Scott, loved the story about your mom. I've seen so many pictures of that beautiful building and to think your mom worked in it before and after its redesign from Spanish Renaissance/Moorish Revival to the Moderne style it had until torn down in 1985. At least laws have now been changed to prevent tearing a place down until you have full funding for the building to replace it. And that's mainly from the loss of the Philharmonic Auditorium.
Everyone else- I've brought this up before and will continue to do so until someone with money or connections gets on board. It is my intention to build a 3 dimensional computer map of Los Angeles with the added feature of having a time slider. Basically, what I want to do is take every picture on this forum and build the building in the pictures in a 3D program on an accurate topographical map of L.A. and time stamp them. What I want to end up with is a 3D world like we're going to see in L.A. Noire but you can go anywhere and slide to any time.
For instance, here is a view of the Biltmore with the LA Public Library Visible behind it:
On my 3D map, from here, you pull the time slider back to 1885 and you get this. It's the exact same view but 60 years earlier:
Where the Biltmore now stands, St. Paul's Episcopal church used to stand. Where the Public Library now is up on 5th street used to stand the Normal School.
Push the slider back up to 1939 and the Church and Normal school disappear and the Biltmore and Pershing Square with it's beautiful fountain and trees show up:
Then push it even further to 1960 and the trees are gone (to Disneyland), replaced by an entirely open area:
(Not to mention the fact that the harbor freeway now runs behind the hill behind the Biltmore)
push it back to 1904 and the trees and church and normal school are back. Not to mention the area that will eventually be torn down to build the freeway:
Slide it back to the 70's and there's the freeway, not to mention a few high rises like Wilshire One, the Union Bank tower, and the huge building behind Pacific Mutual Life:
To think in a few years an even bigger building will rise across from the library.
Anyway, that's what I want to do. Make a 3D model of every building ever built in L.A. and put it on this map. And I don't want to stop there. I want to put in the vegetation, the traffic, the weather and the people. This is a decades long project but it's the best way I can think of preserving what's been lost in this city. Anyone have any leads or ideas?
I'd love whatever input you can give.
Kevin