On Friday, June 21, the sounds of music will echo throughout Los Angeles County in the 2nd annual Make Music LA festival. Whether it is on sidewalks, street corners, parks or schools, musicians will pick up their instruments and participate in the festivities in a celebration of music.
Los Angeles is one of 460 cities, including New York, Palo Alto, Vancouver and Chicago and 110 countries in this unique celebration of the summer solstice. The concerts are free to the public, and it’s free to sign-up to perform. Based on France’s Fête de la Musique, a national musical holiday inaugurated in 1982, the festival has become a worldwide tradition.
Last year in LA County, hundreds of musicians played in concerts, ranging from violin concertos to quartets, throughout the county including at parks, schools, restaurants and libraries. Also, a piano was donated for the day and placed outside the Central Library downtown for any musician to stop by and play. Throughout the day, it was not unusual to catch a glimpse of a chorus on a street corner or a violin player in a doctor’s office. This year, a piano will be available inside the Central Library and in Santa Monica, 100 harmonicas will be given away to anyone eager to learn how to thrum a tune. Donated by Hohner Instruments, the harmonica event will take place at Palisades Park and will be led by Tom Nolan, dean of music at Crossroads School.
“People have an opportunity to share their culture with the entire city,” said Dorsay Dujon founder and chief executive of Make Music LA, a nonprofit. “We live in the entertainment capital of the world. We have more talent per square inch than any other place on the planet. This makes it the perfect event for Los Angeles.”
Nearly 100 cities in Los Angeles County are participating in addition to 72 of Los Angeles City libraries. Participants are encouraged to register at http://makemusicla.org/
The following is a list of locations in the Second District that have registered:
Martin Luther King, Jr. Transit Center in Compton.
What do a former YMCA, the Natural History Museum, a transit center, an elementary school and an elderly care facility have in common? They were five projects in the Second District singled out by the Los Angeles Business Council for architectural awards.
The award ceremony, which has been held for 43 years, has historically honored visionary architects and outstanding projects that enhance the complex urban landscape of Los Angeles County. The Second District, an expansive stretch of the county that reaches from Koreatown in the north to Marina del Rey to the west to East Rancho Dominguez to the east and Carson to the south, garnered significant attention for several projects that pushed the envelope on design and sustainable building innovations.
Of particular interest was the Julius Shulman Emerging Talent Award awarded to three students from Woodbury University, Michael Sotona, Gabriela Colmenares and Jennifer Pope for their design of the a Continuing Care Retirement Community at the MLK Medical Campus in Willowbrook. Their design specifically incorporated the idea of a community, of connecting a good neighborhood feel to the sense of wellness, for the care facility.
Although their winning design was mainly an academic exercise, the campus has also been a prime focus of several firms for the improvement of the Willowbrook community. The Second District recently completed two major studies outlining the potential: an Urban Land Institute design session in June 2009 and master plan completed in mid-2012 by Gensler.
“These master plans arrived at the important conclusion that land use programs for community health campuses extend far beyond hospitals and outpatient clinics alone,” said Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who presented the award to the students. “As a result, we define “health” to include a broad range of uses including education, nutrition, fitness, employment, housing and retail. In effect, a truly healthy community keeps people out of hospitals, although good hospitals must always be available.”
28th Street YMCA – Photo courtesy of Eric Staudenmaier. (www.ericstaudenmaier.com)
The other winners also incorporated a sense of community into their designs. The 28th Street Apartments, formerly the site of a YMCA and newly designed by Koning Eizenberg Architecture Inc., received the housing multi-family award for their work. Originally designed by African-American architect Frank R. Williams as a sports and recreation venue, the 1928 Spanish Revival-style building was added to the city, state and federal historic registers several years ago and its façade remains much as it was when the building first opened. But today, the building fills a different need: affordable housing. The rehabilitation of the building created 48 studio apartments and includes supportive services for tenants, which will include youth transitioning out of foster care and special needs adults.
The night’s other winners were singled out for their environmentally conscious designs. Playa Vista Elementary School, designed by Osborn Architects, won an award for green building.
The East Rancho Dominguez library, which holds a LEED Platinum designation and is the work of Carde Ten Architects, received the L.A. County Sustainability Award for its eco-friendly construction including the use of solar panels, installation of water efficient facilities, drought resistant landscaping and its pedestrian friendly setting. Continuing the “green” momentum, the Museum of Natural History won best landscape architecture for its use of native and drought tolerant vegetation to beautify the pathways leading in north campus gardens. The firm, Mia Lehrer + Associates, known for their work on other public sites like the Annenberg Community Beach House, designed the meandering decomposed granite pathways in a park-like setting that is visitor friendly.
And then there is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Transit Center in Compton, designed by BASE Architecture. The transit center serves more than 4,000 commuters every day. The architects were able to co-locate several transit spaces together to free up city-owned property for mixed use development.
“These awards represent the very best in design,” said Chairman Ridley-Thomas. “But they exemplify something bigger. Memorable architecture is not just about creating buildings, but about creating destinations and identities for communities. And that is what is happening in the Second District.”
For more architectural sites that define the Second District community, click here.
If William T. Cartwright hadn’t gotten lost on his way to visit an aunt in 1959, the Watts Towers might not have been saved.
Cartwright was trying to find Lynwood, but soon realized he was near the famed folk art towers and took a detour to see them. Shocked by what he found, he quickly set about trying to rescue them.
The mosaic-encrusted spires, created by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia over more than three decades, had been abandoned since the artist moved away in 1954. Five years later, Rodia’s house had been lost to a fire, gates to the property stood open, and the area was littered with debris.
Read the full story courtesy of the Los Angeles Times here…
Total voters: 1,359
The most successful means to date of protecting this cultural heritage has been through Mills Act Legislation, which allows local governments to offer financial incentives to private property owners for the restoration and preservation of historic buildings. Then-Councilmember Ridley-Thomas authored the Ordinance that brought the Mills Act to Los Angeles, thereby funding millions of dollars of historic preservation and adaptive re-use investments in the City, and helping to save many landmark buildings. The City of Los Angeles adopted the program in 1996 and since then, hundreds of properties have benefited. The County, however, has had no such ordinance on its books – a step the Board of Supervisors may soon remedy.
On February 14th the Board of Supervisors approved a motion sponsored by Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Michael D. Antonovich, directing the Regional Planning Department to develop historic preservation strategies for the unincorporated areas of the County. The department will deliver its findings to the Board this summer, and the supervisors will be poised to take a critical step toward safeguarding the county’s rich design heritage.
In honor of the occasion, we compiled 10 of our favorite architectural sites, and we invite you to upload photos and share your favorites with us as well. Ours are in the Second District, but we welcome contributions from all over the county. Some of our picks strain the definition of “architecture” — they are not buildings. We included them, however, because this preservation effort isn’t just about bricks and mortar. It’s about the inspiring symbols of human creativity, perseverance and skill, ranging from the high art of the Clark Library to the folk genius of the Watts Towers. Our goal is to raise awareness about the features that make our communities recognizable, livable and beautiful.
Click on the audio link below each image to hear Dan Rosenfeld, a noted developer and the Second District’s senior deputy for economic development, discuss the picks on our list. You can click directly on the audio link to add your observations or leave a longer post in the comments section.
We’ll be featuring a new site, with accompanying audio, every month for the rest of the year and posting your submissions in a gallery.
Enjoy!
Photo: Corrected photo courtesy of Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum
California can almost trace its modern history — as a territory of Spain, then Mexico, and finally as part of the United States — through the family founded by Spanish soldier Juan Jose Dominguez. The 75,000 acres of Rancho San Pedro, gifted to Dominguez in 1784 by Spain, covered most of what today is Compton and stretched to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. His heir and nephew, Don Manuel, built this lovely adobe home for his bride in 1826. Situated on a hilltop in what is now Rancho Dominguez, this “Mission” or “Spanish Colonial” look became the signature style of Southern California and has influenced the design of countless homes and public structures. Its genius lies in the artful use of simple, locally made materials such as fired mud bricks, whitewashed stucco, and curved clay roof tiles. Moreover, the style is sustainable, providing excellent insulation and naturally cool or warm spaces as the seasons change. Don Manuel Dominguez lived California’s metamorphosis, holding positions under both Mexican and U.S. governments: he served as (Alcade) Mayor of Los Angeles, a judge, and Los Angeles County Supervisor. He also was one of 47 delegates to sign the new state’s constitution. One hundred and eighty-six years later, Don Manuel’s home is a museum. Its grounds are often used for parties, weddings, and other celebrations that entwine both the Dominguez family and California’s historic past with the lives of residents today.
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Photo: Adam Janeiro
The opulent rooms of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library are a bibliophile’s dream. Home to one of the most comprehensive rare book and manuscript collections in the United States, the Italian Renaissance building was designed by Robert Farquhar (who also designed Beverly Hills High School) and built in 1924 to house the personal collection of philanthropist William Andrews Clark, Jr. The library was named to honor Clark’s father, a Montana copper baron and U.S. Senator. Special touches reflect the family’s history: bookcases in the reading rooms, for example, are made of copper. With a particular focus on 17th and 18th Century English literature, the collection includes works by or about luminaries such as John Milton, Henry Fielding and Jonathan Swift. The Clark is also home to the world’s most extensive collections of works by or about Oscar Wilde. The library hosts poetry readings, concerts, lectures and special events in its drawing room, where murals depicting scenes from All For Love, English poet John Dryden’s retelling of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, grace the walls.
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Photo: Wikipedia
When the Dunbar Hotel, opened in 1928, it was the center of African-American culture in Los Angeles. Originally called the Hotel Somerville, it was built entirely by black contractors, laborers and craftsmen, and financed by black Angelenos. It was the only hotel in Los Angeles that welcomed black guests and as such, hosted many of the era’s legendary entertainers, politicians and civic leaders. Stars of the Jazz age, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, stayed there and then played next door at the famed Club Alabam. The hotel was renamed the Dunbar in 1929, in honor of legendary poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and was designated a historic-cultural landmark in 1974. It is currently under renovation by local developer Tom Safran. Upon completion, the new building will provide affordable housing for senior citizens.
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Photo: Wikipedia
Home to 200 varieties of roses and 20,000 bushes, the seven acres of the sunken rose garden in Exposition Park are a serene and exquisite oasis in Los Angeles’ urban core. Its beauty makes it a popular backdrop for summer weddings, and no hint lingers of its earthier turn-of-the-century past when gamblers gathered to bet on dog, camel and horse races. Why is a garden on our list? In Southern California our outdoor spaces — patios, decks, balconies and even rusty old fire escapes just large enough for a grill — are extensions of our homes. Just as a superbly designed building is the imaginative but practical organization and use of space, so too is a well-planned, and in this case, beautiful, fragrant, and blooming outdoor rose garden.
