Santa Monica Canyon

Doing a few sit-ups and push-ups in Santa Monica turned James Birch into a scofflaw -- and cost him $158 to boot. Birch was cited as part of a recent crackdown on fitness enthusiasts who were exercising in the grassy medians along 4th Street near tony Adelaide Drive. In response to homeowners' complaints, Santa Monica police two months ago started warning those who exercised on the medians that they were violating a 1970 city ordinance.

It MAY not be Florence, Italy, but this Santa Monica Canyon home definitely has a room with a view -- make that several. Perched above the mouth of the Westside canyon -- a longtime bohemian retreat that includes Will Rogers State Park and the Riviera Country Club -- this four-level, modern-style home, surrounded by cottages, large estates and mature trees, captures vistas from Santa Monica Bay to Point Dume, as well as of Pacific Palisades and...

To drive along the winding canyon roads of Los Angeles just west of Santa Monica is to glimpse neighborhoods that are in the city but not of the city -- at least not the realm of asphalt and grit known to most Angelenos. Instead of mini-malls and graffiti, there is a collage of funky and fancy houses inhabited by a diverse bunch -- tattooed bikers, retirees, artists, lawyers and screenwriters. They revel in their proximity to the beach and the occasional flash of surf glancing through the trees.

European actress Anna Sten and her husband, Eugene Frenke, had a whim in 1934 to hire Richard Neutra, once a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, to design a home for them in Santa Monica Canyon. Neutra, who was on his way to becoming one of the most influential modern architects, was designing houses at the time in what is known as the International Style. The Sten-Frenke residence, with its hallmark flat roof and glass walls, exemplifies the style.

Julius Shulman made a career of photographing some of the most architecturally interesting houses in Los Angeles. At 94, he's still at it, this time taking pictures of a newly built Pacific Palisades home that earned a design award in 2004 from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Hill House, a creation of L.A. architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, is reminiscent of Pierre Koenig's Case Study House No. 22, which Shulman also photographed.

Their family dynasty once embraced 6,656 acres and included 4 1/2 miles of some of California's most beautiful beachfront. These days, descendants of Spanish land-grant owner Francisco Marquez are down to their last 17,000 square feet deep inside Santa Monica Canyon. And as it's often been for the last 165 years, Marquez family property is again in the middle of a tug-of-war. The fight this time is not over entitlement to the sweeping mesa that forms the center of today's Pacific Palisades.

When my wife and I bought our house in Santa Monica Canyon, we had been living apart since our marriage three years previously. It wasn't that we didn't like each other -- quite to the contrary, we enjoyed spending time with each other more than with any other person -- but the complications of changing schools and neighborhood friends for our two teenage sons from previous marriages made it easier to continue to live in our own homes.