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HossC Jul 6, 2018 11:16 PM

:previous:

I think CBD must be referring to the ICS/Engineering Research Facility at UC Irvine, designed by Gehry in the mid-80s. Everything fits apart from the building being on the west coast. It was razed in 2007. More info here.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...AGehryUCI1.jpg
www.ocregister.com

Lwize Jul 7, 2018 12:17 AM

A little history of the palm tree in Los Angeles can be found here:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...in-los-angeles

https://assets.atlasobscura.com/medi...night_1930.jpg
(http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/21827/rec/18 via atlasobscura.com)

GaylordWilshire Jul 7, 2018 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug (Post 8243679)
FG is easy to understand from his psychological profile: Basically the bottom line is that he hates people.


Absurd, of course. Have you ever been to a concert at Disney Hall? Been to Bilbao? To 8 Spruce in NY? Have you actually spent time in any of his buildings? Wright was an iconoclast too, so was Philip Johnson. Some of all three of these architects' buildings are bombs, but there's a reason the designers are famous, and it wasn't because they "hated people," whatever you mean by that.



Speaking of famous architects, LA's own John Parkinson is the subject of Stephen Gee's documentary companion to his Parkinson monograph, Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles, airing during the next few weeks (see schedule below).


https://s22.postimg.cc/4lps1vkwx/iconic1a.jpg


https://s22.postimg.cc/9yj7tb37l/listingsfnl.bmp.jpg

Flyingwedge Jul 7, 2018 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8243583)
Here is a truly astonishing photograph.

The entire police force of Los Angeles [c.1904]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/M1Yaic.jpg
GUARDIANS OF ANGELS


"This particular photograph of the entire Los Angeles Police Department, taken circa 1904, has continually been mistakenly marked as being snapped in 1890.
To photo historians, this 14-year error is important to correct. The image was taken at the entry to the newly constructed Los Angeles County Courthouse at Broadway and Temple Street.
The building was completed 1891."
JAMES BULTEMA

Some serious sleuthing going on below:

"If one was to accept the date of 1890, then I would argue, where is Chief John Glass (1889-1899), who was never absent from any LAPD group photograph during his tenure.
No one in the photograph has the stars of the chief of police displayed on their uniform. They all wear the series two badge that was worn from 1890 to 1909."


"Those present for this official portrait of the LAPD lends itself to identifying the year of the image. Standing at attention, with his trademark long, drooping mustache, is Walter Auble (front row on left),
who was chief of police from 1905 to 1906—a year after this photo was taken. The chief of police in 1904 was William Hammell. Why he would not be present for this significant image is not known,
but he is nowhere to be found.

The two ladies present give substance to the date of 1904. The diminutive Lucy Gray and her daughter Aletha Gilbert (1902-1929) are given the prominent position of being framed
by Auble and the Detective Bureau. Matron Gray died in March of 1904, eliminating the date of 1905 when Auble was chief."


Lucy Gray died of pneumonia shortly after this photo was taken.

James Bultema at guardiansofangels

Yes, that's quite a photo, e_r. I've spent some time sleuthing it as well, and I think I can provide a timeframe in which
the photo was taken: September 1903 to February 1904.

Police Matron Lucy U. Gray, the shorter of the two women in the front row, died February 29, 1904 (a leap year), so
obviously the photo wasn't taken after that (she was appointed Matron in July 1889, not July 1888):

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psyrcbq1qv.jpg

March 1, 1904, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC


William A. Hammel didn't become LAPD Chief until April 6, 1904. So, since Matron Gray is in the photo, the chief at the
time was Charles Elton, who resigned April 5, 1904.

So why isn't Chief Elton in the photo? I think he was standing at the left edge of the photo, which was cut off after his
resignation, an event that probably occurred not long after the photo was taken. Look how the photo is framed slightly
off-center; there's empty space next to the last man on the right side of the photo, but not on the left side.

