Preserving the Los Angeles Downtown Women's Center: Cast Your Vote

Help a local historic institution out! The Los Angeles Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is a haven for thousands of women living without a home across Los Angeles and is the only organization in Los Angeles focused exclusively on serving and empowering women experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless women.

The DWC is in the running for this year's “Partners in Preservation,” an effort by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to preserve historic places. In the running 20 local historical sites from across the country, all with significant ties to Women’s History. Now those sites are rallying their communities to compete for a slice of $2 million in preservation grant money.

Cast your vote here.

Here's more on what the DWC is up to:

In 1978, DWC founder Jill Halverson used her savings to open Los Angeles’ first drop-in day center for homeless women. In the 1980s, DWC’s services grew to offer the first permanent supportive housing program for women. In 2010, and with a female architect at the lead, DWC completed a $35 million capital campaign to revitalize a historic building constructed by female developer Florence Casler in 1927. 

Funding will cover the re-design of current external signage, as well as support the revitalization of DWC’s external facade. As an advocate for historic preservation and a firm believer in managing rather than preventing change, DWC demonstrates how historic buildings can continue to serve as beacons of hope for the community.

This Saturday, the Downtown Women’s Center will hold a "Partners in Preservation Open House Event" to showcase more of their work, and why preservation is so important. Check it out:

Saturday, October 19, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
442 South San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Save the Historic Angels Flight Railway!

There it sits, collecting dust, out of operation now for two years. One of the historic symbols of our city, the Angels Flight railway, has already been saved twice -- but now it needs our help to be resurrected for a third time.

According to angelsflight.org progress is being made to reopen the attraction. But the railway has incurred major expenses:

We still have major expenses, including nearly $50,000 in annual insurance premiums, that must be met so that we can reopen. Please DONATE.

We need to raise $10,000 for the month of September and another $10,000 every month after that!

The Board of Directors of the Angels Flight Railway Foundation is pleased to report that we are making significant progress with our regulators to get Angels Flight back in public service.

Sign the petition to get Angels Flight back online! Here's the background:

Los Angeles' beloved funicular railway, Historic-Cultural Monument #4, was out of commission for six hours on September 5, 2013, because of an incident that took place that day. The cause of the incident was investigated and addressed, and new safety equipment was tested in the presence of State and Federal officials in February of 2014. But now, nearly two years following the 2013 incident, the public still is being prohibited from riding Angels Flight. The operator of Angels Flight and numerous licensed professional engineers and the LAFD have concluded that safety issues have been addressed. The Railway is in safe working order, and has been since early 2014. However, because of the views of a now-retired NTSB investigator, the California Public Utilities Commission will not permit the vintage passenger cars to carry patrons until a track-adjacent evacuation walkway, which experts have written is unnecessary and even a foreseeable hazard, is installed alongside the track, the cables, and the electric third rail. Angels Flight is one of the great historic attractions of our city, a palpable link between the lost Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill and the vibrant new Downtown below. It is heartbreaking to see the cars and track structure as they are today, dusty and tagged with graffiti.

Celebrate the New Clifton's Cafeteria with the L.A. Conservancy

Can't wait to finally see the completely renovated Clifton's Cafeteria? On Monday, September 21, Clifton’s opens with an event to benefit the Los Angeles Conservancy. Per the Conservancy:

Guests will be among the first to visit the iconic downtown restaurant after its multi-year, multi-million-dollar renovation by owner Andrew Meieran.

The event will run from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m., and general admission is $125. Guests will explore the beautifully restored and reimagined first-floor cafeteria, as well as the new Monarch Bar on the second floor. They’ll enjoy passed hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and entertainment, plus full dinner and dessert—by going through the cafeteria line, of course. Tickets are available at laconservancy.org/cliftons-2015.

A limited number of VIP tickets also include a behind-the-scenes talk with Meieran and a tour of the third and fourth floors, which won't open until later this year. (Note: As of this writing, fewer than twenty VIP tickets are available; we expect to sell out of them this week.)

Go here for more info or to purchase tix.

