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Preserving the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City.

August 21, 2012Posted in ArchitectureTagged "LA Conservancy", Architecture, CA, Century Plaza Hotel, LinksLeave a comment

From the LA Conservancy (words are quoted):

“ACTION ALERT UPDATE:
Century Plaza Hotel Project in Final Environmental Review
Planning Commission Hearing Thursday, August 23
8:30 a.m.
Van Nuys City Hall
14410 Sylvan Street
Van Nuys, 91401 ”

Century Plaza Hotel (1966).

As you may know, the 1966 Century Plaza Hotel in Century City was threatened with demolition in 2008 to make way for a proposed mixed-use project. If you were one of the many people who supported its preservation, thank you!

Through intensive advocacy, strong local leadership, vocal public support, and collaboration with the developer, the hotel was saved and incorporated as the centerpiece of the mixed-use development plan.

The plan has entered the final stage of environmental review, with the preservation option as the preferred project. This preferred plan will preserve the hotel building while allowing for new construction of two 46-story towers at the rear of the site.

This plan has the input and support of the Conservancy and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as neighborhood groups in the immediate area surrounding the hotel.

We are not asking for letters or e-mails in support of the preservation project, but we wanted to keep you informed on the process and let you know that if you would like to comment as a member of the public, there will be several more opportunities to do so.

The first is this Thursday, August 23, at a meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Commission at Van Nuys City Hall.

Planning Commission Hearing
Thursday, August 23
8:30 a.m.
Van Nuys City Hall
14410 Sylvan Street
Van Nuys, 91401 “

11026 Weddington St.

August 13, 2012August 15, 2012Posted in North HollywoodTagged CA, north hollywood, Photography, Street, Weddington St.1 Comment

11026 Weddington St., originally uploaded by Here in Van Nuys.

Van Nuys Blvd., March 1952 (view north)

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012Posted in History, Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "July 1952", "Van Nuys Blvd.", CA, Frolics Restaurant, Pacific Electric Car No. 5110", Ralph Cantos, Van Nuys and the ValleyLeave a comment

Ralph Cantos Collection

Pacific Electric car no. 5110 rolls along the “Central Business District” of Van Nuys in July 1952.

Frolics Restaurant (seen on right) was at 6216 Van Nuys Blvd.

While it is not a fancy street by any means, it is an arguably bustling and more interesting boulevard than present day. There is diagonal parking along the street, the road has not yet been widened (1954), there is a bright red streetcar going past and the buildings lining the road have windows and doors that “look out” onto the sidewalk.

All of this has been obliterated by the government monstrosities along the east side of the street whose blank walls and banality forever keep Van Nuys in a hellish 1975 architectural limbo.

17367 Parthenia Street, Northridge, 1945

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012Posted in HistoryTagged "17367 Parthenia St.", "Dr. Sidney Walker", 1945, Bancroft Library, CA, Japanese-Americans, Northridge, racial, UC BerkeleyLeave a comment

“This is the main dwelling on the beautiful walnut grove estate of Dr. Sidney Walker, 17367 Parthenia Street, Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley.

Dr. Walker has employed Yokichi Oyakawa, his son, Evan, and his daughter, Lily, who left Heart Mountain [internment camp] the end of February. Walker is a retired eye surgeon from Chicago and a veteran of World War I.

He is a real champion of the Japanese Americans and will go to bat with anybody and everybody who would deny evacuees the right to return to their homes. He is enthusiastic in his praise of the Oyakawas and allows them practically all the privileges of his estate even to the use of his beautiful swimming pool. Oyakawa is head gardener and his son, Evan, helps when not attending classes at UCLA, where he is a student. The daughter, Lily, holds the position of maid. The family occupies their own modern home just a few yards from that of the doctor and his wife. — Photographer: Mace, Charles E. — Northridge, California. 6/2/45

Contributing Institution:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

4419 Fulton Terrace

July 26, 2012July 27, 2012Posted in ArchitectureTagged "4419 Fulton", "LA Conservancy", "Maynard Parker", 1963, Architecture, CA, historic, Huntington Collection, MODCOM, photograph, Studio CityLeave a comment

Huntington Archives

I have often passed this apartment at 4419 Fulton, north of Moorpark, and noticed its unique and graphic address sign. While searching through the archives of photographer Maynard Parker (1900-1976) housed at the Huntington, I came across photos he made in 1963.

Masculine and modern, the squat and flattened lettering, ingeniously aligned with the low slung horizontality of the building, is as much architecture as the architecture itself. Almost cartoonish and leading into pop-art, it leaves behind the decorative scrolling that marked 1950s apartments whose builders slapped their daughter’s names on building fronts (“Debby Ann”, “Stacy Lynn”) or borrowed from faraway places (Tahiti, Hawaii or Fiji). The indoor entrance, private and serene, concrete slabs floating across water, marries Japan to Southern California.

If this building is not on a historic preservation list- it should be.

Title:Fulton Terrace Apartments. Exterior. Los Angeles, CA

Architects: Burlew and Liszt.

Creator/Contributor:

Parker, Maynard L., 1901-1976.

1963 May

Contributing Institution:Huntington Library, Photo Archive

Down on Venice

July 18, 2012July 18, 2012Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged CA, Poets and Philosophers, VeniceLeave a comment

Down on Venice why
Should have it in my hand.
The Golden State I mean.
Where I went and encountered
A place I didn’t like.
Who knows why
I didn’t fit in.
They told me so
in many words and gestures.

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