For comparison, here's an 1889 photo of the LAPD with Chief John M. Glass at far left in the front row:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psq6pyd1ue.jpg

Los Angeles Police Department by Thomas G. Hays, Arthur W. Sjoquist and the Los Angeles Police Historical Society (Arcadia Publishing, 2005) @ Google Books


The Police Commission conducted its semi-annual inspection of the LAPD on October 6, 1903, so, e_r, it's possible your
photo was taken on that occasion:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4sol7ovy.jpg

October 7, 1903, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC


However, I don't think the photo could have been taken before Friday, September 11, 1903. The following is from
the September 13, 1903, Los Angeles Herald column entitled "Among Colored Citizens":

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...psbnswkyam.jpg

CDNC


Here is a c. 1912 photo of William W. Glenn, seated on the right (the LAPD hired its first African-American officers
in 1889, not 1886):

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...pshbxpeede.jpg

Los Angeles Police Department by Thomas G. Hays, Arthur W. Sjoquist and the Los Angeles Police Historical Society (Arcadia Publishing, 2005) @ Google Books


Compare that photo of William W. Glenn with the man in the center of this close-up from your photo, e_r. It sure
looks to me like the same guy, but a little younger:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...pso8xwm3lu.jpg

Lwize Jul 7, 2018 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 8242125)
So, rebuild it a little wider, instead of replacing it with that ridiculous Fruit Loops thing that's claimed to be a homage to the old bridge. Or, as EW said, they could've just remedied the concrete problem.

Some of us like Fruit Loops.

Lwize Jul 7, 2018 12:41 AM

I understand some folks don't get Frank Gehry, but I love his work.

I'd like to see him redo the Washington Monument!

While in Prague last month, I finally got to see this FG stunner up close:

http://larry.wizegallery.com/VWV/gehryprague.JPG

(Photographed and hosted by me)

ethereal_reality Jul 7, 2018 2:03 AM

I happened upon two 1920s snapshots this afternoon on Ebay.

#1

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/8vpn7h.jpg
EBAY

I forgot (if I ever knew) that there was a Hotel (& Apts) ALHAMBRA on both sides of N. Broadway. (have we talked about this before?) hmm








#2 'mystery' vantage point. Does anyone know what roof the photographer would have been standing on to get this view?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...921/r6iuKy.jpg
EBAY

This one seems vaguely familiar (but I believe I'm thinking of the recent "military guys on leave staying at the YMCA" photo)

_

Handsome Stranger Jul 7, 2018 6:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull (Post 8234235)
LAist.com just posted a story about John Parkinson, who is the subject of a new documentary, Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles, which premieres on PBS SoCal on July 5, 2018

My thanks to MartinTurnbull for alerting me to this documentary a few days ago. I made note of it, recorded it Thursday night on my HTPC, and watched it Friday evening. Fascinating documentary, well worth seeing. I'll definitely be saving it.

Also thanks to GaylordWilshire for the reminder!

HossC Jul 7, 2018 9:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8243936)

I happened upon two 1920s snapshots this afternoon on Ebay.

#1

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/8vpn7h.jpg
EBAY

I forgot (if I ever knew) that there was a Hotel (& Apts) ALHAMBRA on both sides of N. Broadway. (have we talked about this before?)

It looks like your amnesia is repetitive, e_r. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6593856)

I came across this postcard dated 1913 on ebay last night.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102.../841/ojgxu.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...0/835/0x53.jpg

I had forgotten (if I had ever known) that the Alhambra Hotel had an annex.

The full post, and a few others on the subject, can be found on the lower half of page 1085.

CityBoyDoug Jul 7, 2018 9:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 8243868)
Absurd, of course. Have you ever been to a concert at Disney Hall? Been to Bilbao? To 8 Spruce in NY? Have you actually spent time in any of his buildings? Wright was an iconoclast too, so was Philip Johnson. Some of all three of these architects' buildings are bombs, but there's a reason the designers are famous, and it wasn't because they "hated people," whatever you mean by that.



