Holiday Inn, Sunset Blvd.
Not your typical Holiday inn by any stretch, this 16-story motor hotel began construction in June 1969. The architectural firm Lundgren & Maurer handled the design. Seven years earlier, the firm also designed Holiday Inn’s 200th unit in Palm Springs (currently Parker Palm Springs).
The wheel-shaped motor hotel on Sunset changed hands around 2004 and was rebranded as Hotel Angeleno.
Hollywood Blvd., 1952
Looking West from the roof of the Broadway Hollywood department store, circa 1952. To the immediate right is a partial view of the 12-story Guaranty Building, which opened on the corner of Hollywood and Ivar in October 1924.
Down on the right is retailer Foreman & Clark. Started by W. A. Foreman and A. J. Clark, the retailer opened downtown locations around 1914 including; 5th and Broadway, 3rd and Main, and 7th and Hill — which became home to the Jewelry Design Center in 1979.
Opening in Hollywood in 1940, the successful men’s shop expanded with locations in Carlsbad and San Diego but sold their last sport shirt around 1973. The Hollywood location was home to the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in the mid-1970s.
Further up on the same side is the Warner Bros. Theatre which opened in 1927. Designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, the structure is noticeable here by the KFWB rooftop antenna towers.
Hollywood Hotel
The stately hotel, shown here in its last days was a few years from being torn down.
With investment from Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, the Hollywood Hotel was built in 1903 with 40 rooms. Architects Elmer Gray and Myron Hunt added to the hotels’ expansion in 1910 — which had been sold to the chocolate heiress, Myra Hershey.
Taking up a full city block, the luxury hotel attracted filmland’s finest — Valentino took up Room 264. Enveloped in tropical plants, the hotel offered comfort and relaxation, as well as tennis, pool, billiards, and weekly dances in the Grand Dining Room.
Sadly, the landmark hotel on the northwest corner of Prospect Avenue (Hollywood) and Highland was demolished in 1956. Developer C. E. Toberman had ambitious plans for a complex he called the Hollywood Center, with architects Austin, Field & Fry.
Ultimately, the corner became the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Hollywood building in early 1959.
Hollywoodland Sign
From the vantage point at Santa Monica and Highland.
On the right is the Cinema Hotel, built by local developer H.H. Kroth in 1925. Located on McCadden Place, the 60-room, three-story brick building had two notable residents including; Joe Brandstatter, brother of famed restaurateur, Eddie, as well as actor Ted Billings (Bride of Frankenstein, 1935). The building survived until the mid-1980s.
And beneath the rolling clouds on the hilltop, far away in the back sits a world-famous sign — 50 feet high and 30 feet wide.
The sign might just as well advertise mashed eels in Walthamstow, as the letter “H” fell victim to Mother Nature. The tall, white letters, once adorned with electric bulbs now read “Ollywoodland”. The bulbs were turned off in 1933, one year after Peg Entwhistle leaped to her death.
Originally marking real estate development, the “land” section would be removed in late 1949 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce — the sign already in decline, though the “H” was restored.
Home Savings and Loan, 1967
By 1961, Home Savings and Loan was the biggest savings and loan company in the US, boasting $1B in assets. Founded in 1889, the financial institution was purchased in 1947 by Howard F. Ahmanson. Sensing boom times ahead, Home Savings expanded rapidly throughout the Southland, thanks in part to Ahmanson providing a branch system — with offices “wherever you live, work, or shop.”
During the mid-1950s, the bank made several acquisitions including; Long Beach North American, Occidental, Arcadia Savings and Loan, and Pasadena Savings and Loan. In 1956, the firm opened their new two-story Beverly Hills office. The design was handled by Millard Sheets. The noted painter was involved with many of Ahmanson’s banks, including the Home Savings branch at Sunset and Vine, which opened in 1968.
Early Days
The lot at Sunset and Vine in Hollywood was formerly part of a ranch owned by Colonel Robert Northam. In 1901, Colonel Northam constructed the barn that became the Lasky-DeMille Barn. Real estate developer Jacob Stern acquired the property in 1904.
In 1913, filmmakers Harry Revier and L.L. Burns leased the barn on Stern’s ranch for their fledgling studio. The duo also founded the Western Costume Company. Cecil B. DeMille and Jesse L. Lasky sub-leased the barn for Jesse. L. Lasky Feature Play Company, which filmed portions of The Squaw Man, the first full-length Hollywood feature on that site.
