The ghosts of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner may soon be excised.
According to the Downtown News, Hearst Corp. -- which continues to own the Her-Ex's classic 1914 headquarters at the corner of 11th and Broadway (above) -- has partnered with developer Urban Partners to restore and convert the building into offices and condos.
The paper reports that two new towers would be built on adjacent land earned by Hearst, including a 37-story structure and a 23-story building.
Luckily, that will keep the Mission-Revival structure, built by architect Julia Morgan, intact -- even though the last hints of what was once L.A.'s scrappy No. 2 paper will be erased.
After the Herald-Examiner shut down in 1989, a large chunk of the Hearst paper's grand downtown headquarters was left as-is -- almost becoming a time capsule of sorts.
Now-ancient computers still adorn cluttered desks; random notes, bills, papers and other stuff left behind still litter the long-abandoned newsroom and other offices.
A few years ago UPN held a party at the building, and a few of us snuck upstairs to the building's old penthouse (originally built as a home-away-from-home for William Randolph Hearst himself). There, we found old phone books, file folders and stacks of old Herald-Examiner mailing envelopes, just collecting dust. (So of course we "rescued" a few of the envelopes.)
Hollywood Locations saw gold in the abandoned offices, signing Hearst and the Her-Ex building as its first clients in 1989. (The company is still headquartered there, at least for now.) Since then, police station, jail, hospital and church sets have been built inside the building (where movies and shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" have shot).
For a fascinating tour of what the inside of the building looks like today, check it out here. A few highlights:
The Herald-Examiner's grand lobby
It hasn't operated as a newsroom in 15 years, but typewriters and musty computers still adorn the desks
It's been a few years, but I believe this is the office where we found the envelopes
I'm guessing this was once the home to the Herald-Examiner's printing presses
Another newsroom shot -- I wonder what's in all of those files...
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