Millard Sheets – Here in Van Nuys

Bank of America at Haynes and Van Nuys Blvd.

September 22, 2017September 22, 2017Posted in Housing, Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "Bank of America", "Julius Shulman", Chase Bank, history, Homeless, Millard Sheets, Paul Revere Williams, Van Nuys BlLeave a comment

gri_2004_r_10_b904_f14_004 — Ph: Julius Shulman

gri_2004_r_10_b904_f14_001 — Ph: Julius Shulman

Many are familiar with the large, architecturally impressive Bank of America at Haynes and Van Nuys Blvd. It was designed by Paul Revere Williams, a prominent architect who was also an African-American Angeleno. The bank was built in 1967 and features murals inside and out by artist Millard Sheets. In 1968, famed photographer Julius Shulman photographed the bank. It was a high point for civic architecture in Van Nuys, and perhaps the last time this area felt proud of its main street.

Prior to the 1967 bank, there was a more humble, late Art Deco, Bank of America at this same location, 6551 Van Nuys Bl.

In this black and white photograph, one sees the crisp, scrubbed-down, finely cared for building. Around it was a thriving street with well-dressed, law abiding citizens, and perhaps the occasional criminal whose activities were the exception not the rule.

DKV-uMvUQAAoTRM.jpg-large — Chase Bank, Sepulveda at Victory.

Today, human beings in Van Nuys sleep, eat, and defecate alongside bank buildings. Their disgraceful conditions scarcely cause anyone to notice. Or care.

In 2017, we are so busy congratulating ourselves on our “tolerance”that we forget that things that were once intolerable, illegal and immoral were considered so for many good reasons. In our gross barbarity, in our willful blindness to the suffering of neighbors, we are co-defendents in a new type of indecent nation, one that tests our moral fiber and will present itself to history for judgment.

Human beings do not belong on the street. They should be housed safely, affordably, with sanitation and security. Call this conservative, call this liberal, call this anything you want.

Return to Van Nuys Savings and Loan

May 21, 2016Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged "6569 Van Nuys Bl.", "La Tapachulteca", "Van Nuys Savings and Loan", Culver Heaton, decay, decline, Grime, Homelessness, Maynard Parker, Millard Sheets, urban4 Comments

In an earlier post, I wrote about the old Van Nuys Savings and Loan, at 6569 Van Nuys Boulevard.

It was built in 1955 and designed by architect Culver Heaton with murals by noted artist Millard Sheets.

Modernity and innovation were expressed in its zig-zag roof, screened metal panels and wide, airy interior, a place of efficient banking and progressive faith in the future of Van Nuys which was booming in housing, retail, industry and education.

This was a place for people to save and earn 4 1/2% annual interest, guaranteed. This was an institution whose name was spoken of with pride. And who worked within the community to loan money and helped invest in productive enterprises.

Nobody in 1955 could have imagined what Van Nuys has now become.

La Tapachulteca is a Guatemalan grocery store that currently occupies the old bank building. I came here and photographed the exterior just as photographer Maynard Parker once did.

Yesterday, May 20, 2016, on the same day the brand new Expo Rail line opened to connect downtown to Santa Monica, a homeless woman slept here in a pigeon pooped, urine sprinkled, dirty entrance where unwashed windows and grime completed a scene of degradation and filth.

Los Angeles is building its future in public transport by emulating the past.

Streetcars once ran up and down Van Nuys Boulevard. Service stopped in 1952. The boulevard was widened to accommodate more cars, and vast parking lots were built behind Van Nuys Boulevard, while walls of blankness went up on the street because all activity was now behind. The street went dead.

And now only cars promenade along the boulevard, or rather speed past without stopping.

The store, like the bank before it, is scheduled to close down.

In its place, a new mixed-use residential/commercial building will be erected. The bank building, once an architectural jewel, will be bulldozed and dumped and carted away.

Perhaps a community needs to hit rock bottom to again climb up into prosperity.

If one building’s decline is emblematic of a whole area’s fall, can a new structure represent a new beginning for an entire area?

Time will tell…

Van Nuys Savings and Loan.

April 22, 2016April 22, 2016Posted in HistoryTagged "15425 Sherman Way", "Boaz Miodovsky", "Curbed LA", "Herb Goldman", "Huntington Library", "Ketter Construction", "La Tapachulteca", "Real Estate", "Van Nuys Neighborhood Council", "Van Nuys Savings and Loan", Architecture, Bank, Culver Heaton, Maynard Parker, Millard Sheets, photographs, San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard9 Comments

In 1954, architect Culver Heaton’s design for the Van Nuys Savings and Loan, with interior murals by artist Millard Sheets, rose at 6569 N. Van Nuys Bl.

Along with other financial institutions such as Jefferson Savings, Lincoln Savings, Great Western Bank and Bank of America, they served the local community of hard-working people who opened accounts that paid 3% or 4 1/2% interest and where polite tellers, dressed in pearls and high heels, addressed customers by their last (never their first) name.

Photographer Maynard Parker shot these images of the bank exterior and interiors. They bespeak a dignified and progressive institution whose architecture was as up-to-date as its vision of a prosperous, safe Van Nuys. A sign on the outside of the building reads “The Home of Security” leaving no doubt to depositors about the solidity of the S&L.

Mr. Sheets was a prodigious artist whose work can be seen all over Southern California, most notably on the exteriors of many of those white, marble clad, Home Savings of America buildings that resemble mausoleums.

Architect Culver Heaton designed many Mid 20^th Century churches in Southern California in a style of expressionistic eccentricity long departed from our stripped-down imagination. His Chapel of the Jesus Ethic in Glendale (1965) is almost campy in form with its prayerful red roof, rising like hands, above a turquoise reflecting pool and a statue of Jesus on water fashioned by Herb Goldman.

In the 1980s, there was a national scandal and shakeout in the savings and loan industry and many closed down. The de-industrialization of Van Nuys, and its decline as a manufacturing and commercial center, coincided with a tremendous increase in immigration from Central America.

Today, a Guatemalan market, La Tapachulteca, occupies the old bank property.

But last year, in a hopeful sign of better times, Boaz Miodovsky of Ketter Construction, who is the new owner, plans on demolishing the old bank which has now been degraded from its original condition. His company will design and erect a multi-story apartment house with ground floor retail. The front, on VNB, will be five stories tall and taper down to three stories in back.These illustrations, which he sent to me, are preliminary and will be further refined to include landscaping and additional detail.

Nostalgist and Van Nuys Neighborhood Council member John Hendry, who grew up and still lives in Van Nuys, alerted me to the impending demolition and asked me to research the origins of the historic structure. Quirino De La Cuesta, another VNNC member, stepped in and purchased these images from the Huntington Library.

And Mr. Miodovsky, in a nod to the old murals, will have new artwork painted within the new structure. It will be created by local artists and reflect the continuing development of Van Nuys which hit its bottom and is now climbing out parcel by parcel.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: