Singing the Terra Cotta Blues No More

As reported earlier in the Downtown News, and today via the L.A. Times, downtown's Art Deco classic the Eastern Columbia Building is about to make a comeback.

Currently more or less empty-- save a handful of tenants -- the 1930 structure will be remade into 150 condos. Located at Broadway and 9th, the building was originally the headquarters for the Eastern Outfitting Co. It's seen a variety of uses since Eastern shut down in 1957.

Writes the Times: In September 1930, the Eastern Columbia opened and was hailed as one of the most distinctive examples of Art Deco style — a style that flourished through the 1920s and '30s. Its facade was trimmed in gleaming gold and dark blue terra cotta and adorned with sunburst patterns, zigzags and chevrons. Even the sidewalks surrounding the building sported red, black and gold terrazzo zigzags and chevrons.

"If you were to name two buildings that are the great Art Deco towers of Los Angeles, it would be the Pellissier Building, which rises above the Wiltern Theatre, and the Eastern Columbia Building," said Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy.

The vertical lines of the Art Deco style make the Eastern Columbia Building appear larger than it actually is, Bernstein said. Adding to the structure's height is its four-sided clock tower, which flaunts large neon clocks and the word "Eastern" in neon lights. For years, the tower displayed the time and chimed a song every 15 minutes.

The clocks are now silent, frozen in time, and the neon lights are dark.