The original lot was later used by several small commercial entities and acquired by the National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) to be the site of its West Coast Radio City Studio. Designed by architect John C.W. Austin, the Streamline Moderne building was completed in 1938 and served as the West Coast headquarters of NBC until 1964, when NBC relocated to Burbank. The building at Sunset and Vine was demolished.
The property was then purchased by Howard Ahmanson.
Home of the Stars
Located at the northeast corner of North Vine Street, construction began in 1967 with John A. Anderson listed as architect. Artist Millard Sheets designed the building using the New Formalist “jewel box” style — a style developed during the mid-1950s.
Based in Claremont, Millard Sheets created the exterior mosaics and an interior mural with assistance from Susan Lautmann Hertel (1930-1993). Having worked with Millard Sheets since 1953, Hertel’s work was applied to over a dozen Home Savings locations, as well as the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Wilshire Blvd. In 1980, Home Savings and Loan commissioned the studio for their Long Beach branch.
The exterior at Sunset and Vine also featured a fountain with a statue of Zeus and Europa, created by Paul Manship in the 1920s.
Amid much fanfare... the new Home of the Stars opened in June 1968. In addition to paying the highest interest in the nation, the bank offered customers refreshments and a free souvenir book, "From Oranges to Oscars". On hand for the opening were Charlton Heston and Elsa Lanchester. Newspapers reported the old Pathé camera used by Cecil B. DeMille to shoot The Squaw Man in 1913 was on display.
With its movie-inspired murals and mosaics, the Hollywood office — which became something of tourist attraction, was created as a living memorial to the entertainment industry. Both Clara Bow and Norma Talmadge had their Stars on the Walk of Fame there.
Despite various structural alterations over the years (including a bank vault being added in 1985), the bank remained historically intact, although the interior was remodeled in 2005. Home Savings and Loan underwent several ownership changes over the years, including being acquired by Washington Mutual in 1998 and later by JP Morgan Chase.
In addition to construction on the Howard Ahmanson’s Hollywood branch, 1967 was a significant year for the wealthy banker. Plans were underway for a business center complex on Wilshire Blvd. — designed by Edward Durell Stone, as well as the Desert Inn Fashion Plaza in Palm Springs, formerly the historic Desert Inn owned by Nellie Coffman.
More impressive, the Ahmanson Building opened downtown at the Music Center.
Sadly, the financier, philanthropist, and art collector died of a heart attack while vacationing in Belgium in June of 1968. His estimated fortune was listed between $200 million to $300 million.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Origins of the County Museum of Art went back as far as 1959, when the County approved expansion plans, specifically to add an auditorium and an exhibition hall to the art gallery already planned for the county-owned park on the Miracle Mile on Wilshire Blvd.
The three buildings would be known as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and financed privately through the non-profit organization, Museum Associates. By 1960, the organization had raised $4.5M towards the new Hancock Park project. Among the board members was actor and narrator, Vincent Price -- also known as an esteemed collector of art.
Having selected architect William L. Pereira, Los Angeles began its path to becoming one of the world's great cultural centers. Construction for the new facility cost around $11M.
The County Museum of Art opened in April 1965 and consisted of three structures on a raised plaza above a reflecting pool -- the largest of which was was the four-level Ahmanson Gallery, followed by the two-level Lytton Gallery, and the Leo S. Bing Center, with its 600-seat auditorium.
With the creation of the Music Center and the County Museum of Art, Los Angeles will never again have to fear being regarded as a culturally deprived area. Its cultural life will soon match and someday perhaps even surpass that of the East Coast.
- Henry Seldis. LA Times 6/20/65
Four years after opening, the Lytton Gallery (Special Exhibitions Gallery) was renamed the Frances and Armand Hammer Wing — named for Dr. Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The museum trustee and his wife were major contributors. The pair also presented the museum with a Renoir and Modigliani that year.
Tutankhamun
In January 1978, the Hammer wing was the setting for the phenomenally popular "Treasures of Tutankhamun" - the largest exhibit of ancient Egyptian art ever to visit the United States. To quell the rush of unprecedented crowds outside the venue, the museum sold tickets in advance and partnered with local department stores: The Broadway, Bullock's, May Company, and Ohrbach's, each of whom offered to sell tickets to the exhibit at no cost throughout their locations.