Finally, Clifton's Cafeteria is Set to Re-Open, With an Elaborate Makeover

Los Angeles magazine

We've been waiting for years... and years.. for the re-opening of downtown's iconic Clifton's Cafeteria. Opened in 1935 as Clifton's Brookdale, we visited the forest-themed eatery several times (read our 2006 account here) before new owner Andrew Meieran (who previously created downtown's famed Edison bar) shut it down for what was supposed to be a brief renovation in 2011.

Cut to nearly five years later, and rebuilding Clifton's has become a labor of love for Meieran, who has kept the fun and the kitsch but added so much more to the place. As downtown's Broadway continues its slow pace of revitalization, it sounds like Clifton's will be a true focal point and place of interest.

Los Angeles magazine's Lesley Bargar Suter has the first look at the completely renovated Clifton's. Highlights:

Former customers who visit the new Clifton’s will pass through the double glass doors to find a place both familiar and entirely different. There’s still a bakery—albeit with high-end coffee and house-baked breads—along with the cascading waterfall, the animatronic raccoon, and the original log pillars. Meieran also uncovered a series of small grottoes for kids that Don Clinton, Clifford’s 88-year-old son, vaguely remembers running through in the ’30s.

The cafeteria is inspired by the trend of European-style food halls. The tray line has been divided into a series of “action stations,” not unlike the café portion at any Whole Foods, with a few fussed-up versions of Clifton’s classics thrown in.

“I promise you’ll like our mac and cheese even more than the stuff they were serving before,” says Meieran. He’s added a retail shop that focuses on California goods—dates, Ghirardelli chocolate, craft beer, and wine—and kept the faux-stone chapel.

As for the missing neon cross, rather than reading it as another sign of divine interest, Meieran insists that a painter broke it. “Everyone is going to think I took it down,” he says, bracing for the backlash.

His signature design move might be the “aha moment.” At the Edison it’s the grand two-story descent into a turn-of-the-century power plant, with its artful rust and plasma globes. At Clifton’s it’s what visitors encounter up the stairs from the restored ground floor: a 40-foot-tall artificial redwood tree that alludes to the redwoods Clifford Clinton put into the original space.

While the founder was inspired by the Santa Cruz Mountains, Meieran was moved by a part of the California wilderness farther north: Muir Woods, just over the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. The faux tree is the centerpiece of an atrium overlooked by four levels of bar, restaurant, and event spaces.

Per the LA Times, Clifton's will soft open starting Sept. 17, with elements phased in over the following two months.

"Psycho," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and More: The 2015 Last Remaining Seats Schedule Is Here

Our favorite event of the year is back! The Los Angeles Conservancy has announced the movie roster for this year's 29th Last Remaining Seats -- and it's the most diverse mix of movies I've seen on the roster that I can remember!

The Last Remaining Seats, which takes place from June 10 – 27, 2014, celebrates downtown's historic Broadway movie palaces by showcasing classic movies, bringing those wonderful stages back to life. And as more of Broadway gets revitalized (see the recent Night on Broadway event), there's even more reason to celebrate.

Tickets for the 2015 season of Last Remaining Seats go on sale March 25 to Conservancy members and April 8 to the general public. Tickets are $16 for L.A. Conservancy members and $20 for the general public. (Go to the LA Conservancy website for more info.) Read all of our posts about Last Remaining Seats here.

Meanwhile, here's what you've been waiting for, the list of this year's screenings:

Psycho (1960)
Wednesday, June 10, 8pm
Million Dollar Theatre

City Lights (1931)
Saturday, June 13, 8pm
Los Angeles Theatre

Dios se lo pague/God Bless You (1948)
Wednesday, June 17, 8pm
Palace Theatre

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Saturday, June 20, 8pm
The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)
Wednesday, June 24, 8pm
Orpheum Theatre

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Saturday, June 27, 2pm & 8pm
The Theatre at Ace Hotel

Downtown's Broadway Came Alive on Saturday Night

For the 7th anniversary of Bringing Back Broadway -- the plan to revitalize downtown's Broadway corridor -- this year the organization decided to bring folks out to celebrate after dark. Last Saturday's "Night On Broadway" celebrated the street's slow and steady return to grace, and, as always, paid tribute to its classic movie palaces. Free performances took place at the Million Dollar, Los Angeles, Palace, Globe, Tower, Orpheum and Ace Hotel (aka United Artist) theaters, and a chunk of the street was closed to traffic, giving room to activities, food trucks, an events stage and more.

