House Will Be Used as Model of Soundproofing

Lawrence J. Trainor, a 70-year-old retired truck driver for an oil company, has lived in the same Playa del Rey house since 1962, a cheery yellow bungalow with a red roof.

It’s just a few hundred yards from the end of Runway 24 Right at Los Angeles International Airport. Departing jets scream by his front door.

A few years back, as part of a soundproofing project, double windows and extra-thick doors were installed. “That made it livable again,” Trainor said Tuesday. “And it’s in a perfect location, especially if you want to go to the beach. Or if you’ve got to pick someone up at the airport.”

The city’s Board of Airport Commissioners voted Tuesday to buy Trainor’s two-bedroom, one-bath abode--intending to use it as a model home, a demonstration of what soundproofing measures can do.

On a 3-0 vote, the board agreed to pay $231,750 for the house on the 400 block of Waterview Avenue. Airport spokeswoman Nancy Niles said officials hope to reopen it in late summer as a demonstration site for a city-sponsored soundproofing plan. So far, $15 million has been earmarked to soundproof 122 homes north of the airport, in Westchester and Playa del Rey.

In other action Tuesday, the board awarded an additional $9.2 million to the city of Inglewood for soundproofing. That award matches grant funds received from the Federal Aviation Administration.

A new airport-operated agency, the Airport Residential Soundproofing Bureau, plans to cut almost in half the 15-year soundproofing schedule under which the city of Los Angeles had been operating.

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Ultimately, 8,900 homes may be eligible for the Los Angeles program--under which the airport pays for soundproofing and, in exchange, homeowners sign an easement allowing airplanes to fly near their homes and agree not to sue over noise levels.

Niles said officials believe Trainor’s house will make a great example.

It is located “in the highest noise zone,” she said. It’s just a half-block west of Pershing Drive, so access is easy. There is ample street parking. And, since the house was soundproofed in the 1980s, “it shows how well these windows have held up,” she added.

“Our overall aim is to promote the [soundproofing] program,” she said. “We want people to be comfortable, so they can see--well, hear--what they’re getting.”

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Before soundproofing, Trainor said, “when the TV was on, you’d have to have it on so loud it was like you were deaf,” he said. “And then a plane would go by, you’d have to read lips.”

Since the double windows and heavy doors were installed, he said, he has been reluctant to leave.

But, he’s moving on--to Dana Point--leaving the yellow home behind.

“I remember the Depression, when things were bad, so people always painted their houses bright,” he said.

“Sunshine yellow, that’s the name of the paint from the can on the house,” he said. “I like a bright house. I like something bright when you come home. Who doesn’t like something bright?”