The Friars Club building undergoing demolition. Photo by Conservancy staff.

The 1961 Friars Club building at 9900 Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills was demolished in early 2011, signifying the continued erosion of Greater L.A.’s legacy of 1960s architecture and underscoring the need for stronger local preservation protections.

According to the City of Beverly Hills Community Development Department, the owner demolished the building with no imminent plans for a replacement project. The city’s review power over the Friars Club property extends only to a new project that would replace the building, not to the demolition of the building itself.

The City of Beverly Hills is one of many in Los Angeles County that has no protections for its historic resources. Although interest in preservation in the city has increased in recent years, it continues to lose significant historic resources, including the 1951 Shusett residence designed by legendary architect John Lautner (demolished in September 2010).

The Friars Club building circa 2006. Photo courtesy of ICF International.

The Friars Club building featured an innovative modernist design that was -- and perhaps still is -- ahead of its time. The structure became the new home of the New York Friars Club annex established by Milton Berle in 1947. It closed its doors in 2008, after last operating as Club 9900.

Video about the building from the club's heyday

The Friars Club building was included in a 2006 survey of commercial structures in Beverly Hills. The survey identified the building as being eligible for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources for its association with the Friars Club, as well as its architectural significance as “a good intact example of the work of a master architect, Sidney Eisenshtat. ”

About the Architect

Sidney Eisenshtat (1914-2005) was a prominent Los Angeles-based architect whose notable designs included schools, community centers, bank buildings, and synagogues. His designs were often characterized by dramatically oversized interior rooms and exterior walls typically made of thin-slab concrete or brick.

He was internationally recognized for his development of synagogue architecture; some of his innovative designs include Temple Emmanuel in Beverly Hills and Sinai Temple in Westwood.

Eisenshtat's Wilshire Triangle Center (1965). Photo by Dean Cheng.

During Beverly Hills’ postwar construction boom, Eisenshtat designed several notable office buildings within the city’s commercial triangle district. His Union Bank Building at Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive was profiled in Architectural Record in 1961.

When completed in 1965, Eisenshtat's Wilshire Triangle Center at Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards was the tallest building in Beverly Hills. It was also considered Southern California’s first major arc-shaped structure, pre-dating the similarly shaped Century Plaza Hotel by a year.

Sixties at Risk; Weak Local Protections

Unfortunately, many people simply don’t understand why resources like the Friars Club building are worth saving. The Conservancy’s 2009-2010 initiative, The Sixties Turn 50, raised awareness of the region’s rich 1960s heritage and highlighted the need to preserve our most important examples before it’s too late.

Columbia Savings building (Irving Shapiro, 1965), which was demolished in January 2010. Postcard view courtesy Marcello Vavala.

The Los Angeles area has lost a number of important structures from the 1960s, from luxury homes and commercial buildings to public libraries and one of the region’s last single-screen drive-in theatres. We need to recognize and protect significant designs from our recent past now, so that they’re not all gone by the time they’re universally accepted.

The loss of the Friars Club building also underscores the need for stronger preservation laws at the local level. Los Angeles County encompasses eighty-eight cities plus the unincorporated county government. In preparing our 2008 Countywide Preservation Report Card, the Conservancy found that more than a third of these jurisdictions have no preservation protections for their historic resources.

The Conservancy offers technical assistance to local governments who wish to strengthen their preservation policies. For more information, please contact us at info@laconservancy.org or (213) 623-2489.