"This storied corridor is experiencing a surge in new retail and restaurants, and is emerging as a focal point for creative office and boutique hotel development," the organization notes. Indeed, it will be fascinating to see what Broadway looks like a decade from now. Meanwhile, here are some pics from Saturday's event:



Exciting to see so many people walking up and down Broadway at night!


This was my first time inside the Tower, which hasn't yet been rehabbed, but is now opening up to DJs and bands. On Saturday night, a DJ spun tunes and kept shouting, "LOS ANGELES!" over and over again.



The Tower lobby.



Inside the Tower. Notice there isn't much room for a widescreen. That's because the Tower mostly showed newsreels back in the day.



"Arnie" outside the Palace Theatre.



The grandest of all the movie palaces on Broadway (even if it needs a rehab), the Los Angeles Theatre.



One of the night's more unusual (and popular!) attractions: Free haircuts, right there on the street!



Mariachi band performs to a large crowd on the street.



The audience at the Million Dollar Theatre waits for a show to begin.



The magic of Sebastian Kraine, on stage at the Million Dollar Theatre.



Comedian magician David Kovac, also at the Million Dollar, wowed the kids with his impressive act.



Those sound like tasty ice pops.



Street art



Coincidentally, I saw someone dressed like Charlie Chaplin enter one of the theaters. Weird coincidence?



It is taking WAY too long for Clifton's, closed since 2011, to reopen. But this new neon signage is a good indicator that things are still happening. The "Living History" boast is a little odd (and unnecessary) but I'll let that slide.



Outside the Globe.



The best part of the evening was probably watching the String Theory band perform at the Orpheum. They sounded great, and we would have stayed there all night if we didn't have antsy kids.



Required eating next to the Orpheum: Two Boots Pizza.



Orpheum, still decked out for the event.

Here's a roundup from last year's Bringing Back Broadway event.

Urgent: Save Norm's La Cienega

Nooo! They can't take Norms away! The LA Conservancy is sending out the alarm that the new owners of the iconic Norm's La Cienega restaurant have received a permit to demolish the building. More:

On January 15, 2015, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC) will meet and hopefully vote in support to take Norms La Cienega Coffee Shop under consideration for Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) status. Designed by influential modern architects Louis Armet and Eldon Davis and completed in 1957, Norms La Cienega is an exuberant example of the California coffee shop type and an expressive Googie masterwork.
In December 2014, the Conservancy and its Modern Committee nominated Norms La Cienega for designation as an HCM for its association with the firm of Armet & Davis, its pioneering Googie design, and its enduring significance in Los Angeles' postwar landscape.
On January 5, the new owner of Norms applied for and received a permit to demolish the building at 470-478 La Cienega Boulevard. Regardless of the active permit, if the Cultural Heritage Commission acts to take Norms La Cienega under consideraton for Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) status the building will be afforded interim protection until City Council acts on this issue.

As Los Angeles magazine's Chris Nichols recently reported, the Norms Restaurant chain was sold at the end of last year, after 65 years of family ownership.

L.A. Conservancy's Latest Event Hearts Garden Apartments

The L.A. Conservancy's occasional day-long driving tour events always offer new and interesting insights into lesser-known parts of the city. (Read our recap of the organization's event around downtown's 7th Street here, and "It's a Mod, Mod, Mod City" event here.)

In the case of this Saturday's "We Heart Garden Apartments!" – a one-day tour of three "villages in the city" -- it's a chance to get up close to some of the mid-century garden apartments that you may have seen from the outside, but not much more than that.

Details:

Imagine living in a garden oasis in the middle of America’s second-largest city. Thousands of people do, and it’s a unique and endangered way of life in development-prone L.A. Here’s a chance to see what life is like in historic garden apartments, “villages in the city” that could never be built today.

