The 2015 Pershing Sq. is one of America's most people unfriendly places ever created. Its literally a hell in the middle of the city.

I'm not disagreeing with you (and I have to admit, I only quite recently understood that the big, orange concrete balls are supposed to be a nod to our historic citrus industry), but my interest is in what happens next. The Pershing Square Restoration Society's conflicting messages, "Restore! Parkinson's 1910 Design" vs. "a proposal adapting elements of John Parkinson's classic 1910 design to the needs of twenty first century Los Angeles" is what I'd like sorted out. The footage from "Shoes" (1916) is very pretty and very welcome, but seems a bit misleading in this context. If we are being asked to support SKR's proposal, I'd like to see it first. I checked SKR's site, but couldn't find any reference to Pershing Square.

Restoring Pershing Square... it's complicated!
 

Thanks for the interest in SRK's proposal for the design competition, the questions about the imagery used in our advocacy campaign and the opportunity to clear up any unintended confusion.

SRK has only just announced its intention to enter the competition and submitted a short letter of interest. The art used in the video and on the PSRS website are not made by SRK, and don't reflect an actual design proposal. Between now and December there will be a series of steps that each interested firm must go through that could, we hope, lead to an opportunity for SRK to move on in the competition and be asked to produce an actual redesign proposal.

The competition's organizers, Pershing Square Renew, have some elements that they want to see in every entry that would automatically eliminate an absolutely exact recreation of Parkinson's original design, or his later revision, which improved pedestrian flow through the park. And any new design will also have to take into account the parking garage, which it has been made clear isn't going anywhere. Within these restrictions, SRK's intent is to hew closely to John Parkinson's original designs.

As the competition plays out over the coming months, we'll keep signatories to the petition up to date, ideally letting them know when there is an opportunity to see SRK's proposal, and provide feedback. Nobody is being asked to blindly support a design they haven't seen, and signing the petition is merely a vote for restoration, not for SRK's proposal. But as advocates for a restored Pershing Square, we're excited to be working with SRK to play by the rules of the competition and bring John Parkinson's design into the 21st Century, and hope you'll come along for the ride.

Pershing Square Redesign
 

Oh, good, b/c that big, high-walled tank in the image looks nothing like Johan Caspar Lachne Gruenfeld's fountain.

So restoration is not possible? Could you direct me please to the organizers' requirement that precludes it? I've read a lot about this, but seemed to have missed that.

(And, not to worry, I've signed the petition, based solely on your rep.)

The huge orange balls are a nod to the citrus industry?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...22.03.2012.jpg

What crackhead thought up that idea? Is this some kind of a joke?
Four foot orange globes translate into little oranges? I guess that might work on a Rose Parade float for one day but a permanent marker? What?

Wonders never cease in Downtown LA. Mondo Cane part III.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psqqtfk6vb.jpg
grindhousedatabase

There are enormous instructional booklets that Pershing Square Renew has made available to architects that register interest in the competition, and these include directions that demand a response to a wide range of contemporary factors in the form of thematic "Aspirations:" Brand, Walkability, Complete Streets, Safety, Landscape, Operational. I'm not able to parse all of this material into a quick overview, but it's fair to say that simply submitting John Parkinson's plans wouldn't make it into the semi-finals. That doesn't mean a park that is very much like Parkinson's isn't possible, but a winning proposal will need to answer these demands as well.

And thank you for signing!

Pershing Square Redesign
 

Thanks esotouric. Pershing Square Renew invites the public to also download the documents, so I've registered for that.

The timeline of the competition is listed on the registration page. It ends with this:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...5%252520PM.jpg

...so who won? (jk)


..............................................................................


I musta read that on wiki:

"The purple bell tower, aqueduct, and orange concrete spheres are meant to symbolize the water flow from the California mountain ranges to the citrus farmers"



__

Thought I'd add one...
 

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8424/...93337539_z.jpg1530 Easterly Terrace, Silverlake

As has been noted, William Kesling, architect. The Skinner house, 1937. Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument #856. And a little didacticism with your morning coffee... "Streamline moderne was both a reaction to art deco and a reflection of austere economic times. Gone was unnecessary ornament. Sharp angles were replaced with simple, aerodynamic curves. Exotic woods and stone were replaced with cement and glass. And ultimately, the designs were horizontal in their orientation, serving as a precursor to the modernist movement that would begin in earnest a decade later.

from househunt.com"

Pershing Square Redesign
 

Here's the download links for the Pershing Square Renew documents in case anyone's interested:

Outreach Summary and Programmatic Vision

Design Competition Information

As I said yesterday, I've run out of Julius Shulman Bank of America photosets, but here's one of Gibraltar Savings. This branch was at 3701 S La Brea Avenue, not far from the Rodeo Road/La Cienega intersection we discussed recently. It's "Job 3588: William L. Pereira and Associates, Gibraltar Savings (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1963".

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

By chance, it's another building with an exposed steel frame, although this one is smaller than either of the BoA branches we looked at. This view looks along the front.

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

A large central skylight gave great interior illumination.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original

Like many of the later Julius Shulman photosets, there's also a shot with the lights on.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original

All from Getty Research Institute

Today there's a T-Mobile store on the site. Historic Aerials shows a building with a square structure in the center of the roof up until 1989.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original
GSV

Yes, right next to Baldwin Hills Village! I've never seen photos of it, just read about it, it was destroyed apparently in the riots... what a shame.

I'm away from my computer, but I had some requests if anyone is up for it. There's a medical marijuana shop on the corner of Main and 16th street with a weird circular symbol at the top of the entrance which I'm sure has some historical significance. Anyone want look into it? Also, I was on here a few days ago, and I could've sworn someone posted a picture of a Catholic school that was once on the Plaza / Ranch Market at 4040 West Washington Blvd but I forgot to save it. Any help would be appreciated! Please and thanks!

I don't suppose anyone noticed Malloy and Reed in Adam-12 in the top shot? :)

Vibiana Lofts
 

As ground was broken in March for Vibiana's (Kysor and Matthews, 1876) new neighbor to the south, Vibiana Lofts, I thought it might be fun to take a quick look back at the prior buildings on that site and their occupants. As usual, I found more info than I know what to do with. I'll try to winnow it down.

First, here's St Vibiana's soon after it was built looking very bucolic across some scrub land with our now-vanished hills to the NW (POV is about 4th & San Pedro):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...3%252520AM.jpg
seaver center

ca1881. There was once a single-story structure, which pre-dated it, just to the south of the cathedral, which for twenty years or more was Dane Lorenzo Leck's grocery store . Leek, his wife Caroline and their children lived in the back. In 1861 Mrs Leek was stabbed to death in a robbery. The thief/murderer, a lad of 15, was found, repeatedly stabbed by a mob and then lynched:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...00610%2BAM.jpg
wiki

Looking SE, one can see that a building is already in place on the other side of the single-story structure:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-g...8%252520PM.jpg
uscdl (detail)

Later the grocery was divided into a gun store and a shop which sold flowers and feathers:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-D...00753%2BAM.jpg
csulb

The single-story building was replaced with a three-story brick edifice in 1895, the Odd Fellows Hall (Morgan and Walls), built cheek by jowl with the cathedral, filling in the gap between St. Vibiana's and the rest of the block:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-h...02617%2BAM.jpg
waterandpower

The third floor was reserved for the Odd Fellows. The second floor was rental space and retail filled out the ground floor.

The Odd Fellows also use human bones in their rituals. Not those of their saints, just random ones ordered from fraternal organization supply catalogues.

Swanfeldt's Tents and Awnings may have started out in the Odd Fellows building (note the painted signage in the shot two images above). Swanfeldt was next-door to the south at least by the teens. I've seen No. 220 marked as "Swanfeldt and "IOOF" depending on which map one looks at and Nos.224-226 (generally called the Swanfeldt Building) as "The Dresden" or "Keifer", and that's just for 1909 and 1910.

Axel Swanfeldt (1847-1925) came here in 1869 from Sweden. From 1895 to 1902 Swanfeldt operated Santa Catalina’s famous “Tent City,” where one could rent tents by the day, week or month. The tents came with camp furniture, beds, bedding and cooking utensils. Tent City was very popular and very lucrative. Swanfeldt's island operation ended when his lease ran out and the the Santa Catalina Island Company took over the business:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...8%252520PM.jpg
awningsonline

Losing the Catalina concession didn't slow Swanfeldt's down much as they made a number of canvas products, including straightjackets.

