What I remember most is the tiny staircase that you had to take often because the elevators were out of order. Each floor would have a fire escape balcony that provided great views. It was a lot of fun to explore Wilshire on my lunch breaks.

Founded in 1946 by Phillip Daniel, Arthur Mann, S. Johnson, and Irvan Mendenhall, DMJM (pronounced Dim-Jim) literally changed the face of corporate architecture in the late twentieth century...

On February 3, the Conservancy filed an appeal on the Los Angeles Superior Court’s January 5 decision by Judge Richard L. Fruin, Jr. that rejected our lawsuit against the City of West Hollywood. The Conservancy filed litigation in September 2014 to force the City’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regarding the proposed […]

We are not accepting new volunteer applications for this job at this time. Please check back for future opportunities. Each year, the Conservancy offers a wide variety of one-time-only tours and events. These tours and events are usually large in scale and require a large contingency of volunteer support. Last Remaining Seats: Each summer the […]

What is a conservation district? A conservation district is a zoning tool that that can help preserve and enhance older neighborhoods by regulating lot size, building height, setbacks, streetscapes, and other neighborhood features. Los Angeles does not currently have a conservation district program, but it could be developed to complement the Historic Preservation Overlay Zone […]

In the early 1940s, Terminal Island housed a vibrant community of nearly 3,000 Japanese and Japanese-American residents. It had grown out of a small Japanese fishing village whose settlers helped launch a booming industry for canned tuna. The island later starred in one of the darkest chapters of U.S. history, when its residents became the […]

The mid-century modern era and its built environment reflect important developments in style, design, technology, and innovations that, at the time, swept across a newly consumer-oriented America.  The challenge with this from a preservation perspective is that we often lack a complete context in which to evaluate, understand, and judge places in terms of uniqueness and […]

The creators of Modern and recent past places are often groundbreaking architects and designers, ahead of their time and pioneers in an era of great experimentation and new innovations. Communities all over the country served as proving grounds to test out new ideas and have left us with a rich legacy of Modernist design.  The problem […]

Preservation generally favors places that have few alterations and a high degree of integrity, especially when talking about historic fabric and materials. For traditional historic buildings, this approach has worked pretty well. But for Modernist places, many structures were built with mass-produced products and experimental materials that may not be easily replicated and, in some […]