Los Angeles has one of the largest collections of garden apartments in the nation, with nearly forty built between the late 1930s and the mid-1950s. Why are these communities so special?
· They put people first, connecting people to each other and to nature
· They are forward-thinking, blending housing needs with innovative architecture, landscape design, and city planning
· They’re still great places to live today

Ironically, part of what makes garden apartments so special – their low density and vast open space – makes them increasingly vulnerable to demolition and redevelopment.

The tour will provide rare public access to Village Green in Baldwin Hills (1941), Chase Knolls in Sherman Oaks (1948), and Lincoln Place in Venice (1951). Guests will also learn about the L.A. Conservancy’s efforts to preserve Wyvernwood in Boyle Heights (1939), L.A.’s first large-scale garden apartment community.

Saturday, November 1
10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$35 general public, $25 L.A. Conservancy members and tour site residents, $15 students, $10 kids 12 and under
Go to www.laconservancy.org/gardentour for tickets.

End of the Road for the 1927 Figueroa-Riverside Bridge

Activists had hoped to save the 1927 Figueroa-Riverside Bridge, but unfortunately failed. Above, you can see the replacement bridge, still under construction, while behind it the destruction of the old bridge continues. Some background from the L.A. Times here:

Neighborhood activists and architects had envisioned turning the old Riverside Drive span into a "bridging green space" through which bicyclists and pedestrians could cross the river. Architect Kevin Mulcahy, whose firm RAC Design Build laid out a plan for converting the bridge, described the proposed project as "the missing link" that would tie together initiatives to revive the riverfront.

The idea comes amid a flurry of plans to revitalize portions of the Los Angeles River, centering on a proposed $1- billion remake of an 11-mile stretch of the waterway just north of downtown.

Demolishing the old concrete and metal truss bridge is part of a replacement plan the City Council approved eight years ago. Backers of the proposal to preserve the bridge point out that the original plan called for a new bridge to be built where the current one stands. Instead, the new bridge is being built upstream.

A few more pics, taken last weekend as we rode our bikes along the river:

Beverly Hills' Robinsons-May, Disappearing Forever

I've spent the last two weeks driving every day to the Beverly Hilton hotel, site of the Television Critics Association press tour, watching the sad demolition of the once proud Robinsons-May department store building. Until recently, even the sign remained, even though the Robinsons-May brand disappeared in 2006. Although many Robinsons-May stores were converted to Macy's, this location -- originally a Robinson's, before J.W. Robinson's and the May Company merged in 1993, shut down entirely.

According to Curbed L.A., the site has not been sold, but the owners decided to tear the building down anyway.

A Tour Through the Renovated Brand Library, One of Glendale's Crown Jewels

Glendale's Brand Library & Art Center re-opened this weekend after a two-year renovation that gave the old mansion-turned-library a beautiful and much-needed makeover. One of Glendale's founders, Leslie Brand, called it home -- and now it's one of Glendale's classiest attractions. Some history:

The Brand Library is housed in the mansion Brand built in 1904 named El Miradero. A gallery and recital hall was added in 1969. Located in Brand Park, high in the foothills overlooking Glendale and the San Fernando Valley, the Library serves an ever-widening public interested in the arts.

The design of El Miradero is similar to the East Indian Pavilion built for the 1893 Columbian World Exposition held in Chicago and visited by Brand. The architecture is considered Saracenic, with crenellated arches, bulbous domes and minars combining characteristics of Spanish, Moorish, and Indian styles.

Brand died in the house in 1925. He bequeathed El Miradero to the city and Mrs. Brand lived in the house until her death in 1945. The will provided that the property be used exclusively for a public park and library. By 1956 the mansion had been converted into Brand Library. Years later, in response to the need for more arts space, the City Council allocated funds to construct an addition to Brand Library that would include facilities for art exhibitions, lectures and concerts, as well as art and craft studios. The new addition was dedicated in October 1969.

Some pics I took while touring the Brand during its grand re-opening celebration this weekend:


Paintings of Leslie Brand and his wife hang on opposite sides of the front door (which is actually no longer used as the Brand Library entrance).