A 1915 Swanfeldt straightjacket, once owned by Houdini. It fetched a tidy sum at auction in 2008:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...0%252520AM.jpg
justcollecting


I couldn't find a build date for the Swanfeldt building, but that could be either the Swanfeldt or the Lewis in this 1884 view looking north up Main from just above 3rd:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...6%252520PM.jpg
waterandpower

The east side of S Main was not much developed back then, but soon filled in with shops, hotels, at least one saloon and three theaters (the Manhattan/Denver, 1910, at No. 238, The Electric/Lyric/Glockner's Automatic, 1902, at No. 262 and A.C. Martin's beautiful Liberty, 1910, at No. 266). The Electric was said to be the first purpose-built moving-picture theater in the world. It was built of brick, the façade decorated with scrolls and lions' heads (here on the left on 24 September 1929):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...9%252520PM.jpg
los angeles city historical society


The Glockner is simply marked "theater" on the Baist map, the Liberty and the Manhattan/Denver don't even get that:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2...2%252520AM.jpg
baist, plate 2, 1910 / historic mapworks

Here's the Odd Fellows building after John C. Austin's 1922-1924 remodel of Vibiana's facade:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...9%252520AM.jpg
uscdl

The IOOF Hall got included on this postcard too, also post-1924:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f...11048%2BAM.jpg
maritimeheritage

The Union Rescue Mission (URM), first known as the Pacific Gospel Union, was founded in 1891 by Lyman Stewart (1840-1923), who also co-founded The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA), Union Oil (now UNOCAL, wholly-owned by Chevron) and the Association for the Evangelization of California.

Driven by great urgency, and not interested in long-term plans, Stewart believed the End Times were nigh and that he must save as many souls as possible, as quickly as possible. He believed wealth (gained, apparently, by divination of supernatural signs) could be "transmuted into living gospel truth" (I think that means converts). He funded missions in the US and abroad plus publications and also schools to train religious professionals to advance his time-sensitive agenda. He also supported pastors and churches which exhibited the right Anglo-Protestant "purity", and envisioned soon-to-be Christian California as a pulpit which would be used to preach to, and save, the world before it was engulfed by the imminent End Times.

Not much remembered by the mainstream now, Stewart's ideas about the relationship between wealth and "living gospel truth" had huge influence in his lifetime. That influence lives on. He is known by many as the father of religious fundamentalism.

The URM trolled Los Angeles in "bible wagons", looking to urgently save souls and also held revival meetings in a big tent at 2nd and Main. Free food drew crowds, but the soul-saving was heavy going. By 1907, with the End Times running late, URM bought a building at 145 Main Street and moved indoors.

Eventually the city took the building away from them to build the current City Hall. Needing a new home, as the End Times remained elusive, URM bought half of the Swanfeldt building.

Here's the Swanfeldt building, immediately south of the IOOF Hall, with URM in the southern half (at No.226):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...8%252520AM.jpg
In SRO land

By then, the Odd Fellows building had been taken over by the City of Los Angeles Department of Playgrounds and Parks. It was used as the Municipal Men's Club and also, in 1934, at least, as as the State Emergency Relief Administration's intake office.

In 1938 URM bought the rest of the Swanfeldt Building, the Swanfeldt Company having moved to North Figueroa (HossC picks up the Swanfeldt trail here).

Here's the Swanfeldt, wholly occupied by URM, next to the city-owned IOOF building:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C...5%252520PM.jpg

In 1940 URM bought the Odd Fellows building too, combining it with the Swanfeldt building by knocking doors through the connecting wall, and moving in in 1942:

Wm Reagh photographed the Odd Fellows building sporting "Union Rescue Mission" signage in 1955:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-R...95746%2BAM.jpg
lapl

This image of the IOOF and Swanfeldt buildings combined is from 1959 (URM got a permit in 1950 allowing them to "cut off the parapet" of the Swanfeldt...the city had already diminished the IOOF). The Lewis is gone here, but much of the rest of this very historic block remained:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...6%252520AM.jpg
lapl

The CRA brought it's scorched-earth policy to the 200 block of S Main in the 1990s. Everything except the cathedral was demolished on the east side of the still-somewhat-intact block (most of what was left of the west side of the block went too). The theaters had long since closed. Some people suspect that the triangular building at 3rd and Main (a result of a very awkward attempt to straighten 3rd St) may be a remnant of the Liberty Theater. I doubt it.

