Tag: Art Deco

The White City.

Posted in ArchitectureTagged , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Many times have I passed the cement yard and concrete loft building on Romaine at LaBrea, never stopping or walking around the remnants of 1930s industrialism still present in present-day Los Angeles.


This past Saturday, I did stop, and parked on Romaine at Sycamore, behind the cement yard, in front of the Producer’s Film Library, housed in two story 1930s streamline building. Bold letters along the side announce CLIMATE CONTROLLED FILM AND TAPE STORAGE, already an industry preserving archival, not current media.

Without fanfare or specialness, there is a march of architectural glory along Romaine, a grouping of white structures; grand and confident, living, eternally young and confident, glistening and glorious against the blue sky, standing mutely on treeless streets and sidewalks.


Walk east on Romaine towards Highland and you will see a ten-story tall, long and narrow block of verticality towering over asphalt.

To your right, you will pass a one story curved building, gracefully and slickly embellished with rounded lines, rhythmic and functional steel windows.


At Highland, go south and stand under the crumbling grace of the old hexagonal Texaco station, a perfect jewel of Art Deco design, ravaged with cancerous vandalism, overhangs melting and dying.

On the east side of Highland at Willoughby, the magnificent white soap bubbles of the two story tall ALSCO factory speak of industrial architecture unafraid of plain spoken ornament.

No signs or guidance, no official sanction seems to value this district. Only the intelligence and intuition of the individual can detect the beauty, the drive, the fire and the dreams of old Los Angeles, the place that built for beauty 80 years ago atop bean fields and lettuce farms.

Get out and walk. Get out of the car. A city awaits.

Engine Company No. 39

Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

One of the great historic buildings of Los Angeles, Fire Station No. 39 (14415 Sylvan Street Van Nuys, California 91401) was built in 1939 by the WPA.

A few years ago, destructionists in Van Nuys, lead by Councilman Cardenas, proposed that the old fire station with its narrow garage, unsuited for modern wide equipment, be torn down. This blog wrote about the impending destruction, and the nihilists on the City Council reversed course, pulled a Romney, and said the station would and should be saved.

The Fire Station dates back to a time when architects actually blended and harmonized their designs to fit into existing neighborhoods. The Valley Municipal Building, just across the street, is what the fire station design salutes.

Now Van Nuys will sit idly by as the historic 1925 First Lutheran Church is bulldozed away.

An impoverished community is thus impoverished historically and aesthetically.

Destroying an Architectural Gem in Van Nuys.

Posted in Architecture, Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged , , , , , , , , , , 9 Comments

Facade Engine Co 39.jpg
3948817675_8973867d92
Sylvan St. Van Nuys

At a MODCOM meeting last night, I learned that an Art Deco architectural gem in Van Nuys may be destroyed.

Engine Company No. 39 was built in 1939 and has all the dignity, solidity and beauty of governmental buildings from that era. It sits just across the street from the Valley Municipal Building and is a handsome civic structure.

An article in the Contra Costa Times quotes Councilman Tony Cardenas:

“Councilman Tony Cardenas said he appreciated the beauty of the building, which was built in the Art Moderne style, but added the time had come to replace it.

“Today, probably as much as ever, people can appreciate how important it is for us to have the best — the best equipped, best-manned fire department in the country,” Cardenas said.

“This is an opportunity for us to invest in the community of Van Nuys and to replace the 70-year old station,” he added. “Not that everything that is at least 70 years old needs to be replaced, but I think it’s important that we do our responsible duty when it comes to facilities.”

This quote, by Councilman Cardenas, shows a very short sighted and appalling ignorance of both history and community. While nobody would argue for the need to have the best fire protection available, why does this necessitate destroying a historically significant building?

During Mr. Cardenas’ tenure, the old Whitsett Home, built by the man who founded Van Nuys in 1911, was bulldozed and now there is an empty lot on the site. Now Mr. Cardenas wants to literally remove one of the finest examples of 1930’s streamline design in Van Nuys.

The secession of a neighborhood of Van Nuys which now calls itself “Sherman Oaks” was a recent embarrassment to Mr. Cardenas. But how and why would people want to live in Van Nuys, which remains, at least on its main thoroughfares, filthy and unspeakably ugly and wears its badge of shame without shame? Is Mr. Cardenas on a mission to bring down Van Nuys or build it up? One has to wonder….

Van Nuys was once the jewel of the San Fernando Valley. It’s civic pride was embodied in buildings like the Fire Station No. 39. Along with the old library, the old post office and the municipal building, these were walkable and civilized arrangements for conducting one’s daily business.

Are there not acres of empty parking lots, underutilized industrial lots, and vast acres of crappy broken down ugliness lining such streets as Sepulveda, Van Owen and Kester? You mean, Mr. Cardenas, that the only possible location for a new fire station is on the site of one that dates back to the administration of FDR?

Van Nuys is crying out for someone with a vision, and a sensitivity to beauty, and instead we are under the administration of a boor who would allow the destruction of one of the finest examples of streamline moderne architecture in Los Angeles.