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Photo: Martin Zamora
The Angelus Funeral Home, designed by noted African-American architect Paul R. Williams, incorporates neo-classical and Art Deco elements often seen in Williams’ work. Williams’ talent was evident early on; he designed buildings while still a student at the University of Southern California School of Engineering and opened his own architecture office at age 25. He designed more than 2,000 homes in Los Angeles, but is perhaps most noted for the swank residences he created for Hollywood stars, including Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lon Chaney and Frank Sinatra. Among his public projects are the Beverly Hills Hotel, Hollywood YMCA and Los Angeles County Courthouse. Founded in 1923, Angelus Funeral Home was the first black-owned business incorporated in California. The name refers to the Christian devotion, taken from the Latin, Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ, meaning “The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.”
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Photo: Thinkstock.com
“Why I build it? I can’t tell you. Why a man make the pants? Why a man make the shoes?”
– Sculptor Simon Rodia
Was he genius? A madman? A little of both? (Sabato) Simon Rodia, who was born in 1879 in Italy and who emigrated to the United States at age 15, always refused to explain his labor of love. Built over the span of 33 years, the Watts towers are actually 17 dazzling structures composed of steel piles and rods wrapped with wire mesh, coated with mortar are inlaid with broken glass, sea shells, and tile collected by Rodia and neighborhood children. Almost as soon as they began to take shape, however, the towers became controversial. Vandals targeted them relentlessly, and in the 1960s, the City of Los Angeles attempted to have them torn down. Today they are widely recognized as masterpieces of ingenuity and engineering. According to a documentary about the one-time bricklayer, Rodia was in part inspired by the most famous tower in his homeland, the leaning tower of Pisa, where Galileo Galileo dropped two balls in his famous experiment on acceleration. “My God, I say, I’m going to make a tower different than Galileo,” Rodia once remarked. In the historic two-square mile neighborhood from which the towers take their name, that’s exactly what he did.
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Randy’s Photo: Thomas Hawk (thomashawk.com) Dale’s Photo: Phil Pasquini
Los Angeles loves donuts: hot Krispy Kremes, towering strawberry donuts, beignets, gut-busting maple-bacon donuts, Danish aebelskiver (apple fritters), and even newfangled red velvet concoctions. Best donut lists and contests are eternal internet favorites, and there is even L.A. art commemorating the donut experience, such as Jennifer Rubell’s donut wall at LACMA. Greater Los Angeles is arguably the donut capital of the world. Although aficionados debate which ones are best, few deny that the region’s most iconic donuts are the towering rings above Randy’s and Dale’s donut shops. Built in 1952 and designed by Henry J. Goodwin, Randy’s Donuts was a part of the BigDoNut drive-through chain and is an example of semaphore architecture, in which buildings visually signal their purpose. For decades, these landmarks have grabbed motorists’ attention in our fast-moving automobile culture, and Randy’s has been featured in movies including Earth Girls Are Easy, Coming to America and Iron Man 2.
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Photo: Pann’s Catering website (www.pannscatering.com)
It’s 1958: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launches Explorer 1 and the space race is on. Drive-in movies are in their heyday, and a group soon to be known as the Beatles has its first recording session. Ed Sullivan and Elvis are in, and the average cost of a house is $12,750. That same year, Greek immigrants George and Rena Panagopoulos open Pann’s Restaurant and Coffee Shop in Inglewood. Some love Pann’s for the food and others the hospitality, but it’s the restaurant’s optimistic architecture that lands it on our list. Googie architecture – the name comes from a now defunct coffee shop in West Hollywood – was popular from the late 1940s to the mid 1960s, when futuristic motifs were the rage. Pann’s was designed by architects Eldon Davis and Helen Liu Fong, and, more than 50 years later, the large windows and tropical landscaping give the site a classic coffee shop look and feel. The restaurant continues to attract a devoted following and has also been featured in hit films such as Pulp Fiction.
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Photo: Google Maps
The flowing sweep of the freeway interchange between Highways 10 and 405 in West Los Angeles is an architectural triumph. One of the largest man-made structures in the region, it is also one of the most elegant — a true work of art. Practical, simple and highly sophisticated in its design, like much of the architecture that we use in our daily lives it often goes unnoticed. What further distinguishes this immense structure is that its designer, Marilyn Jorgenson Reece, was the first woman to break the gender barrier in highway design. Including this representative from the road system in our list of heritage highlights seems natural to us. Not only does it underscore the importance of the freeway system in fostering Los Angeles’ rapid growth and suburbanization after the Second World War, it also pays homage to the fundamental importance of mobility in our unique urban character… and let’s face it, we live on freeways.
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Photo: Gary Leonard
Can anyone just walk by a Thom Mayne building without stopping to stare and wonder? The Pritzker Prize-winning architect is respected as one of the world’s most aggressively original designers, and the Dr. Theodore Alexander, Jr. Science Center School illustrates why. Built in 2004, a steel-framed lattice addition is attached to the original 1926 cast concrete and brick armory structure. The two story, steel-framed addition contains 20 classrooms, and the main floor supports an 8,400 square-foot garden on its top deck. If you ever pass the intersection of Exposition Park Boulevard and Figueroa Street, you will see Mayne’s linear structure of gridded lattices, bridges and stair extensions pushing upward toward the intersection. The building challenges the eye the way science challenges the mind, inviting students indoors and observers outside to go forth into unexplored territory, always asking: Why? How? What next?