The Union Rescue Mission moved to a $29MM facility on San Pedro St (between 5th and 6th) in 1994 (with an assist of $6.5MM in public funds). The east side of the 200 block of S Main currently looks like this (the big LAPD parking structure went up in 2008-10). I wish the Electric Theater had been saved, but I wish a lot of things:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...5%252520AM.jpg
gsv 2015

Originally there were plans to build something called Vibiana Plaza on the cleared block, containing low-rise housing and shops, like a paseo, but parking won out. Also, at one point, Cardinal Mahony intended to demolish St Vibiana's and build a new cathedral taking up the majority of the block. That, obviously, didn't happen either.

The cleared land makes this 2008 shot look very similar to the 1884 image above:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...9%252520AM.jpg
gsv 2008

The gap between Vibiana's and the LAPD facility is where the new building is rising, on the former site of the IOOF Hall and at least part of that of the Swanfeldt. I dunno where Vibiana staff and patrons will park now:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...9%252520PM.jpg
gsv, Feb 2015

The view of the construction site from Los Angeles Street:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...7%252520PM.jpg
gsv, March 2015

The proposal for the $90MM Vibiana Lofts. Zoning allows 42 stories, but the developer has decided to hold it to 8 so wood-frame construction can be used (what ever happened to wanting one's building to be "absolutely fireproof"?) Togawa Smith Martin are the architects (they are "strategic partners" with A.C. Martin Associates. The firms share an address, 444 S Flower):
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N...22845%2BPM.jpg
la.curbed


Groceries, murder, guns, feathers, flowers, tents, straightjackets, human bones and many decades of attempts at hurried soul-saving. Altogether, there will be a lot of history behind (or under) the soon-to-be Vibiana Lofts.


HossC points out in the following post that he and e_r have been here before:

Post #23717
Post #23720
Post #23721
Post #23722

Well worth a look.

Thx Hoss



And thanks to Beaudry for the build date on the IOOF Hall.



____

:previous:

Intestesting post on St Vibiana's and its neighbors, tovangar2. Are you sure they plan to build the Vibiana Lofts from wood? It looks more like Lego to me :). I've certainly seen plenty of more attractive buildings.

There's more on the IOOF Hall and Union Rescue Mission in these posts from just over a year ago:

Post #23717
Post #23720
Post #23721
Post #23722

:previous:

Thanks! I'll add those to the post (and steal a photo from e_r too).


I've given up worrying about how new buildings look. Everything eventually gets demolished anyway. I just hope this one doesn't catch fire and burn down Vibiana's.

Julius Shulman photographed this charming little plumbing store in Highland Park 65 years ago. This is "Job 704: Dixie Plumbing Company (Los Angeles, Calif.),1950".

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

The photoset also includes these three interior shots.

"Mommie! I want a Crane bathtub."

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

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original

All from Getty Research Institute

The building at 1200 N Avenue 54 is still standing, and appears to be in very good shape. This 2014 GSV image shows it with a Zumba banner, but none of the historic GSV images back to 2007 show any permanent tenants.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original
GSV

This closer view from 2015 shows all the details are still intact.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...6.jpg~original
GSV

A couple of property websites I checked give a build date of 1932, and I nearly went with that until I found the advert below. This was Dixie Plumbing's shop no 3, built in 1947 on the site of their no 2 store. The caption claims it was the "first modern structure in Highland Park". This clipping is from the October 17, 1963 edition of the Highland Park News-Herald & Journal.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...7.jpg~original
California Digital Newspaper Collection

I do, yes, thanks Hoss C.!

Not anything new for most, but it is a closer shot showing the front of the place, that, believe it or not, is pretty rare considering it's near the corner and next to a movie theater.

:previous: I'm going to miss them too Hoss!



I found this great photograph [c. 1917] earlier this week on eBay.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...901/6KPGea.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Los-Angeles-...item35f30a0518

I believe the building in the photograph is too grand to be the children's school, so I'm guessing they're on a field trip. (notice how everyone's in their Sunday best) -quite cute.:)

Here's the reverse.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...901/s21XrN.jpg
eBay

And by chance, I just happened across this postcard [c. 1913] showing "Angeles Mesa".

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...909/vyrutV.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/B2775-1913-P...item51d9a65df0

I was hoping one of these building would be their school, but they all appear residential.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure where Angeles Mesa was located. I'll have to do some additional googling. ;)
__

Angeles Mesa School
 

Don't know if it is the same, but there is an Angeles Mesa elementary school and also a library nearby on 52nd Street just east of Crenshaw around 7th Avenue. Crenshaw Blvd was known as Mesa Drive back in the 1920s.