Issues List •  Issues in Brief •  Contact City Council
 

CURRENT PRESERVATION ISSUES
Updated March 2008

BARLOW HOSPITAL

Barlow Respiratory Hospital, a very significant historic campus on the edge of Elysian Park along Stadium Way, continues to face potential demolition. Barlow has a rich history dating back to 1902, as the Barlow Sanitorium for tuberculosis patients. The site actually has thirty-one separate “contributing” (historic) buildings dating from 1902 to 1952, mostly in the Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival styles. It has been recognized as City Historic-Cultural Monument No. 504, and a historic resources evaluation in 1992 found the site eligible for listing as a National Register historic district.

In the early 1990s, and again from 2000-2002, the hospital had considered demolition of several significant structures on the site in order to accommodate a larger, more functional new facility. State law also now mandates hospitals to meet rigorous seismic requirements by 2013. The hospital’s leadership has stated that it cannot raise the funds necessary to build a new facility while also rehabilitating the historic structures. It is therefore offering the site to a range of developers, most of whom are considering higher-density residential developments that would demolish all or most of the site’s historic resources. The Conservancy has expressed its concerns publicly and is working with the Echo Park Historical Society and Elysian Park advocates to ensure that Barlow’s rich history remains a centerpiece of any proposed redevelopment of the site.

CITYWIDE HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY

The Conservancy is proud to participate on the advisory committee for the first-ever comprehensive survey of Los Angeles’ historic resources, led by the city’s Office of Historic Resources (OHR) and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). Known as SurveyLA: The Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey Project, this multi-year, multi-disciplinary effort will transform the city’s ability to protect our rich yet vulnerable architectural heritage.

The citywide survey has long been one of the Conservancy’s top legislative priorities and is one of the most important citywide historic preservation initiatives in many years. Historic resource surveys are the cornerstone of any local government preservation program. Only by knowing what historic resources exist can a city begin to take steps to protect them, and GCI’s research has revealed that less than fifteen percent of Los Angeles has ever been inventoried.

Made possible by m atching grant funding of up to $2.5 million from the Getty Foundation, the survey will take place in two phases over five years. The first phase, now under way, will provide a consistent framework for the survey by creating a citywide historic context statement and a field guide to survey evaluation.

SurveyLA will methodically identify, catalog, and make publicly accessible information about potentially historic resources throughout the city. In addition to enabling proactive preservation measures for specific structures, the survey’s findings will inform development and urban planning decisions, helping to shape the city’s future growth in a way that respects our cultural heritage.

COMMONWEALTH SAVINGS & LOAN BUILDING

Commonwealth Savings & Loan Building. Photo by John Eng.

In May 2007, the Conservancy and its volunteer Modern Committee nominated the Commonwealth Savings & Loan Building in North Hollywood as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The Cultural Heritage Commission narrowly voted to take the nomination under consideration. The third and final hearing before the commission will take place on September 6, at which time the commissioners will vote on whether to recommend the building’s landmark designation to the City Council.

Designed by architect Gerald Bense and completed in 1961, the six-story office building at 5077 Lankershim Boulevard is one of the finest mid-twentieth-century office buildings in the San Fernando Valley. Remarkably, today’s development climate allows the six-story Commonwealth building to be seen as a plausible teardown. The current owner proposes to demolish the historic office building and replace it with a large, 136-unit condominium project. The Commonwealth building occupies a relatively small part of the larger development parcel, and the Conservancy sees great potential for a scaled-back project that would sensitively embrace and reuse the historic tower.


GRIFFITH PARK

HALL OF JUSTICE

Hall of Justice, 1939. Photo by Burton O. Burt, from the WPA Collection/Los Angeles Public Library.

The Conservancy has been participating in discussions with the County of Los Angeles to finalize plans for its proposed rehabilitation of the Hall of Justice building, on Temple Street in the Civic Center, as the new headquarters of the Sheriff’s Department and for other county offices. The 1926 Beaux Arts building has been vacant since the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and FEMA funding will cover a portion of the rehabilitation costs. The project will result in the exterior rehabilitation and thorough cleaning of the building, as well as the restoration of the building’s grand lobby and loggia.