After the exhibit moved on to Seattle in October, it was reported the museum had doubled its membership from 30,000 to 63,000, as well as increasing public awareness.
Expansion in the 1980s
Plans to expand the museum began in the early 1980s, which by then was referred to as an aging, confused conglomeration. Critics were labeling Pereira's work "hopelessly out of date when it opened in 1964". Its three original buildings now appeared awkward and dysfunctional — the old reflecting pools had long since been replaced with a sculpture garden.
The result was the Robert O. Anderson building ("New Babylon Meets Wilshire Boulevard"), named for philanthropist and chairman of Atlantic Richfield (Arco). Designed by the New York firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, the new Post-Modern wing with three levels of public gallery space and a new central courtyard opened in November 1986. The expansion added over 50,000 square feet of exhibition space (larger than New York's Guggenheim or Whitney).
"L.A.'s time has come. The city reflects the Pacific Rim and Asia the way New York reflected Europe 200 years ago. It's very international."
- Norman Pfeiffer, 1986.
Other projects for the architectural firm, which began in 1967, included the expansion of the Los Angeles Central Library in 1987.
That year saw other significant buildings adding to the city becoming a cultural hub; Arata Isozaki's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), opened in late 1986 on Bunker Hill, the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills was transformed into a museum housing the contemporary collections of Frederick Weisman, UCLA's Museum of Cultural History received its own campus museum, and the Afro-American Museum of Cultural History had opened in Exposition Park, albeit a few years earlier.
Pavilion for Japanese Art
Toward the end of the decade, LACMA added the Pavilion for Japanese Art. Designed by Bruce Goff (who passed away in 1982) and completed by colleague Bart Prince, the $12.5M structure housed the collection of Oklahoma art collector and patron Joe D. Price, including Edo period Japanese screen and scrolls paintings.
Despite the revered collection, the building which was designed to display art in natural light received mixed reviews concerning the lighting. A sensor system was added, triggering lights on gloomy days and winter afternoons.
Going Dutch
The museum entertained its bravest change in 2001 when Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas had a concept to wrap the complex under a translucent Mylar membrane. The bold and stunning plan to rebuild also included revamping the Bing Theater and razing most of the William Pereira-designed campus.
The plan was abandoned a year later, due in part to the exorbitant price tag ($200M and up), and having to shut LACMA down for five years to rebuild. By 2003, new plans were on the table to renovate LACMA West (the former May Company Department Store, purchased in 1994).
The End
In 2010, the museum unveiled the $54M Resnick Pavilion, its second building designed by Renzo Piano. The Italian architect was behind the
Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) two years earlier.
The transformation of LACMA took another step forward with Swiss architect Peter Zumthor's large-scale plan to rebuild. With a price tag of $750M, demolition began in 2020, reducing the east campus to rubble.
Additional Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Southern California in Print
Los Angeles International Airport, 1961
Los Angeles on the Move!
In 1958, the government announced spending funds for the fiscal year to construct and improve 385 airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, which received $1M (matched 50-50 by local sponsors). Not left out of the loop, Santa Monica Municipal received $17,833.
One year later, the Board of Public Works allocated spending toward a jet-age global facility as part of their public improvements. At around $42M (a combination of bond issues and federal funds), the priority project included twelve new buildings; six satellite buildings, five ticketing buildings, and a central theme structure to house a deluxe restaurant, observation deck, and other facilities.
Early plans included a Skylift (built and operated by Lockheed). Suspended from overhead rails elevated 33 feet above the ground, the Skylift would cost 25 cents and operate on a closed-loop track structure with a push-button system of individual cars.
"By pushing a button, the passenger goes directly to the destination, with travel time to most stations from any boarding point being four minutes maximum."
Another feature that materialized was completely wiring Los Angeles International Airport with closed-circuit television- the first in the country to do so.
Greeted by seventy-five thousand people, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson dedicated the airport on June 25, 1961. JFK could not attend due to a back injury (which had nothing to do with Marilyn Monroe). Funnyman Red Skelton acted as Master of Ceremonies.
With another six months until the airport's completion, the new airport was expected to handle 850 planes a day. The airport was projected to handle 40 million passengers a year by 1980.
