It's an old-fashioned dilemma with a modern twist: When your lease is up, what do you do with your one-of-a-kind, built-in office space?
Century City businessman James F. Goldstein faces that question tonight when lights are turned out for the last time at an office designed for him by acclaimed Modernist architect John Lautner.
Goldstein is a modern-architecture lover who lives in a sleek Lautner home. He loves its swooping, airy look so much that he hired the famed designer in 1987 to create the interior of his 20th-floor office, which has since been featured in photo shoots and on architecture tours.
But Goldstein's office lease has run out. And a larger tenant of the six-story building wants to take over the entire floor.
The law firm of Loeb & Loeb already rents four floors of the office tower. But it has no interest in keeping Goldstein's unique, Lautner-designed work space as it adds a fifth.
Fans of modern architecture are trying to block demolition of the office. Members of the John Lautner Foundation, a group that celebrates the legacy of the architect, who died in 1994, have appealed to the lawyers to change their minds.
If that doesn't work, they hope to block the office's demolition by having it designated a Los Angeles landmark. A Cultural Heritage Commission hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 19, and city planners are recommending that the office be given landmark status -- an action that could prevent demolition for up to one year.
"Their new law offices could fit in nicely with this," said Duncan Nicholson, an architect who apprenticed with Lautner and took up the Modernist's work upon his death. "This could be a law office conference room. It could be used for lawyers' depositions. It could be a place used to celebrate the victory when they win their cases."
Loeb & Loeb spokeswoman Jennifer Manton said the law firm would oppose the landmark designation.
"While we admire the architectural value of John Lautner's work, we believe that rented, internal space in a commercial office building with no public access is not an appropriate location for the application of landmark law," she said in a statement released through a New York public relations firm.
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The office is only 850 square feet. But it seems to extend forever.
At one end is a floor-to-ceiling window. Overhead is a cloud-like ceiling built of fir panels. The floor is made from dark, triangular black slate. The walls are larger panels of black slate, glass and strips of sleek copper.