The upper floors will be significantly transformed to convert the building to office space, including the top five floors that formerly served as the county’s main jail facility. It played a significant role in the criminal justice history of Los Angeles, housing such notable arrestees as “Bugsy” Siegel, Robert Mitchum, Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan. The county will relocate a representative corridor of jail cells to the building’s basement, where it will be periodically accessible to the public.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION OVERLAY ZONES


JOHNIE'S BROILER

LANKERSHIM TRAIN DEPOT

The Conservancy has been advocating for the restoration of North Hollywood’s Lankershim Train Depot at the corner of Lankershim Blvd. and South Chandler Boulevard. Built circa 1896, the depot is one of the San Fernando Valley’s few nineteenth-century landmarks and is the Valley’s oldest unmodified railroad structure. The structure is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and is currently under review for Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation.

The building has sat vacant for several years on Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) property as the MTA and Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) struggled to reach agreement on its future. Previously, both agencies were considering a proposed development project for the site that would have relocated the depot to a less visible location about a block west of its historic location. In 2006, the MTA proposed spending $3.6 million to rehabilitate the station, potentially as a transit information center, as the depot is located at the terminus of the Orange Line East-West busway and across from the North Hollywood Red Line station. The Conservancy applauds the MTA’s initiative and will continue to oppose the relocation of the building that historically anchored the entire North Hollywood community.

LOS ANGELES RIVER BRIDGES

PRESERVATION ORDINANCE CHANGES

SANTA ANITA RACETRACK

The Conservancy has worked to preserve the historic Santa Anita Racetrack since 1999, when owner Frank Stronach erected large elevator towers that dramatically altered the racetrack’s façade, as well as a new restaurant in the historic grandstand, without submitting the project for appropriate public review. Most recently, the Conservancy responded to a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on developer Rick Caruso’s proposed retail/entertainment project at the property’s south parking lot.

In addition to its architectural significance, shaped by noted architect Gordon Kaufmann, and its associations with racing history, Santa Anita was the largest Assembly Center for the Japanese-American internment in World War II. About 20,000 Japanese-Americans lived at the racetrack during 1942, in temporary housing in the stable area and in barracks constructed on the site’s parking lot. The racetrack was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

In April 2007, the Arcadia City Council approved a plan to develop a 830,000-square-foot commercial, retail, and office project on the south parking lot of the racetrack. The Conservancy is particularly concerned about the potential demolition of the property’s 1938 Saddling Barn and South Ticket Gate. The Conservancy has asked developer Caruso to examine alternatives to this plan, as well as ways to reverse the inappropriate 1999 elevator tower additions.

WEST LOS ANGELES REGIONAL BRANCH LIBRARY

The Conservancy is working to protect the West Los Angeles Regional branch library, located on Santa Monica Boulevard at Purdue Avenue. A recently approved citywide master plan for the Los Angeles Public Library branch system has placed into question the future of this mid-century branch library. One of the proposed alternatives calls for the library’s demolition, followed by new construction on an expanded site that would encompass the area now occupied by the recently restored Civic Center Plaza with its futuristic band shell. The second alternative provides for the relocation of the library to a new building at a new site.

The West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library was constructed in 1956 by the local firm of Allison & Rible, who were responsible for several postwar-era buildings throughout Los Angeles. The architects sought to create a sense of harmony and cohesiveness with the mid-century modernist aesthetic found among the adjacent court buildings of the West Los Angeles Civic Center. The façade of the West Los Angeles Regional branch remains intact, although the interior has been remodeled.

If the library remains at its current location, the Conservancy advocates for the reuse of the current building through a sensitive and creative enlargement that preserves the distinctive portion fronting Santa Monica Boulevard while avoiding encroachment onto the Civic Center Plaza. The Conservancy believes that this is feasible and has pointed to a number of creative expansions successfully completed at other historic branch libraries, particularly those in neighboring Santa Monica.