A #MidCenturyMonday thread:

This lovely Mid-Century home in Silver Lake was built in 1949 by Chinese American architect Eugene Kinn Choy—it was also his private residence.

When Choy, the first Chinese American architect in California to join the AIA, decided to build a home for his family in Silver Lake, racial covenants aimed to keep the neighborhood all white, were an obstacle despite SCOTUS ruling racial covenants to be unconstitutional in 1948

When F. Chow Chan, founder of Chinatown’s Phoenix Bakery, was unable to secure a home loan because he was an immigrant, he knew something had to be done.

Choy had to go door to door, asking for permission to build from each neighbor. In the 1970s, Choy’s son, Barton (also an architect), designed two modern houses (one for himself and the other for his sister) about a block away from the family home his father built.

Even with neighborhood permission, banks refused to loan the money needed to secure the property. One of Choy’s most iconic designs—Cathay Bank—was a result of the Chinese American community’s response to such discriminatory lending practices.

Chan and other prominent members of the Chinese American community spent ten years organizing backers to apply for a bank charter. They would succeed and later hired Choy to design the iconic building located on Alpine and Broadway Streets in Chinatown.

In June 2020, Eugene Choy’s home sold for $1.6 million—over $200K more than the asking price.