Speaking of famous architects, LA's own John Parkinson is the subject of Stephen Gee's documentary companion to his Parkinson monograph, Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles, airing during the next few weeks (see schedule below).


I have to say one thing about FG.....he's consistent. All of his buildings are an insult to humanity. Psychologists call that ''crazy making". All of FG's buildings are crazy.

Yes, all of the famous architects had their occasional mistake. People are not perfect 100% of the time..

One of our noirishers compared the typical FG design to a stack of potato chips. His assessment is spot on.

Life's a bowl of cherries....eh.

HossC Jul 7, 2018 1:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8243936)

I happened upon two 1920s snapshots this afternoon on Ebay.

...

#2 'mystery' vantage point. Does anyone know what roof the photographer would have been standing on to get this view?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...921/r6iuKy.jpg
EBAY

This one seems vaguely familiar (but I believe I'm thinking of the recent "military guys on leave staying at the YMCA" photo)

The roof in the foreground is the Consolidated Realty Building at 6th and Hill, but the elevation makes me think that the photographer was on the neighboring Detwiler Building. The empty lot just above the roof is the former location of the Hotel Lillie and First Methodist Episcopal Church, vacated to make way for the Metropolitan/Paramount Theatre.

Below is a view at a similar angle, this time probably from the Consolidated Realty Building, dated a few years earlier.

Panoramic view of Los Angeles, looking north from a building on the corner of Hill Street from 6th Street, 1913

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
USC Digital Library

ethereal_reality Jul 7, 2018 1:42 PM

:previous: EXCELLENT Hoss! !

"The empty lot just above the roof is the former location of the Hotel Lillie and First Methodist Episcopal Church, vacated to make way for the Metropolitan/Paramount Theatre."

I was wondering about the empty lot. Thanks


Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 8244098)
It looks like your amnesia is repetitive, e_r. ;)

It makes me seem not very bright.

ethereal_reality Jul 7, 2018 2:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 8244129)
The elevation makes me think that the photographer was on the neighboring Detwiler Building.

Baker-Detwiler Block 1914 by architect John C. Austin, now Park Central Building, 412 W. 6th Street
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/tM6Cze.png
calisphere

The photographer was higher up than I first thought. I just rechecked the snap and I believe you are correct Hoss. Thanks :)

_

HossC Jul 7, 2018 2:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8244131)

I was wondering about the empty lot. Thanks.

Just to add a little more info to e_r's 1920 image (above): the building to the left of the empty lot is the B&M Cafeteria. A 2013 post by WS1911 seems to have lost its pictures, so here's a reminder of the exterior in 1916.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Huntington Digital Library

HDL also has some interior shots (which were probably in WS1911's post) - here's one of them.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
Huntington Digital Library

The B&M Cafeteria was replaced by Boos Cafeteria, which can be seen in the second half of post #21267.

HossC Jul 7, 2018 2:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8244138)

Baker-Detwiler Block 1914 by architect John C. Austin, now Park Central Building, 412 W. 6th Street
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/tM6Cze.png
calisphere

Notice the cross-like additions to the roof of the Consolidated Realty Building (above, left). While trying to work out the location of the mystery image, I found a 1913 photoset taken from the Athletic Building on the corner of Olive Street and 7th Street. Here's a close-up showing the roof decorations, which are not dissimilar to some of the street lights of the time.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Detail of image in USC Digital Library

They had all gone by 1920 (which was probably a good idea!).

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 8243936)


pjenn Jul 7, 2018 5:17 PM

Hi Everybody,

I'm looking for a picture of the Adele Hotel at 444 S. Spring Street, 1910 - 1935.

I appreciate any help you can give me.