Before the renovation, these rooms were filled with books. Now they've been restored to sitting areas and a bit more reminiscent of how the house once was.


A replica of the fireplace that once sat here, facing the front door. Prior to the renovation, the checkout table sat here.


These pocket doors were restored as part of the renovation.


The well-lit center of the house/library.


Workers found this tapestry rolled up and collecting dust in the basement, where it sat there for decades.


Light fixtures that are close replicas to the originals.


No, this is not Leslie Brand, and library officials aren't quite sure who it was, but perhaps the original painters adorned this portrait on the ceiling in honor of someone. But who?


Above the entrance fireplace, Brand's initials "LB" are restored on the ceiling. Brand's wife had them removed after his death -- perhaps she wasn't too thrilled to discover that her husband had several illegitimate children.


Ceiling detail. Unfortunately, this is a replica, rather than the original restored. Unfortunately, the original ceiling -- hidden for decades behind a 1950s-era popcorn ceiling -- was damaged far beyond repair. But it's quite a nice replica.


This fireplace, in one of the sitting rooms, is indeed the original, and nicely restored.


Staircase to the upstairs. But because it's not ADA compliant, it's off limits to patrons.


Paintings in the Brand Gallery.


Also in the Brand Gallery.

Retro Friday: Los Angeles' Mid-Century Googie Coffee Shops

Via LA Observed, which writes:

A six-minute clip from Harry Pallenberg looks at the rise of Googie coffee shop architecture around Los Angeles. Included are old clips of Astro Burger, the Disneyland monorail, the old Carnation building on Wilshire Boulevard, a Van de Kamps drive-in, Pioneer Takeout, Ship's, Norm's, Pann's and interview's with Bob Wian of Bob's Big Boy, Googie architect Eldon Davis and author Alan Hess. They explain what construction advance allowed the exterior walls of coffee shops to be glass.

Save Henry's Tacos

Nearly 6,000 have already signed the petition, but another 2,000 signatures are needed, as enthusiasts of post-WWII design, San Fernando Valley historians and fans of gringo-style tacos band together in an attempt to keep Valley institution Henry's Tacos alive.

The L.A. Times has the details:

To its fans, there is something quintessentially L.A. about Henry's Tacos, which was opened in 1961 by a white guy from Nebraska, had bit parts in movies and TV shows like "Adam 12" and boasted loyal customers ranging from working Joes to Hollywood celebrities.

So when the owner announced earlier this month that Henry's Tacos would close at the end of year, fans rose up in protest.

Suddenly, long lines started forming around the modest midcentury stand at the corner of Moorpark Street and Tujunga Avenue. Celebrities such as Aaron Paul and Elijah Wood showed up to buy tacos and lend their support. And a Web campaign has taken off, including Facebook groups like "Occupy Tujunga" and hundreds of Twitter posts with the hashtag #SaveHenrysTacos.

The battle focuses in part on whether Henry's is more than a taco stand — whether it's actually a piece of history worthy of official preservation. In a city that boomed after World War II, L.A. has debated giving historic status to a car wash and space-age Googie buildings. But for devotees of Henry's, it's less about the architecture than the lifestyle it conjures.

According to the paper, the Henry's Tacos closyre came after owner Janis Hood applied for a historical monument designation for the stand last year. According to Hood, her landlord -- Beverly Hills businessman Mehran Ebrahimpour -- raised her rent 50% and refused to renew her lease after that. Ebrahimpour refused to comment to the newspaper.

Los Angeles Ad Town: Sensa at Bob's Big Boy in Downey

One of the bigger architectural conservation victories in recent years was the restoration of the former Johnie's Broiler in Downey. Now Bob's Big Boy Broiler, the whole building was halfway torn down when concerned citizens and politicians put a stop to it. A rehab has helped give the building a new sheen and make it one of the most filmed buildings in the region (including "Mad Men"). We visited Bob's Boy Broiler last year and filed this report/restaurant review; read it here.

And in the meantime, here's a recent commercial (from Sensa) with the Bob's in the backgroud.





And here's a pic from our visit in 2011: