Hey, where was the Electro Music Company located? As a musician, local architecture/history enthusiast, and Pasadena resident, this interests me on so many different levels!

I remember that building! In particular, I remember the art school or gallery that existed on the first floor, where they always had some small paintings on view in the windows. They were usually surrealist in the style of Tanguy, Dali, or Chirico and I always lingered there when walking by. As well as I can remember this was some time during the 1970s which probably doesn't help much.

It kind of looks like a cage to protect a street/sidewalk tree from damage. That could explain the "stick"--could be a new sapling.

Love it, love it, love it. Now that's what I call transit interoperability.

Leslie speakers
 

Tetsu…The original factory building was located in Pasadena on the west side of Fair Oaks just north of Del Mar. During my tenure it was the home of a fully functional pipe organ which was used by organist George Wright, and later converted into an engineering/R & D facility for Electro Music. It is long gone. The main factory and office building was a circa 1960 tilt-up on the south side at 56 West Del Mar. The building is still there and houses a Salvation Army store. It’s pretty much a Plain Jane building.
I’m an architectural history buff myself and the building that has always held a fascination with me is south of the Salvation Army building on Waverly Drive. This old brick building which probably goes back a 100 years and may have been some kind of factory in its day. It was owned by Cal Tech back in the 60’s as a storage building for old stuff no longer needed or brand new stuff still in the original packing (bought with your taxpayer money by the school with no immediate need). I can’t make out the sign shown on Google Earth, but it appears that the school may no longer own it. I got to tour it when CBS was considering buying it for expansion of Electro Music in the 70’s. Since you’re in Pasadena, go by that building and maybe check it out. I’d love to know the history. I’m 30 miles away so I don’t get to that area very often. Check out Historical Aerials.com. The oldest view is 1953 shows the old brick building. http://www.historicaerials.com/
Just so you know, after the company was bought by Hammond in 1980, I moved to the sister company Fender Guitar in Fullerton and was with them until they packed up and moved to Scottsdale in 1991. But the big Fullerton factory is gone. I worked in guitar and amplifier manufacturing and also in the R & D group and designed audio products including amps and mixers. A fun place to work but they didn’t pay work a crap either!

BTW, looking at the Google Earth street view on the old brick building you can make out the very faded remains of a sign painted on the east side. Back in the old days the building was white-washed, so a good exercise would be to try and read the old sign.

White Railbus
 

This is a 1920's White "Rail Motorcar", towing a trailer. From the early 1900's through the late 1940's "railbusses" as thy were more commonly called offered the railroads a less expensive alternative to steam powered passenger trains as a means of providing passenger services in areas where such traffic was light.

Two things cause me to question the location of the photo. First, to the best of my knowledge neither the Pacific Electric or the three major steam railroads (SP, UP, Santa Fe) operated While railbusses in the Los Angeles area. Second, the vegetation and the track width. The former looks tropical and the latter appears to be broad gauge (5-foot).

The one city that could bring all these elements together would be Los Angeles, Chile.

Cheers,
Jack

Hey everyone, I was in the local Highland Park record shop
and came across this Taj Mahal record, I immediately recognized
the building as The Salt Box. I got a kick out of it,
I thought you guys might too.

http://imageshack.com/scaled/large/27/zepr.jpg
photo by me

Heard the Desmond Tower is allegedly . . . gulp . . . to be surrounded by two smaller towers. Newspaper article supports this story and states the plans have been approved and work has begun.

http://parklabreanewsbeverlypress.co...d-on-wilshire/

http://miraclemilela.files.wordpress...1929.jpg?w=720http://miraclemilela.files.wordpress...1929.jpg?w=720

[QUOTE=Tourmaline;6255863]Heard the Desmond Tower is allegedly . . . gulp . . . to be surrounded by two smaller towers. Newspaper article supports this story and states the plans have been approved and work has begun.

From my reading it sounds like the new apartment structure will be built BEHIND the Desmond on existing parking lots. Hopefully that won't affect the Wilshire facade. (Fingers crossed)

:previous:

Whoa... Actually, according to this article, the towers once planned for the lot behind Desmond's, later scuttled, have morphed into a single seven-story building. At first I thought you meant that there were now going to be two towers over the Dunsmuir and Burnside ends of the Desmond building--I wouldn't have been surprised.


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059106.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059088.jpg


Both LAPL

Good eye H.L.P and thanks for the photo.
I have that album somewhere... great stuff.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...3/Salt_Box.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salt_Box

I just noticed Godzilla posted the same thing awhile back.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10177

The search function is crap here...
In order to search Salt Box (which defaults to "box") you have to search "SaltBox"

Thanks for noticing and remembering, Those Who Squirm.
I have fond memories of that place and time.
I'm going to search for more photos.