GaylordWilshire Jul 7, 2018 7:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 8242629)
I think the new bridge is gonna look pretty cool. It'll create new imagery for a 21st Century Los Angeles.

https://s22.postimg.cc/8p9ae3vhd/6thstbridge.jpg
Michael Maltzan Architecture

Agree with you, sopas. Great way to bring the east side back into the fold.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Lorendoc (Post 8241763)
https://i.imgur.com/EqUeZNL.jpg

Looks like someone went berserk applying control-c control-v to the St. Louis arch.


https://s22.postimg.cc/4z9nkrwcx/par...inebridge2.jpg


I think Paris's version is great too. Perhaps our own impeccably credentialed architecture critics, Dougie, Diana, etc
would care to offer learned critiques? (en garde Banham, Huxtable, Goldberger, Kennicott, Filler, and Muschamp)

Martin Pal Jul 7, 2018 7:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 8243868)
Absurd, of course. Have you ever been to a concert at Disney Hall? Been to Bilbao? To 8 Spruce in NY? Have you actually spent time in any of his buildings? Wright was an iconoclast too, so was Philip Johnson. Some of all three of these architects' buildings are bombs, but there's a reason the designers are famous, and it wasn't because they "hated people," whatever you mean by that.
____________________________________________________


I have spent time in a couple of his buildings and you have a point. It's better to be inside one so you aren't forced to look at it. Reminds me of the French writer Guy de Maupassant who used to eat at the Eiffel Tower restaurant every day and a person finally asked him once, "If you hate the Eiffel Tower so much, why do you eat there?" and he replied something to the effect "It's the only place in Paris I can eat lunch without looking at it."

I'm not an expert in architecture, but I know that Gehry's buildings produce negative feelings, thoughts, vibrations or any other word like those from a Thesaurus, when I see one in person or in photographs.

So let someone else who is versed in architecture talk about him:

https://articlelink/frank-gehry-is-still-the-worlds-worst-living-architect-1523113249

While it's been widely known for at least a decade that Frank Gehry is the world's worst living architect, it's not entirely clear why some people—mostly very rich clients—haven't picked up on this yet. The utterly god awful Biomuseo in Panama, an eco-discovery center that cost at least $60 million and took a decade to construct, is only the most recent case in point.

Gehry long ago stopped pursuing any interesting material or tectonic experimentation—and he used to be an interesting architect!—to become the multi-billion dollar equivalent of a Salvador Dalì poster tacked to the wall in a stoned lacrosse player's dorm room, an isn't-it-trippy pile of pseudo-psychedelic bullshit that everyone but billionaire urban developers can see through right away. What's particularly frustrating about Gehry's career is that he's somehow meant to be cool, a kind of sci-fi architect for the Millennial generation, a Timothy Leary of CAD; but he's Guy Fieri, his buildings hair-gelled monsters of advanced spatial douchebaggery.

His work is badly constructed, ravey-balls hair metal, a C.C. DeVille guitar solo that cannot—will not—end until the billionaire clients who keep paying for this shit can be stopped. Worse, no matter how much diagrammatic handwaving someone like architectural theorist extraordinaire Peter Eisenman can do—and he can do an awful lot of it—to convince you that Gehry is, or was once long ago, on to something interesting, these buildings are not even compelling from a theoretical standpoint. So, yeah, he used software normally found in airplane design—great. That's awesome. I can imagine amazing things coming out of such an irreverent mixing of design tools.

But the results are just crumpled Reynold's Wrap on an otherwise white-bread interior, a boring, room-by-room grid surrounded by hair spray, like some lunatic version of Phyllis Diller blown up to the size of a city block and frozen mid-stroke.

Gehry has already built the worst new residential building in New York City of the past five years [IS THIS THE ONE YOU MENTIONED GW? 8 SPRUCE?], and now he's on his way to ruin part of downtown Berlin with a faux-golden Accessorize trinket you'd expect to find at a roller rink in suburban Wisconsin, a hypertrophied JWoww unsuspecting Germans can someday live within.

But it's no use. We're stuck now. It's like being forced to watch M. Night Shyamalan films when you were hoping for David Cronenberg, or being stuck in a room with Steve Vai when you thought you were listening to Andrés Segovia.