The public got their first birds-eye view of the globular-shaped Theme Building from the observation deck in early 1962. Designed by Charles Luckman, Welton Becket, and Paul R. Williams, the $2.2M Space-Age building—referred to by LIFE Magazine as "all future, no past"—was completed in late 1960 and sat on spider-leg girders over a 5,000-car parking lot.
Once inside, three high-speed elevators whisked passengers through a central core to a circular dining room, floating 70 feet above the ground like a satellite. The restaurant offered panoramic views and served international cuisine by servers in native costumes from six countries.
The interior changed drastically when Disney Imagineering gave the space an overhaul in 1998 and rebranded it as LAX Encounter. Initial ideas for the interior included a sports theme or a chic continental eatery and even adding a robotic maître d—the latter was discarded for cost. The refurbished result was Space Age: lava lamps, colorful moonstone countertops, and amoeba-shaped ceiling fixtures.
It was no coincidence that the building resembled a Martian invader from The War of the Worlds (1953), William Pereira's brother Hal was the art director of the movie. The building was designated as a historic cultural monument in 1993.
The landmark building received its first power wash in 1965, which cost $6,500 and took one week to complete.
Los Angeles International Airport
Push-Button information device, 1963
Mark Taper Forum, 1967
Named for Polish-born developer, philanthropist, and financier S. Mark Taper, ground was broken on the Welton Becket-designed amphitheater in May of 1965. Financing for the venue came three years earlier when Taper quietly gifted the Music Center $1M — making him the largest single donor to the three-unit Music Center complex.
Norman Chandler called the gift “the greatest contribution that a man could have made.”
The circular 750-seat venue was dedicated in March 1967, and attended by Lew Wasserman, chairman of the board of Center Theatre Group (CTG), as well as Governor Ronald Reagan, who described the structure as “this beautiful temple of our profession and our art.”
Known as the little jewel of the Music Center, the interior featured a “thrusting, open and pentagonal stage” with a “semicircle of gently banked seats in blue and purple”.
The inaugural season bowed with “four challenging productions of dynamic impact!”; The Devils (with Harold Gould, Frank Langella, Anthony Zerbe, and Joyce Ebert), The Sorrows of Frederick, The Marriage of Mr. Mississippipi, and Witness.
As part of the Taper's “New Theatre For Now” season was the World Premiere of Zoot Suit in 1977. Written by Luis Valdez, it was his first project through his theatre company El Teatro Campesino. The well-received play featured Edward James Olmos as El Pachuco and a new version reopened in 1978 for a six-week run.
While hugely successful in Los Angeles, CTG brought the play to New York's Winter Garden in 1979 which closed soon after.
In 1981, writing for Canada's daily newspaper The Province, art critic Bob Allen offered a curious take, “The Mark Taper Forum is part of LA Music Center, an arts complex that takes up two city blocks of downtown Los Angeles. Architecturally, the complex fits perfectly into L.A.'s future-world mystique. It is “bought” beauty, featuring expensive steel, concrete, and glass opulence — a cultural playground for the nouveau riche.”
Longtime artistic director Gordon Davidson was also behind the smaller, avant-garde venue, Taper-Too, which opened in 1983 on the lower level of the John Anson Ford Theatre (then the Forum Lab). The experimental theatre included productions of In the Belly of the Beast and Spalding Gray's L.A. The Other, Conversations With . . . . The intimate space survived until 1998.
The 10th anniversary of the Mark Taper Forum was marked with the opening of Sam Shephard's Angel City and Christopher Durang's A History of the American Film. The coming years saw a number of wide-ranging productions including; Moby Dick-Rehearsed by Orson Welles, and a new version of Arthur Miller's The American Clock.
Founding director Gordon Davidson remained with CTG until 2005 and passed away in 2016 at the age of 83.
S. Mark Taper passed away at the of 92 in 1994.
Music Center Memorial Pavilion, 1962
Music Center, 1967
Plans for the Memorial Pavilion (left) went back to 1961 and was the largest of three buildings planned for the Music Center complex. Led by Mrs. Norman Chandler, the joint public and privately funded complex occupied a seven-acre hilltop site bounded by First, Hope, Temple, and Grand Streets.
The Pavilion opened in late 1964.
Heralding the dawn of a new cultural era, the three-unit complex to crown the Civic Center was designed by architect Welton Becket. The Mark Taper Forum and Center Theater arrived two years later.
Music Center
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 1966
