Charmont Apartments, Five-story residential building in Santa Monica, California
Charmont Apartments is a five-story residential building in Santa Monica featuring stucco walls and clay tile roofs in Spanish Colonial style. The structure includes a walled courtyard centered on a two-tiered fountain decorated with colorful tile patterns.
The Charmont Apartments was built in 1928 to designs by architect Max Maltzman, combining Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco elements in a style sometimes called "Med-Deco." It was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, then rehabilitated and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building blends Spanish Colonial and Art Deco design, showing Mediterranean influences in Southern California residential architecture. This mix shapes how the neighborhood looks and feels even today.
The building sits on California Avenue near Santa Monica Beach, Palisades Park, and the Downtown Santa Monica Metro station. This location makes it easy to explore the area on foot and access public transit.
The two-tiered fountain in the walled entrance courtyard has a backsplash of polychrome tile in a Moorish pattern, a detail easy to miss from the street. The building's Moderne side shows in stylized geometric motifs and repeated chevrons across the facade.
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