10990 Wilshire Blvd - corner of Wilshire and Veteran

Didn't mean to misrepresent the facts, whatever they are. I heard one thing and then found the linked article. The article was hardly definitive. The text under the photo says 175 units. I also read 175 units and two towers. Then there is something about "revised entitlements process" and a seven story U-shaped complex. Depending upon how seven stories are counted, that might be one half the height of the preexisting tower. Surprised there was doubt whether the main structure was to be refurbished - unless there is an assumption that it is to be deferred pending completion and occupancy of the seven story structure or structures.



Article regarding 5 major construction projects on La Brea: http://la.streetsblog.org/2012/06/19...sform-la-brea/



I am informed that there are several hundred units nearing completion on the southeast corner of Wilshire and La Brea. (Artist's rendition?)
http://www.trbimg.com/img-501f48ea/t...g-20120805/600http://www.trbimg.com/img-501f48ea/t...g-20120805/600




GW posted a photo of a Jeep Dealership on the corner of 4th and La Brea. I am told that entire structure has been raised and is being replaced by a megastore.

The tower in the skyline will soon be joined by the large structure above ^^^
http://d2uaszwku8m8xd.cloudfront.net...lopment.-1.jpghttp://d2uaszwku8m8xd.cloudfront.net...lopment.-1.jpg

http://d2uaszwku8m8xd.cloudfront.net....-1.jpghttp://

http://d2uaszwku8m8xd.cloudfront.net...ard-LaBrea.jpghttp://d2uaszwku8m8xd.cloudfront.net...ard-LaBrea.jpg

Is 1716 East Temple in Skid Row? Is it even in downtown Los Angeles?

The move baffles me, too. Here we have an expanding rail transit centered around 7th Street Metro Center and Union Station, with most of the downtown bus lines also terminating in that general area, and now they put the bus station a mile or two away from any of that.

[QUOTE=Those Who Squirm;6256347]Is 1716 East Temple in Skid Row? Is it even in downtown Los Angeles?

The move baffles me, too. Here we have an expanding rail transit centered around 7th Street Metro Center and Union Station, with most of the downtown bus lines also terminating in that general area, and now they put the bus station a mile or two away from any of that.[/QUOTE

the old building which is across from the PE building(not the first station which is on the northeast corner) is pretty big,im told it housed a drug store too.my guess was that storage for the buses was a problem.but size wise it looks to be the same size as the new station.

Google may be your friend, but once in awhile Microsoft is a better one. Bing Maps has it, for both bird's-eye view:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3693/9...d0d390ff_c.jpg
Microsoft Bing Maps

...and for Streetside. The Pegman is just passing the house in question:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5524/9...e6177dd9_c.jpg
Microsoft Bing Maps

Bing Streetside is buggier and less comprehensive than Google SV, but I've occasionally been pleasantly surprised to find that Streetside covers an interesting street which Google hasn't gotten around to yet.

belmont bob, fascinating info, thanks! Had no idea that Leslie was once right in the neighborhood. I'm familiar with the Salvation Army store. Been there many times and even had a few friends that used to work there.

So, this brick building you speak of - I'm guessing you mean this one, located at 55 W. Waverly:

http://i1312.photobucket.com/albums/...ps69ccf9a6.jpg

It reminds me of the buildings you find in the northeast industrial/warehouse section of Downtown LA. I actually did find a little info on it. You were right! It is indeed almost 100 years old, built in 1925 and designed by an architect by the name of E. Vanden Hoven. Found the info here: http://pasadena.cfwebtools.com/searc...splay=resource

Highly recommend this site as a whole - Pasadena has catalogued and documented just about every architecturally significant building in the city and the database is here. Guaranteed hours of fun browsing!

Noirish lighting ?
 

I guess you all know that "NOIR' in French means "BLACK". Movies like "Double Indemnity" were called "black movies" by French film critics. "NOIRISH" comes from that (and from Ethereal_Reality too).
So "noirish lighting" may sound absurd to Frenchs : "blackish lighting".

Well, it's the sharp contrast between the black color and subtle doses of sharp light that makes the wonder of these moods.

Dave, I've locked myself out of that account, but I've uploaded a few maps including that one and it is too huge to post here maybe, a wall map.

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/sleepynoir/

The pictures of the Baldwin Hills are from the book by French, Virginia Fonseca, 1970, Rancho La Cienega O Paso De La Tijera, J. D. Roche, Los Angeles.

Thanks again to all who contribute to this thread.

Turns out what I thought were bugs are features. Bing Streetside is gradually being replaced by Streetslide (don't ask!), and in this newer version it's no longer possible to virtually walk along the street. To get to another location, say three doors down the street, you have to back out of the street-level view and return to the overhead or bird's-eye view map, and then click three doors further down the street. This is already in place for NYC, another city I happen to be particularly interested in and where I was trying to look at Doyers Street ("The Bloody Angle") in lower Manhattan. I couldn't get the pegman and thought it was a bug.

Why would Microsoft trash the functionality of their product this way? Oh, right. Never mind.