The Time Has Come For All Good Angelenos To Come To The Aid Of Their Art Deco Newspaper HQ
Gentle reader...
Well, Los Angeles, someone had to do it, and that someone ends up being us. It seemed right to give the Times the scoop: "Preservationists call for historic status for Los Angeles Times buildings, threatening redevelopment plans." Curbed L.A. did a thoughtful follow-up piece, as did Take Two.
It wasn't our plan that the landmark nomination, a project years in the making, be accepted the very week the newspaper was moving out of its namesake home for a new HQ in El Segundo. As so often happens when working with the past, we feel the invisible hand of forces greater than ourselves steering the ship.
We don't oppose redevelopment of the underused Times buildings, but believe it needs to be done with the oversight of the Office of Historic Resources, to ensure this unofficial Los Angeles landmark is treated with the respect it deserves. The buildings tell the story of the growth of our city and its most influential newspaper. Demolishing half the block for glass towers shows a lack of imagination, and erases the most interesting period of the paper's life, when Otis Chandler made a real newspaper of international significance out of a reactionary backwater rag. (Tricky Dick's famous gripe "You won't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore" was directed at Times reporters.)
Instead of demolishing it, why not retain the architecturally significant 1973 William Pereira addition (which, it's important to note, is attached to the 1935 Gordon Kaufmann building) and erect something new above it, like Norman Foster did with the Hearst Building in New York? Smart adaptive reuse can integrate with existing structures, satisfying preservationists, developers and the public that has to live with what's built. We look forward to something great and new adding to, not erasing, Times Mirror Square.
Historic preservation is tough business, with a lot of money and ego at play. When we helped landmark Charles Bukowski's bungalow, the landlord's lawyer went online looking for dirt and came up with "Bukowski was a Nazi." (He wasn't, but that was the reason presented for not preserving the writer's home. It didn't work.)
Since we're heading back into the Cultural Heritage Commission chambers, we went online to research property owner Onni Group's historic preservation track record. We don't shock easy, but what we found shocked us. The L.A. Times redevelopment project is a carbon copy of The Seattle Times redevelopment project, and the landmarked Seattle buildings have been demolished as a threat to public health.
We hope you'll read all about it. Once you do, we think you'll agree with us that Angelenos need to take a stand to preserve and protect the Los Angeles Times buildings. We invite you to join us, in person or with an emailed letter of support, before the Cultural Heritage Commission at City Hall on Thursday, July 19. Click here for more info and to find links to the nomination documents.
But the L.A. Times isn't the only red-hot preservation issue that keeps us up night. Our latest 3-D explorable tour photoshoot with Craig Sauer revealed the disappearance of Skid Row's own American Gothic, the painted fire door we previously discovered in the King Eddy speakeasy basement. A cool reward is offered for its safe return.
And for the Heather Apartments: A Long Goodbye. One of Westlake's loveliest old apartment hotels burned again, days after a demolition permit is granted. We were there to take snuff photos, and find a lovely little artifact on the filthy sidewalk.
Tour dates are listed through October, and a new podcast episode is out, on mid-century Long Beach and the mysteries of Lomaland.
We're on the bus on Saturday with a (nearly sold out) Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour, a time travel trip to 1947 Los Angeles, featuring a colorful cast of newspaper people who wouldn't have been caught dead working for the Times. Join us, do!
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RECOMMENDED READING
The Annotated Big Sleep reveals the real noir bones beneath the skin of Raymond Chandler's sly and seductive debut novel. Old Los Angeles was full of finks and nuts, and Chandler skewered them expertly. Our Kim Cooper joins a selection of L.A. writers reading favorite sections from the novel, followed by a discussion with the annotators, at Skylight Books in Los Feliz on July 17. And keeping it a very Philip Marlowe summer, our tour about Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles rolls again on July 28.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 9/23
Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State L.A. to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On September 23, join us for an inquiry into the Southside Slayer cold case serial killer investigation. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.
COMING SOON
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 7/14... Join us on this iconic, unsolved Los Angeles murder mystery tour, from the throbbing boulevards of a postwar Downtown to the quiet suburban avenue where horror came calling. After multiple revisions, this is less a true crime tour than a social history of 1940s Hollywood female culture, mass media and madness, and we welcome you to join us for the ride. Almost sold out! (Buy tickets here.)
CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 7/21... Sorry, this edition of the Buk bus has been cancelled. It rolls again 10/6.
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 7/28... Follow in the young writer's footsteps near his downtown oil company offices to sites from The Lady in the Lake and The Little Sister, meet several real inspirations for the Philip Marlowe character and get the skinny on Chandler's secret comic operetta that we discovered in the Library of Congress nearly a century after it was written. Plus a stop at Scoops for noirish gelato creations and a visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. (Buy tickets here.)