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Photo: Floyd B. Bariscale
Sir Thomas More published the book Utopia in 1516 and simultaneously gave birth to the enduring quest for the perfect place to dwell. Yes, that’s an exaggeration. The concept of the ideal city far predates More. In antiquity, mighty capitals often were constructed to align with the stars: Machu Picchu, ancient Persepolis and Peru’s Cuzco. So how does Village Green fit into this grand lineage? It too, has utopian aspirations. When construction began in 1941, the former Baldwin Hills Village was one of the most ambitious urban planning projects of its day. The goal was to do the remarkable: balance the tensions between nature and development, privacy and community, individuality and interconnected living. Today. the gardens, parks and courtyards of the condominium complex provide an oasis of greenery and calm in the heart of L.A.’s metropolis, and in contrast to architecture that clamors for notice, the buildings of Village Green almost slide off the eye. Even better, the design minimizes visual evidence of cars — it’s as if the architects knew Angelenos would one day grow to depend on (and therefore to resent) automobiles. Critic Lewis Mumford once said of the neighborhood, “Here every part of the design speaks the same robust vernacular: simple, direct, intelligible.” We couldn’t have said it better.
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Photo: Lazlo Regos courtesy of Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Hirsz, Aaron, Szmul and Itzhak Wonskolaser – better known in Hollywood as Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner, or simply, the Warner Brothers, catapulted the film world out of the silent movie era into the talkies with The Jazz Singer. One of the Warners’ lasting gifts to Los Angeles, however, is not on film, but on the walls of the grand and graceful Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The Temple, erected in 1929, is masterpiece inside and out. This photograph shows the building as it is most familiar to passersby, with its beautiful Byzantine dome. Inside is another artistic glory. Commissioned by Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner and painted by artist Hugo Ballins, murals depicting the journey of Jewish people from biblical times to their arrival in the United States, ring the sanctuary. Such depictions, even in a reform temple, were rare at the time, due to a strict interpretation of the Second Commandment’s prohibition against graven idols. Currently, the building, including the murals, is under renovation with an expected completion date some time next year. After that, the Warner Memorial Murals, 320-foot long and 7-foot tall, will once again be on view — a spiritual silent movie telling the story of a people.
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Photo: Floyd B. Bariscale
USC Widney House by Dan Rosenfeld
The 20 years between 1860 and 1880 were transformative for Los Angeles. The city’s Wild West character was rapidly evolving – civilizing, if you will. The population swelled from 4,400 to 11,000 people; L.A. was connected to San Francisco by railroad in 1876, and four years later the University of Southern California was founded. Stately Widney Hall, now Widney Alumni House, was the newborn institution’s only building, accommodating 53 students and 10 faculty members. For many Angelinos (except maybe Bruins fans) the building is almost as iconic as Tommy Trojan, and over the decades, it has been remodeled, renovated and even relocated several times. Today USC enrolls about 37,000 students annually and has more international students than any university in the nation. Nonetheless, the school also has fostered vigorous community partnerships and programs that support and engage its neighborhood. The Widney’s graceful lines and simple design are a visual testament to USC’s commitment to Los Angeles and its own past, even as its vision is now focused on the future.
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Photo: Mohammed Al Rawi
In the heart of the Crenshaw District sits lovely Leimert Park. Developed in the late 1920’s by real estate mogul Walter Leimert, the neighborhood was an example of cutting-edge urban planning. Walter Leimert’s other projects included Beverly Highlands in the Hollywood Hills, Sierra Park in Orange County, and Cambria Pines near Hearst Castle. Leimert Park’s quaint shopping district today is an arts Mecca — the hub of Los Angeles’ spoken word, jazz, blues, and poetry community and an important cultural center for the city’s African-American community. The entire Leimert Park neighborhood, however, spans 600 acres and was designed to be a self-contained community complete with a theater, shopping center, and town square. The residential areas are dominated by craftsman and colonial-style homes that sit on shady streets lined with giant Magnolias, Eucalyptus, Maple and Pine trees. Designed to promote pedestrian traffic, the community was laid out to take advantage of the main mode of transportation of the 1920s: the yellow trolleys of the Los Angeles streetcar system. The streetcars are long gone, but construction of the new Crenshaw-to-LAX light rail line is slated to begin next year, and once again, the train must stop in this iconic location.
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Photo: Loomis Dean
Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza by Dan Rosenfeld
Built in 1947, the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza was the first open-air mall in the nation. Originally called the Broadway-Crenshaw Center, the mall was a 550,000-square-foot retail wonder. Anchored by The Broadway and May Company stores, it was also home to that fixture of the American marketplace: a Woolworth five and dime. (Woolworth had distinguished itself decades earlier by becoming one of the first American retailers to let shoppers handle wares without the help of a sales clerk. Also, its famed lunch counters, in some respects, were the precursors to the modern food court). The photograph here has been altered – a palm tree originally blocked the view of The Broadway. We thought it worthwhile, however, to capture the feel of the original mall and offer a glimpse of what would be unthinkable today: 13 acres of parking. The magic of the mall, however, was not just its size and retail offerings. It was and still is the gathering place for a community. It was redesigned, expanded, and enclosed in the 1980s, and purchased by Capri Capital Partners of Chicago in 2006. Capri has given it a $35 million-makeover, with new shops, a new movie theater, and new restaurants — most notably, the upscale Post & Beam. With glowing reviews and an already ardent following, the new dining spot bids fair to build on the tradition established by its predecessor, the popular Golden Bird restaurant. When the new Crenshaw-to-LAX light-rail line begins service to the mall, there really will be no stopping the resurgence of this iconic city meeting place.
