Metropolitan Living: The Los Angeles Parklabrea Apartments

Reflecting a commitment to public service and an interest in abiding investments, life insurance companies after the Second World War were responsible for the construction of an unprecedented number of housing developments across the United States. They were able to help alleviate housing shortages, elevate the standards of postwar housing, and offer new forms of modern living. This article examines the practices of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and its developing of Parklabrea (now Park La Brea) in Los Angeles during the 1940s. As the largest housing community west of the Mississippi River, Parklabrea stands prominently in the center of the city, though it is elided in histories of California housing. Against the backdrop of postwar public housing, which failed in part due to a disregard for urban context, Parklabrea’s history reveals how life insurance companies were increasingly attuned to the social, physical, and economic contexts of postwar cities.