MANSONLAND - SAT. 8/4... Sorry, the debut excursion is sold with waiting list.
THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 8/18... This is not a tour about beautiful buildings—although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is not a tour about brilliant architects--although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown is a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. Come discover the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Features a visit to the Dutch Chocolate Shop, a tiled wonderland not open to the public. (Buy tickets here.)
BOYLE HEIGHTS & MONTEREY PARK: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POTS - SAT. 8/25... Come on a century's social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated with immersive stops to sample the varied cultures that make our changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, Chicano Moratorium, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial covenants, boycotts, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings--all are themes which will be addressed on this lively excursion. This whirlwind social history tour will include: The Vladeck Center, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, The Venice Room, El Encanto, Divine's Furniture and Wing Hop Fung. (Buy tickets here.)
THE BIRTH OF NOIR: JAMES M. CAIN'S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE - SAT. 9/8... This tour digs deep into the literature, film and real life vices that inform that most murderous genre, film noir, rolling through Hollywood, Glendale and old Skid Row, lost lion farms, murderous sopranos, fascist film censors, offbeat cemeteries -- all in a quest to reveal the delicious, and deeply influential, nightmares that are author Cain's gift to the world. (Buy tickets here.)
HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 9/15... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)
SPECIAL EVENT: CURSE OF THE SHE-DEVIL: A TRUE STORY OF REVENGE, BETRAYAL, BOMBS AND REAL ESTATE IN 1919 LOS ANGELES - SAT. 9/22... In this sequel to his popular tour about the 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times, arson and bomb detective Mike Digby takes us on a scrupulously researched journey through early Los Angeles, exposing a brazen conspiracy to kill, maim or terrorize anyone who stood in the way of a beautiful young woman inheriting the fortune of her estranged husband. While following the forensic leads of the unfolding case on a route rich in time capsule crime scenes, Mike will compare and contrast the historical investigation to the modern crime analysis methods he has used in his law enforcement career. And every passenger gets a copy of Mike's new book about the case. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Eastside Babylon (9/29), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (10/6), Echo Park Book of the Dead (10/13), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (10/20) and The Real Black Dahlia (10/27).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
In Episode #128, Chronicling Mid-Century Modern Long Beach and Lomaland’s Lovely Relics, we talk landmarks, preservation and the cultural relics of the amazing Theosophical community Lomaland, now on view at SDSU. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
Happy news for one of our favorite derelict modernist gems: the USO is moving into the iconic Theme Building at LAX. But will architecture lovers without military IDs be able to visit?
The Mayfair Hotel is relaunching with a brand inspired by Raymond Chandler's 1920s tenancy (if not his late night suicide threats). We did tell management their facts are scrambled on the "I'll Be Waiting" timeline (not written at the Mayfair) but apparently the publicist didn't get the memo.
Commercial rent control is a not-so-new idea that preserved New York's culture until it was taken away. Can this great little pocket of beautiful downtown Burbank lead the charge of small business protection?
Curious ruling in Washington, D.C. gentrification suit: judge says housing agency "acted alone" in courting creatives to displace existing residents, so it can’t be a conspiracy—but everyone knows cities are heavily lobbied by and work closely with development interests.
Friends of Greystone hope to reconstruct the mansion's demolished library as a Doheny family history museum.
A nice review (our first!) for True Love/True Crime on an American Bus at AFI Docs. "Filmmaker Nicholas Coles presents the couple and their work with tremendous appreciation that is infectious." We’ll let you know when there’s an L.A. screening date.
A chilling missing persons story about a San Fernando Valley family that vanished from their home. Hear about a possibly related Israeli mafia killing at the Bonaventure on our Hotel Horrors tour.
City Council votes unanimously to rush demolition of Parker Center, despite the true costs now estimated as $226 Million higher. Councilman Jose Huizar is determined to privatize the Civic Center and turn it into "a 24-hour destination." You’re going to pay for it.
Something big we failed to mention in our post about the Bradbury Building basement cache we helped preserve: included is the only known 19th century rendering of the landmark Bradbury Building!
The preservationists who did all the groundbreaking research on the building and the one responsible councilperson are horrified by the fake "preservation" solution for the Factory in West Hollywood.
The clock is ticking on the ambitious proposal to demolish William Pereira’s 1965 LACMA campus and its unfortunate additions for an amoeba-shaped new museum spanning Wilshire Boulevard. Chinese steel tariffs might break the bank.
A good day for modernist historic preservation in the great state of California: our friend Alan Hess has been named to the State Historical Resources Commission!
The stories circling around the Black Dahlia murder are sometimes the most fascinating ones. The preview trailer for I Am The Night fictionalizes Fauna Hodel's search for family. Be careful what you ask for.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric