I've lived at Park La Brea for just under two years now, and used this site heavily when looking for an aparment when I was new to LA. Unfortunately, the reviews tend to be gripe festivals more than serious reviews, so I was prompted to write my own.

Park La Brea is a series of towers and townhomes built on 160 acres. I personally live in a townhome, so I will mostly describe that experience. The grounds are very large, and the complex is bordered by one very busy street (Fairfax), one moderately busy street (3rd) and two lightly busy streets (Hauser and 6th). Within the complex, buildings are laid out in an aesthetically pleasing manner and there is a lot of greenery, parks, trees, etc. If this complex were built today, it would probably be a huge building with no yards or trees, and for Los Angeles this is a very green place to live.

Each of the townhomes shares a large common back yard with its neighbors. In most cases therefore, the rear of the unit faces a landscaped green space, which is nice. Many units also face a yard to the front, but some face side streets. Ours faces a yard, so we have good views on both sides and can open the windows to get good air flow.

The buildings are constructed of brick, also unusual to LA, which really insulates the apartment and keeps it relatively cool in summer and warm in winter. Of course, this is LA, so when it's 100 degrees outside and the sun is blaring in the windows it will get a little warm, but 95% of the time the place stays cool.

Neighborhood

This is a great neighborhood for LA, and Park La Brea has an incredible location. The Grove and Farmer's MArket, two of LA's premier shopping destinations, are a block away. Pan Pacific Park, a 100 acre green space with baseball fields, soccer fields and running trails, is next door. To the South is LACMA and another large park that is part of the museum. All of this is within walking distance, another great perk that is hard to find in LA.

Parking

PArking is griped about constantly in the reviews, and I find this kind of stupid. As a resident, you get free street parking, or you can elect to pay for assigned private garage parking, which costs $25-$65 per month depending on the space. The street parking is permit only, so it is only for residents and guests. It fills up at night, although there has never been a time when I couldn't get parking within a block of my place. Compared to West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the other surrounding neighborhoods, the street parking is spectacular and ample. Other neighborhoods have limited parallel parking, but on most side streets Park La Brea has front-in parking, which means there are far more spaces than most other neighborhoods. I pay $35 per month to garage my car, which gives me an assigned spot. Obviously, this solves any issues anyone would have with first come, first serve parking. This is a reasonable fee, other apartments complexes in LA charge the same or more for private spaces.

Noise

Like any large community, noise will depend on your unit. I live about 300 feet from 3rd Street, but because my unit does not face it there is not that much noise. The 3 ft thick brick perimeter wall drowns out most of it. The only noise that would be an issue for us is neighbor noise, but you get that wherever you go. Our neighbors are all pretty quiet, so we've never had an issue. Some blocks have a lot of kids. I personally don't mind the sound of kids playing outside, but if you are a curmudgeon that wants to barricade yourself in a soundproof room, this may not be the place for you.

Grounds

As I said, living here is like living in a garden. The yards are well maintained, and there are great trees all around our place. There are ample oak, lavender and bottlebrush trees, so when everything blooms it is quite pretty. The gardners come at the same time every week, so we know there will be noise at 2 pm on Wednesday (but it beats mowing yourself!)

The public areas are great. There are three large squares that provide great park space. Curson Square, the largest, also offers a community gym and pool, which cost about $35 per month to belong to.

Safety

There is ample patrol and the community is gated. Everything is well lit, and I have never felt unsafe here.

Construction / Maintanance

The buildings were constructed in the 40's and 50's and are quite solid. Some people gripe that this led to smallish kitchens and bathrooms, which is true, but let me tell you most houses here were built in the 20's - 50's, and they also feature small bathrooms. I work in Real Estate, so I can vouch that my unit is bigger than most homes in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood I deal with.

Compared to other apartments

What you get with Park La Brea is a community. I chose it because I did not love living in a 12-unit apartment building where there was no green space and everyone barricaded themselves in at night. These are very open, airy units with overall great views. Living here has been a pleasure, and beats almost every single other alternative I've come across. I am happy to answer serious inquiries by email, as I know it's often hard to find a place when you are unfamiliar with the area. Anyone who read this far into the review is bound to be pretty serious.

User Responses
From: JRFrogman	Date: 07/22/2006
They're back. Park La Brea Management just keeps coming back. If you are on this site to find an apartment, do yourself a favor and read all the previous postings. You will see that PLB Mgmnt posts their marketing here all the time. Make sure you read a good cross section to get the real story. Not just this PLB Marketing in this post.
From: triley	Date: 07/25/2006
See the review "Decent Enough" and many others, this person thinks that all good reviews are written by plb management.
From: realPLBresident	Date: 08/09/2007
"I work in Real Estate, so I can vouch that my unit is bigger than most homes in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood I deal with." say no more. doesn't work directly for plb (can tell because not retarded) but probably compromised by his job. Most real estate salespeople who have a BA could come up with a snow job like this so read it with a grain of salt.

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