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Photo: Candice C. Montgomery
Southwestern Law School’s Bullocks Wilshire by Dan Rosenfeld
Bullocks Wilshire Department Store opened its doors on September 26, 1929, and instantly set a new standard for opulence. Never had Los Angeles, or the rest of the country for that matter, seen a store whose stylish exterior so perfectly matched the luxurious shopping experience indoors. With its 241-foot copper-topped tower, terracotta tiles and decorative copper panels, the five-story Art Deco building was an instant L.A. landmark. The interior was equally elegant, with marble walls, travertine floors and a Herman Sachs ceiling mural that paid homage to transportation, with images of steam trains, ocean liners, planes and giant blimps. The ambience was one of restrained gentility: the store featured live mannequins, and sales clerks wrote slips by hand to minimize noise. Strategically located three miles from downtown – far enough then to be considered suburban but close enough to wealthy Hancock Park – Bullocks catered to Hollywood. Katherine Hepburn was said to have bought her men’s trousers there –as were Cary Grant and Clark Gable. For six decades the store reigned over its stretch of Wilshire Boulevard, finally closing its doors in 1993. A year later, Southwestern Law School purchased the building and invested $29 million in a terrific restoration and renovation. It now houses a law library and other accoutrements of its academic mission. Although the building has been repurposed, we love Southwestern Law School’s Bullocks Wilshire. Los Angeles has lost irreplaceable architectural gems in past years, and it’s wonderful to see Bullocks Wilshire still thriving. No, a modern-day Mae West can’t pull up out front and have clothes brought to her car as the legendary movie star did, but 83 years after it first opened, Bullocks Wilshire is still going strong.
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Photo: Scott Harms
Sanchez Adobe by Dan Rosenfeld
Hidden in plain sight, on a tree-lined street in Baldwin Hills, is what could be the oldest building in Los Angeles: an adobe building dating from the late 1700s. Archival materials date the Sanchez Adobe, located on Don Felipe Drive, to as early as 1791, meaning the South Los Angeles building likely surpasses the Avila Adobe on Olvera Street, the city’s acknowledged title holder, by 20 years of age. We say “hidden in plain sight,” because it has long been known that the Sanchez Adobe, is centuries old. Recently, however, its current owners, the Consolidated Board of Realtists, spearheaded research into the adobe’s past, and a closer look at the building hinted at its record-holding status. Little about the building calls the eye in way of decoration or adornment. The Sanchez Adobe is a plain, somewhat weather-beaten structure with numerous additions and alterations. But its history is romantic as one could wish, with residence or ownership by a colorful cast of characters and organizations that truly evokes the Los Angeles’ Wild West, multi-ethnic layers of history. It has been home to Mexican dons and Anglo entrepreneurs. Once the residence of Vicente Sanchez, the adobe later belonged to Irish-American businessman Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin. Now it belongs to an organization of African-American real estate professionals. (Incidentally, it was Paul Williams, one of L.A.’s most noted architects, who urged the Realtists to purchase the building). Freed African slaves worked there after the Civil War, as did Chinese laborers – all brought by Baldwin to the property, according to the Realtists. After Baldwin’s ownership, the adobe passed to the Catholic church for a time, and later was home to a golf course and a women’s club, when the surrounding neighborhoods were mostly Anglo. Standing inside the adobe today and looking out over Los Angeles, one can only imagine the breathtaking sweep of hills and dells, the splendid solitude and wondrous views of earlier times. Like many Angelenos, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas had been to the Don Felipe Drive building many times but was unaware of its tremendous historic value and legacy. He recently toured the adobe with architectural preservationist Peyton Hall, of Historic Resources Group, to gain new perspectives on its hidden heritage. Hall, who wrote a report on the Avila Adobe in 1992, said he was shocked to learn of a building that likely predates that one. Many in his field, architects, historians and preservationists, have no idea the building even exists, he said, and a detailed study of the structure is the immediate next step toward establishing its place in L.A.’s architectural history. The Supervisor agreed. Sanchez Adobe is a building at once familiar and yet unknown, he said. “To think that right here in the Baldwin Hills is perhaps the city’s oldest building, is just wonderful. There is a tremendous story to tell here, and now our task is to tell it.”
Click here to read the Los Angeles Times Editorial published September 4, 2012.
Sanchez Adobe from Mark Ridley-Thomas on Vimeo.
