Obituaries : Selden Ring; Pioneered Idea of Garden Apartments

"Their models were copied by competitors, and the whole idea of apartments aimed at young married couples without children began to grow. The developments, which earned the brothers several beautification awards from the City of Los Angeles, included units in Brentwood and Fox Hills. Construction was valued at nearly $1 billion."

"Ring, who was so impressed by the media's performance during the Watergate era that he established a $25,000 annual prize for investigative reporting, came to Los Angeles in the early 1950s. He and his brother, Ellis, developed apartment complexes featuring waterfalls, artificial lakes and other amenities then new to the construction industry."

"The first of the journalism prizes was awarded in 1990. He said the delay between his father's conception of the prize in the late 1970s and the actual award came from media leaders who were cautious about giving such a large amount to an individual reporter. The winner is selected by a panel of prominent national journalists and awarded through USC."

Selden Ring, a prominent Los Angeles real estate developer, passed away at age 74 from complications of cancer and Parkinson's Disease. In the early 1950s, Ring and his brother Ellis transformed residential development by creating spacious garden apartments designed for young married couples, featuring innovative amenities like waterfalls and artificial lakes. Their developments, valued at nearly $1 billion, earned multiple beautification awards and inspired industry-wide imitation. The brothers sold most of their company to Monogram Industries in the early 1970s but retained Marina del Rey holdings. Ring also established a $25,000 annual investigative journalism prize in 1990, inspired by media coverage during Watergate. He served as a trustee at the University of La Verne and on UCLA Medical Center's board of advisers.

Read at Los Angeles Times