No doubt, in a city council out there even as I type this [WEST HOLLYWOOD], some doe-eyed general manager is shaking up a can of crazy string and preparing to enfecalize an entire neighborhood near you with the pink slime of another Frank Gehry, a man for whom architecture is all McNuggets, all the time.

The tech world might have Moore's Law, but architecture has found its own unbreakable rule: year after year, Frank Gehry will always get worse. --Geoff Manaugh

And if you want to broaden the scale, read this:

Why You Hate Contemporary Architecture
(And if you don’t, why you should…)
by Brianna Rennix & Nathan J. Robinson

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/...y-architecture


Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 8243757)
Oh, do you mean the building he did for MIT? That's too bad; I actually liked that building, it breaks up the monotony of the boxes around it.
____________________________________________________


This reminds me of the monologue Jessica Lange had in TOOTSIE, when she was in her childhood room and her mother asked her what kind of wallpaper she'd like to have and she came up with all these ideas and notions and her mother then explained to her that she could have that if she wanted, but reminded her that what she chose is something she'd see every morning when she woke up and every night when she went to bed and all the other times she'd be in her room...dreaming...or with friends or by herself doing schoolwork.

Gehry buildings might "break up the monotony", but most of life is monotony and his buildings do nothing to inspire one in those moments or comfort them or give a sense of possibility. They give a sense of warning signs like what that sign says over the castle entrance in The Wizard of Oz: "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here."


Quote:

Originally Posted by Lwize (Post 8243882)
I understand some folks don't get Frank Gehry, but I love his work.
I'd like to see him redo the Washington Monument!
While in Prague last month, I finally got to see this FG stunner up close:
http://larry.wizegallery.com/VWV/gehryprague.JPG
(Photographed and hosted by me)
____________________________________________________


...something you'd see every morning when you wake up and every night when you went to bed and all the other times of your day... :shrug:

I'd like to get Frank Gehry. Get him away from working and into retirement.

Seriously, who would want to see this building e v e r y...s i n g l e...d a y . . .

Tourmaline Jul 7, 2018 7:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 7999351)


There have been several responses to this Vermonica post, e.g., http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=44278 and http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=44280 It is unknown whether a link to this "Huell" episode was also included on NLA. It not only covers Vermonica, but the latter portion offers numerous closeups of miscellaneous saved street lighting, including a Westwood Village exemplar featuring Bruin blue and gold tiles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=uBeqwqiTYis An observation is offered near the end of the video that maintenance and energy expenses are a big impediment for continued use of older street lighting. Wonder if current advances in LED lighting might affect that thinking.:shrug:


Wilshire Specials?


1937 - Wilshire near Figueroa (Shultheis)
http://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...DMX=0&DMY=0&DMhttp://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...X=512&DMY=0&DM
http://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...X=0&DMY=512&DMhttp://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...=512&DMY=512&DLAPL



1937 Goodrich Store on Wilshire (No street address provided. Could it be listed as 3057 Wilshire?) *
http://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...DMX=0&DMY=0&DMhttp://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...X=512&DMY=0&DM
http://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...X=0&DMY=512&DMhttp://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...512&DMY=512&DMLAPL


*Source also identifies this structure as "Exterior view of the Goodrich Store on Wilshire Boulevard." Street width suggests otherwise :shrug:
http://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...DMX=0&DMY=0&DMhttp://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...X=512&DMY=0&DM
http://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...X=0&DMY=512&DMhttp://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhelp...512&DMY=512&DMLAPL

Andys Jul 7, 2018 8:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger (Post 8244070)
My thanks to MartinTurnbull for alerting me to this documentary a few days ago. I made note of it, recorded it Thursday night on my HTPC, and watched it Friday evening. Fascinating documentary, well worth seeing. I'll definitely be saving it.

Also thanks to GaylordWilshire for the reminder!

Thanks for posting the broadcast schedule! I actually stumbled across the July 5th show, and will be sure to watch again. Very interesting, indeed.

Thanks,
Andys


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