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LOS
ANGELES CONSERVANCY'S Conservancy Salutes the Best in L.A. Preservation Congratulations to the winners of the Conservancy’s 2004 Preservation Awards! This year’s recipients reflect a wide range of efforts to preserve Los Angeles’ architectural heritage: ·
County of Los Angeles Hospital, Old Administration Building President’s Award: Cecilia Rasmussen, author and columnist Now in its 23rd year, our Preservation Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the field of historic preservation. The awards are selected by an independent jury of leading experts in architecture, preservation, and community development. We’d like to thank this year’s jurors:
We’ll
present the awards at a luncheon on Thursday, May 6 at the Millenium
Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. City National Bank is sponsoring
the luncheon for the fourth year. Thanks to everyone whose efforts led
to the success of these exceptional projects.
Each year, the president of the Conservancy’s Board of Directors awards a person, project, or movement for special achievement in historic preservation. This year’s President’s Award, selected by Conservancy President Doug Gardner, honors author and columnist Cecilia Rasmussen for raising the profile of Los Angeles’ rich architectural heritage. In her weekly column in the Los Angeles Times, “L.A. Scene: The City Then and Now,” Rasmussen delves into our city’s colorful history through stories of extraordinary people and places. She has introduced millions of readers to L.A.’s unique architectural gems, from the instantly recognizable (City Hall, Union Station, Watts Towers), to the lost or overlooked (Schwab’s Drug Store, original Bob’s Big Boy), to the currently or formerly threatened (19th-century Vickrey-Brunswig Building and Brunswig Annex, Central Library, St. Vibiana’s Cathedral). She’s also covered fellow Preservation Award winners the Far East Building and Point Fermin Lighthouse. Over more than a decade, Rasmussen has woven the built environment into a vibrant narrative of L.A.’s history that entertains and educates readers worldwide.
County of Los Angeles Hospital, Old Administration Building Project
Owner: County of Los Angeles
Project
Owner/Developer: Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation The Far East Building has been a beloved fixture in L.A.’s Japanese American community for more than a century. The 1896 building in the heart of Little Tokyo’s National Historic Landmark District is best known for its 1935 Far East Cafe. The cafe served as a popular downtown eatery, the site of countless gatherings to commemorate milestones, and a safe haven for community members before and after their internment during World War II. The building was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and sat vacant for nearly a decade, exposed to pests and the elements, as the original owners sought ways to repair it. The family ultimately donated the structure to the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation, which assembled nearly $4 million in financing and oversaw the building’s careful rehabilitation. The project restored the Far East Cafe, created a community computer center in the first-floor retail space, and reconfigured 24 single-room occupancy units into 16 units of affordable housing. The result is a building whose many layers of history shine through, a vivid reminder of the community’s past that continues to meet its evolving needs. HPOZ Preservation Plan Workbook Project Owner:
Los Angeles Department of City Planning With the number of Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs) constantly on the rise, the City Planning Department sought a way to provide HPOZ boards with a convenient, consistent, cost-effective way to develop required Preservation Plans. The department worked with Myra L. Frank & Associates, Inc., as well as the HPOZ Alliance, HPOZ boards, and community members, to develop a groundbreaking HPOZ Preservation Plan Workbook. The workbook provides an easy-to-use, step-by-step template for a Preservation Plan, in a large format with instructional text, photos, diagrams, source materials, and a detailed guide to architectural styles prevalent in Los Angeles. Its flexibility allows each HPOZ to tailor its Preservation Plan to its specific needs, within a basic uniform structure that helps Planning staff manage the city’s many plans more efficiently. The workbook has received widespread community support, and Preservation Plans are now under way throughout the city. The document has already proven to be a catalyst for preservation as well as a valuable educational tool that will serve the entire city for years to come.
Mudd Hall of Philosophy at USC Project
Owner: University of Southern California Seeley Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy is one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings on the USC campus. Designed by Ralph Carlin Flewelling and completed in 1929, this Romanesque structure features a cloistered courtyard, a 146-foot campanile, and the double-height Hoose Library, as well as dramatic spaces filled with elaborate carvings and decorative surfaces. The Northridge earthquake had damaged the building, prompting USC to launch a straightforward seismic repair and upgrade. Yet the vast amount of intricate detail – coupled with the complexity of the building, with numerous wall openings and various elevations – posed an enormous challenge. The project team added concrete shear walls, strengthened and enlarged footings, and upgraded the roof, all in ways painstakingly designed to minimize the impact on the building’s historic fabric. Every step in the project – from excavation and work area protection to removing, storing, reinstalling, and cleaning historic elements – was planned, monitored, and completed with extreme care. This very complex yet unobtrusive project illustrates USC’s ongoing stewardship of its historic buildings, and allows a cherished campus landmark to continue to amaze and inspire.