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Photo: courtesy of Petersen Automotive Museum Petersen Museum by Dan Rosenfeld
There’s something about Los Angeles and cars. Even as public transit becomes an increasingly important and popular option for residents, there will always be something about L.A. and the role of the it’s car in its growth: the car grew with L.A., and L.A. grew with the car. Thus it is only fitting that we have the world’s most noteworthy shrine to the automobile, the Petersen Automotive Museum. Inside is a car-lover’s dream (classic cars, vintage cars, rare cars, and even television star cars: Adam West’s Batmobile is on permanent display). The outside of the Petersen, however, is what lands it on our list. The sleek, sharp fenders across the front make the whole building looks as if it could spring free of its foundation and zoom down Wilshire Boulevard. It is a fine example of classic modernism — or perhaps, modern classicism evoking neoclassical columns.The style is less literal than the Forum, but still a terrific modern riff off the Parthenon. Architect Scott Johnson, took the idiom of Roman Classicism and with one simple gesture, the addition of fins, repositioned the building. And how fitting that it sits in the Miracle Mile on Wilshire — a road designed at the turn of the 20th century to accommodate not the horse and foot traffic of the day, but the transportation methods of the future. The museum was founded in 1994 by Hot Rod and Motor Trend Publisher Robert E. Petersen, and is housed in what was once the old Ohrbach’s department store. In addition to hosting special exhibits and programs, it is a popular place for swanky receptions and — for truly hardcore automobiliphiles — weddings.
Even for those who’ve never gone inside, however, the Petersen is unforgettable. It powerfully captures the eye. Too often, repurposed and renovated buildings lose the integrity of their original structures, becoming a mishmash of times, eras, styles and egos. But here, Johnson’s slight tweak of the department store had marvelous results: it announced the building’s singular automotive purpose to all driving by, and gave Los Angeles another landmark.
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Photo: Courtesy of Loyola High School Loyola High School by Dan Rosenfeld
Founded in 1865 as St. Vincent College, Loyola High School is the oldest educational institution in Southern California and possibly the oldest high school in California. Located two miles west of downtown Los Angeles, the private all-male, Catholic high school sits on 15-acres in the Harvard Heights neighborhood. Designed by Albert C. Martin, Loyola’s beautiful buildings are in a style called Collegiate Gothic — an architectural tradition more commonly found on Ivy League campuses. Yale and Princeton universities, for example, yearned to exude the ancient, slightly weather-beaten and look of, say, Oxford and Cambridge universities, and therefore were built to look old, or rather, pedigreed. At Yale, architectural Anglophilia was taken to an extreme, and newly-built stone buildings were given broken windows and reportedly were doused with acid to add a patina of ancient heritage. Loyola’s grace is not contrived, deriving its beauty from stained glass windows, slender columns, free-standing sculptures, entrances with vaulted ceilings, and gabled rooftops accented by spires, pinnacles, and finials. For more than 140 years, the school has inculcated values of stewardship and community in the young men, and the school is renown for its diversity, admitting students from more than 225 zip codes across Los Angeles County. Located in close proximity to Hollywood, Loyola has appeared in a number of films, including: Coach Carter (2005), Donnie Darko, (2001), Fat Albert, (2004), and Thank You For Smoking (2005). A.C. Martin’s contributions to Southern California extended beyond Loyola. His firm worked on Los Angeles City Hall, the downtown Department of Water and Power building and many other local landmarks; it is still owned and managed by his direct descendents.
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Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia.com
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Photo: Courtesy of Carol Highsmith
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Photo: Courtesy of Eric Owen Moss Architects
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Photo: Courtesy of Gonzalez Goodale Architects
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Photo: Courtesy of Eric Staudenmaier. (www.ericstaudenmaier.com)
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Photo: Courtesy of Compton City Hall
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Photo: Courtesy of John Paul ‘Boomer’ / discoverlosangeles.com & Gail Parker / John C. Argue Swim Stadium
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The Denker Estate, a designated historic site by the City of Los Angeles at 3820 West Adams Boulevard.
For years now, rambling Victorian mansions in the West Adams district or the mid-century stretches of View Park benefited from a 1972 state law called the Mills Act that gave tax incentives to preserve historic homes and property.
Unincorporated stretches of Los Angeles County did not have this program available—until now.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to enact a Mills Act Program for homes, buildings and other landmarks as part of an effort to support and encourage historic preservation in the county’s unincorporated areas.
The motion, authored by Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas, will ensure that that the county will have a system in place to proactively encourage the preservation of older structures and landmarks that are architecturally or culturally significant. The motion is part of an effort to create a formal and comprehensive program to promote historic preservation throughout our unincorporated communities.
The Mills Act Program, enacted in 1972 by the Californian legislature, allows local cities and counties the authority to enter into contracts with owners of qualified historic properties. The property owners receive a property tax reduction and must use the savings to help rehabilitate, restore and maintain their buildings.
Over the past year, the Department of Regional Planning has worked in consultation with the Los Angeles County Historical Landmarks and Records Commission and the Assessor’s Office to initiate the development of a historical preservation ordinance, as well as draft the ordinance for a Mills Act Program.
Chairman Ridley-Thomas introduced similar legislation in 1996, during his tenure on the Los Angeles City Council, to ensure the implementation of a local Mills Act Program. Since then, more than 600 properties have been enrolled in the program.
“The Mills Act Program is the single most important economic incentive program in California for the restoration and preservation of historic buildings by private property owners,” said Chairman Ridley-Thomas. “Not only does it encourage upgrades to properties but it also stimulates job creation, community revitalization and potentially tourism. This is a win-win for our county’s unincorporated areas.”
With summer right around the corner and the spring semester coming to a close, college students around the nation are solidifying their summer plans.
From now until May 17 undergraduate college students that either reside in Los Angeles County or attend school in the county, have the opportunity to apply for a 10-week paid summer internship to over 70-non-profit art organizations, courtesy of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Funded by Los Angeles County, the Arts Internship Program provides internships to nonprofit performing arts and literary organizations throughout the county, enabling students to develop a deeper understanding of the work involved in nonprofit arts organizations and an understanding of the role arts play in communities. Anji Gaspar-Milanovic, who oversees the arts internship program for the L.A. Arts Commission, said there are always more applicants than positions.
