Pepperdine proposed to build 140 condominiums on 70 acres it owned in Topanga Canyon. The plot, just southwest of Old Topanga Road, had been donated in December 1971 by the widow of Fred Solomon, an early Topanga landowner. Faculty planning on teaching at Malibu were struggling to find affordable housing near the campus, looking as far away as Camarillo.¹ The first faculty condos on the Malibu campus would not be built for many years.

In 1973, plans changed from condominiums to single-family detached dwellings.² The proposed Topanga units were never built, perhaps due in part to opposition from neighbors.