista, Culver City, Marina Del Rey, Palms, Los Angeles, Playa Del Rey and Venice). Our building was called the "Harbor View," however our only view was of drunk Mexicans urinating and sleeping on the median on Culver Blvd.

I now live in Santa Monica, but unfortunately my building doesn't have one of these groovy names. I'm gonna talk to my landlord about giving it a deserving name. Perhaps "The Shag and Breakfast."

[the friendly grizzly]

How about The Hairy Arms? Belly Acres?