Arcadia “Chinese Beverly Hills”

An article about residential architecture in Arcadia on the front page of this morning’s Dec. 3, 2014 Los Angeles Times calls Arcadia the Chinese Beverly Hills.

Scott Hettrick

Two of the most sought-after designers of homes as big as 11,000 square feet with as many as nine bathrooms and six bedrooms, including three Master bedrooms, are 31 year-old Phillip Chan of PDS Studio and 54 year-old Robert Tong of Sanyao Interntational.

Times architecture critic author of the story, Christopher Hawthorne, notes that while some Arcadia residents may feel the giant new homes are gawdy and out of harmony with traditional one-story ranch houses, that this has been going on since Arcadia founder Lucky Baldwin built his out-sized Queen Anne “Cottage” in the 19th century that blended a mix of English elements, American “stick” styles and Swiss architecture, with references to Moorish landmarks and Chinese pagodas, and as only a guest house, no less.

He also notes that what’s happening in Arcadia with these mansions created by and for Chinese that overwhelm their modest lots resemble the “Persian Palaces” that wealthy Iranians have built in Beverly Hills. So-called “McMansions” have been around for years elsewhere in American suburbia, with many initially copying European architectural styles – even many in Arcadia have a Spanish motif. In fact, this American trend was initially copied in growing Chinese subdivisions, many of them designed and built by American firms, including an architect from Newport Beach who was hired to build such a home north of Beijing called Orange County. What’s happening now is that Chinese immigrants, who can sell those homes in China for triple and quadruple the per-foot price in Southern California, are demanding those same style of homes built by American architects in China to be built here in Arcadia.

— By Scott Hettrick