“Last year we had over 3,500 students apply for 74-slots so we recommend applying early and applying to several organizations,” said Gaspar-Milanovic.
Twenty-three year old Manuel Prieto, was one of the few college students who received an art internship last year. He interned at the L.A. Music and Art School in Boyle Heights and after completing his internship, he was hired part-time as the school’s online marketing and social media manager.
“If you are considering applying for the Arts Internship program–do it! It’s a great first step that allows you to engage in LA’s arts community,” said Prieto. “Take the time to research the organizations you are applying for and actively connect with what they have to offer.”
To learn more and apply to the art internship program, please visit:
http://lacountyarts.org/2013Internships.html or contact Anji Gaspar-Milanovic at: (213)202-3981.
A former basketball player and a physician, Toni Yancey was not one to sit passively behind a desk. In fact, it was a rare occasion to find her behind a desk. Instead, she was more likely to be found stretching, waving her arms, exhaling loudly and jumping up and down. For Yancey, getting a bit of exercise into her day, every day, was a mission.
When she began noticing health disparities among minorities, the lack of available workout space and the reduction of recess in schools, she decided to do something.
So she created “Instant Recess®”, a program that calls for a grassroots approach to “making America healthier 10 minutes at a time.” Her idea to incorporate brief bouts of physical activity into daily routine whether at school or work or worship, earned her numerous awards including the Pioneering Innovation Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To coax people off their chairs and couches, she would often remind them to recall those memories of childhood where every student in class anxiously looks up at the clock, waiting for that recess bell to ring. She called that memory the “wave of exhilaration, the sheer release, the transformation of fidgeting.”
“If you can recapture even a little of the joy of unbridled movement,” she told an audience during a TED speech in Manhattan Beach last year, “Maybe there is hope for the couch potatoes.”
But it was not always clear that she would become a doctor or a fitness advocate. Born and raised in Kansas City, KS, she was a renaissance woman who, at 6’2”, played as a Division 1 basketball player during her undergraduate years at Northwestern University and was a model before going to medical school.
Her mission was personal.
Her family had a long history of arthritis and Alzheimer’s. She saw the effects of a sedentary lifestyle in this country, where nearly one-third of Americans are obese. African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans have higher rates of obesity and illnesses like diabetes related to weight issues, than others in the population. Prevention is what drove her to her life’s work.
She spoke eloquently and passionately about how decreasing the waist line has a positive effect on appetite, on attitude and on productivity. She even made a cost/benefit analysis for the value of exercise on the bottom line.
“The spirit that she brought to ensure there is no disparity in health and making it easy to understand so that everyone could do it,” said Michael Browning, a health advocate who works in HIV prevention in Los Angeles County. “She walked the walk. She was an example.”
Yancey’s work with Instant Recess, her role as the board president of the Public Health Institute and her role as a commissioner on First 5 LA helping to advocate for physical fitness and good nutrition for children, landed her on the board of directors of the Partnership for a Healthy America, the nonprofit that helped guide Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign.
“We have lost a role model and effective leader in the area of fitness and health,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “She was a pioneer and she used her intelligence, charisma and charm to change the way we view exercise. A sound body is a sound mind and perhaps nobody knew that better than Toni. She will be missed dearly but her legacy lives on.”
Never a smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2011. And even as she knew her time would be limited, a poem she wrote in March of last year captured her spirit:
I want to say
A light shone among us
And her energy burned
Very, very bright
And warmed many souls
Then the flame was extinguished
And she moved on
But while she was here
She lived voraciously
Vehemently
Vivaciously
Voluminously…
With vision,
Verve and vitality
Always at the vanguard
And then she was needed elsewhere…
Dancing in a conga line, listening to the trumpet, guitarron and violin of Mariachi Ellas Son, nearly 300 Second District residents celebrated the Cinco de Mayo holiday at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Public Health in Willowbrook. The festive celebration, which commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War, is an annual tradition at the Center for Public Health sponsored by Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas.
“We are here to promote and celebrate health, fitness and wellness,” said Chairman Ridley-Thomas. “Over the next year the Martin Luther King, Jr. medical campus will be transformed into a center of excellence for healthcare delivery in the Willowbrook community and beyond.”
As guests received fitness and nutritional eating tips from various resource tables staged in the parking lot, danced to salsa music or munched on salsa verde with chips, corn and bean salad and a vegetable salad prepared by Chef Cheryl Tate, others contemplated what the holiday means to them and reflected on their Mexican roots.
Among those singing along to the ranchera music was Raquel Piñeda, 60, of Florence-Firestone who moved to Los Angeles from Michoacan, Mexico when she was 15-years-old. When they were young, she instilled in her now-grown children a love of Mexican music and dance.
“On Cinco de Mayo we have a family reunion,” said Piñeda. “We teach the kids how to dance to cumbia, mambo, and rock and roll. We play bingo and poker and watch the kids take turns swinging at the piñata.”
Sandra Gonzalez, 33, from Los Angeles, also pauses on Cinco de Mayo to share memories of family.
“We took my first family trip to Mexico when I was nine and my last when I was 14-years-old,” said Gonzalez. “We share stories with younger generations of visiting Mexico when we were younger and it gives the young people in my family an opportunity to learn about their culture -to know who they are and where they come from.”
