Tag: Wells Fargo

The Sun Came Up Slowly Above Sepulveda.

Posted in Van Nuys and the ValleyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

15200 Victory Blvd. 2 15200 Victory Blvd.Under dark, glassy, reflective, translucent, stormy, gray, inky blue clouds Van Nuys awoke today.

The hot sun and its aggression were held back. And the light came up slowly. The workers sat in their cars along Victory waiting for the red light to turn green.

Humidity, and the hint of rain, the blessed promise of water, hung in the air.

The Barn (in back)

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Bulldozers carried pieces of broken-up pavement in the Wendy’s parking lot as mechanical jackhammers tore into old asphalt. Construction workers attacked the building, skillfully peeling and nailing glossy, modern effects.

West down Erwin, old cars and overgrown bushes flank houses where age and decay cannot hide. The past and its four-wheeled rusty remainders sit on driveways.

Erwin Near Langdon  Victory, where quiet houses sit next to six lanes of traffic.

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Back on the corner of Sepulveda and Victory, right where the police shot a man to death after he broke their window with a beer bottle, the empty parking lots and bank buildings are mute, without feeling, marooned in a landscape of cheap indifference.

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There is no civic center, no park, no church, no place to sit. The frenzy of cars and donut shops, office supplies and Jiffy Lube, this is one of the many centers of Van Nuys. But the center cannot hold. The consensus of American life is scattered here, as it is all over the land. Somewhere in the shadows, thousands of homeless are waking up in alleys, in their cars, behind buildings. The normality of life seems normal but things are awry.

When the traffic eases, people will speed past here, and some will run across the intersection to board buses, and the day and its distractions will obliterate the early morning calm.

Breaking Up the Mass.

Posted in ArchitectureTagged , , , 4 Comments

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Far be it from me to complain when our neighborhood actually gets a building that marches up to the sidewalk instead of presenting a parking lot as a facade.

The new Wells Fargo branch bank at the SE corner of Sepulveda and Victory, is almost complete. It has a streamline smooth stucco shape, with angled corner windows inset to protect against the harsh Western sun. There is a discreet parking lot in back, and new high tech security cameras. This intersection is also home to a new camera for catching red-light runners.

But the color of the new building is ugly. At first, it looked like it was going to be all white. Great choice, especially for an art-deco like style. Then I saw orange caulk between the stucco. That seemed interesting to me: an all white building with discreet orange lines. But then the spray guns came out.

Now the little building is two tones: refried bean red and orange soda. It’s as if they were trying to appeal to the local people’s taste in food. It is tacky and only ten years out of date. This is what edgy Santa Monica architects built in 1997.

Wells Fargo is one of those enormous companies which earns obscene amounts of money from high interest credit cards and all those little fees on checking accounts. It is a conglomerate that swallowed and spit out many smaller banks that it bought up in the last decade. Isn’t it funny how it is trying to fool the public with this incredibly soft and shrinking branch bank that looks like a homely girl’s second hand closet of colors? Big and mean with a mask of cheap mascara.