Oaklawn Bridge and Waiting Station Project
Owner/Developer: City of South Pasadena Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the 1906 Oaklawn Bridge and Waiting Station in South Pasadena feature the only bridge designed by legendary architects Charles and Henry Greene. Built to span (long-abandoned) railroad tracks and closed to auto traffic for decades, the elegant, Art-Nouveau-influenced bridge had suffered from earthquake damage, deferred maintenance, insensitive repairs, and vandalism. The city was required to repair and strengthen the bridge during construction of the MTA Gold Line, which runs underneath it. South Pasadena’s Cultural Heritage Commission insisted that the bridge be restored to its original Greene and Greene design, which had been altered early on by the unnecessary addition of a pier under the central arch. The CHC formed an expert advisory panel to guide the restoration and ensure its compliance with preservation standards. The panel and project team overcame a series of obstacles, from acquiring funding, to proving that the middle pier was neither original nor necessary, to devising innovative repair and restoration techniques. The result is a beautiful design and engineering project, beautifully restored, as well as a model of meeting preservation challenges through collaboration, determination, and creativity.
The Pegasus/General Petroleum Building Project
Owner/Developer: KOR Realty Group and Kennedy Wilson The Gene6ral Petroleum headquarters, designed in 1947 by the renowned firm of Wurdeman and Becket, was the first major office building constructed in L.A. after the end of World War II and at the time, the city’s largest office building. It featured highly innovative materials and building systems, and defined the postwar, late Moderne aesthetic that would come to be known as the Corporate International Style. By 2001, the building had sat vacant for more than a decade, a victim of low demand for office space. KOR Realty Group and Kennedy Wilson saw great potential in adapting the building to meet L.A.’s explosive demand for housing while capitalizing on the renaissance of Modern architecture. Renamed the Pegasus, the building’s clean lines and open floor plans translated perfectly into contemporary urban apartments. The owners used the city’s Adaptive Reuse Ordinance to convert the office building into 322 apartment units while retaining and preserving every existing historic element, down to the nickel-plated hardware. This great Modern landmark now enjoys new life as a model of adaptive reuse and a major element in downtown’s ongoing revitalization.
Project
Owner/Developer: City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks The 1873 Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro is one of the oldest extant lighthouses on the California coast. Designed by Paul J. Pelz of the U.S. Federal Lighthouse Board, the two-story, Stick-style building is truly exceptional: a 19th-century structure in Southern California, of an extremely rare building type, that is highly intact. The history of the lighthouse, its caretakers and their families, and its survival are tightly woven into the history of San Pedro. Local residents have kept close watch on the landmark, even contributing their own time and money for repairs. With help from a Getty PreserveLA grant, the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks rehabilitated the building for use as a public museum. The lighthouse was in remarkably good condition for its age but needed extensive work including seismic and safety enhancements, foundation reinforcement, lead and dry-rot abatement, mechanical upgrades, and disabled access. The rehabilitation achieved all this and more with extremely careful treatment that preserved the historic integrity of the entire site. New generations can virtually step back in time to experience San Pedro’s maritime history firsthand.
Project
Owner/Developer: City of Los Angeles, Community Development Department The resurrection of the 1902 South Seas House is a testament to the power of community grassroots efforts. The architecturally unique home in West Adams had suffered greatly from deferred maintenance, neglect, and vandalism: fires started by vagrants had burned large holes in the floor; windows were broken, missing, or boarded up; plywood panels covered holes in the exterior siding; roof leaks had caused extensive water damage; much of the interior plaster needed replacing; and all of the original porch columns had been removed. The building had also undergone numerous interior renovations and a rear addition. A large number of community members worked tirelessly for years to save the dilapidated house, even salvaging and storing architectural elements in their homes for future use if the building was ever preserved. After more than a decade of neighborhood advocacy, the city’s Community Development Department took on the task of rehabilitating the house into a public meeting place and technology training center. Cooperation between city agencies and neighborhood residents led to an incredible transformation of a unique, yet neglected, landmark into a vibrant community resource. |
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