For others, like Andres Gonzalez, 33 of South Gate, Cinco de Mayo is an opportunity for people of all cultures and walks of life to come together to learn about Mexican history.
“People forget that the city of L.A. was founded by Mexico — San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento- all kept the original names that were given to them when they were part of Mexico,” said Gonzalez. “People forget that not all Latinos are immigrants and that they were here when the south west states became part of the U.S.”
Fabiola Galvan Torres, 23, who was born in Michoacan, Mexico and now lives in Canoga Park, says the holiday makes her feel American.
“I feel like now it’s more of a Mexican-American holiday,” she said. “I think it’s great because it brings everyone together not just Mexicans but it has become like St. Patrick’s Day.”
Below is a short video with voices from the community, calling for the station.
Loading …The long-awaited decision on the fate of a Leimert Park station for the Crenshaw-to-LAX light rail line could be announced as early as next month.
In May 2011, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board rejected a proposal by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to add a train station in Leimert Park Village to the upcoming Crenshaw-to-LAX light rail line. Instead, the board opted to add the station only if it could fit within the existing $1.7 billion-budget allocated for the project, leaving the station’s future in question.
The decision was widely criticized by many, including the hundreds who witnessed the board vote, as well as every elected official representing South Los Angeles – city council members and members of the state legislature and of the U.S. Congress – all of whom joined in an unprecedented show of unity to call for the stop in the village.
Now the bids for the Crenshaw-to-LAX line are in and have been reviewed. Within weeks the Metro staff is scheduled to make a recommendation to the MTA board on which bid to accept – by definition, also giving a thumbs up or down to the station. The recommendation, which will be carefully watched by residents, transportation advoctates and elected officials throughout the county, will pave the way for a full vote by the Metro board May 23.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman and Metro Board member, Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has spearheaded the efforts in support of the station, maintains the Crenshaw/Vernon stop has the potential to become an important component of the revitalization of the Crenshaw corridor.
The new Crenshaw-to-LAX line, which is expected to be completed by 2019, will not only take travelers to the airport, it will take workers employed by restaurants, hotels, rental car fleets and other airport-related industries, to their jobs. And lastly, a station in the village would connect the region to the city’s African American cultural center, as do the stations in Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Culver City and Mariachi Plaza.
Click here for a timeline of the history of the struggle for a station at Leimert Park Village.
Whether it’s working as an intern at the American Youth Symphony, helping abused children express their emotions through art or working at the avant-garde Rogue Machine Theatre Company in Arlington Heights, foster youth had a head start this year in applying for a summer job at dozens of arts organizations throughout the county.
“There was interest from the Board of Supervisors to give emancipated youth access to the program. But organizations were getting tons of resumes in years past. So we thought, why not open it up a couple weeks early,” said Angela Gaspar-Milanovic, professional development programs manager for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
Three years ago, the Board of Supervisors instructed the Los Angeles County Arts Commission to give foster and emancipated youth preference in the arts internship program. While the Arts Commission cannot hold these positions, in subsequent years, they developed a plan to give a head start to foster youth in the application process by working with the Department of Children and Family Services. This year, DCFS reached out to foster youth to encourage all eligible interested college students to apply two weeks ahead of the general public to all 74 available paid summer internships. Graduating seniors who complete their undergraduate degrees between May 1 – September 1, 2013 are eligible, as well as current undergraduates. Applicants must have completed at least one semester of college by June 2013 and be currently enrolled in a community college or a four-year university. Applicants must either be a Los Angeles County resident or attend school in the county. Students who have previously participated in the Los Angeles County Arts Internship Program are not eligible to participate a second time.
The positions are for 10 weeks and pay $350 per week. Interns also take part in educational and arts networking activities. Through the program, interns gain real work experience to strengthen their resumes and develop business skills that can be put to use in their future careers.
“With the summer arts internship program, it gives students transferable skills,” said Gaspar-Milanovic. “Whether they’re going to work professionally in the arts or not. Whether they become ticket buyers, whether they go to arts events, this is giving them really solid skills that they can use down the line such as marketing, social media and administration. These skills are completely transferable.”
The other Second District organizations include Ebony Repertory Theatre, the non-profit LA Commons, the writers collective Les Figues Press, the Crenshaw based dance studio Lula Washington Dance Theatre, theater company focused on new collaborative theater Odyssey Theatre Foundation, the LGBT focused film festival Outfest, and the non-profit theatre company Son of Semele Ensemble.
Internship positions close as soon as they are filled during the April 3 to May 17 application period. Go to www.lacountyarts.org, click on “Internships,” then “Opportunities for Students.” Interested students should act as soon as positions are posted as there is stiff competition for a limited number of internships.
While many jobs in the public and private sectors continue to diminish, fresh jobs aimed at careers in the arts are inspiring for many Los Angeles County college students.
“Arts are important,” said Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “An early chance at a career in the arts can combat the pipeline to prison for young foster youth. Instead of teaching our kids how to become criminals, this program is critical in showing our children a path to become contributing creative members of our communities.”
To support the internships, Los Angeles County, through its Arts Commission, has given grants totaling $250,000 to 74 arts organizations throughout the County.
“We know that the arts play an integral part in the Los Angeles community, and are honored to give our former foster youth a chance to learn valuable and meaningful life skills through this internship program,” said Shauna McClure, the executive director of Free Arts for Abused Children whose motto is “Arts Heal!”
