Palos Verdes Estates Neighborhood Report

Palos Verdes Estates is a city, incorporated in 1939, in Los Angeles County, on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master planned by the noted American landscape architect and planner Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. The city is located along the Southern California coastline of the Pacific Ocean. There are several accessible beaches, although most of the predominantly rocky shoreline is marked by high cliffs. Other significant features of the city are the scenic Palos Verdes Golf Club, a challenging 18-hole golf course and country club, the Palos Verdes Tennis Club and the Palos Verdes Beach Club. These facilities are restricted for recreational use by city resident-members and guests and are centrally located within the city. Another popular city landmark atop Palos Verdes Estates is the La Venta Inn. Built in 1923, La Venta Inn was the first known building structure on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Architects Walter and Pierpont Davis designed the building and the famous landscape architects, the Olmstead brothers, designed its gardens. La Venta Inn has spectacular views of the Southern California coastline.

The city is primarily a high-end residential location, with no traffic lights, and relatively limited commercial areas found in Malaga Cove Plaza and Lunada Bay. One of Southern California’s most exclusive and expensive neighborhoods, Palos Verdes Estates’ aesthetics and architecture are protected by an Art Jury, a non-governmental organization which must approve any exterior alteration to any building, fence, sidewalk, or other structure. For example, most residences and business buildings within the city limits have uniform Mediterranean red ceramic tile roofs and often feature architecture with column and arch motifs, resembling European coastal communities.