Preservation of what once was the Sunset Strip's most colorful place has turned into a black-and-white issue in West Hollywood.
Preservationists complain that city leaders blocked their application to have a former Tower Records building declared a historic resource because color photographs of the brightly painted building were attached to the paperwork instead of black-and-white pictures that officials said were required.
As activists hunted for black-and-whites to add to the paperwork, a Chicago developer planning a multimillion-dollar office and retail complex at the record store site filed his building request at City Hall.
Now the iconic music industry landmark at 8801 W. Sunset Blvd. famous for its hundreds of impromptu rock 'n' roll performances and album signings awaits demolition.
Its iconic yellow facade has been repainted somber blue.
Some preservationists are beginning to feel the same way.
"This is an important place," said pop culture historian Domenic Priore, author of "Riot on the Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood" and the leader of the preservation effort. "The Sunset Strip is an international landmark, and this building has an historic cachet."
The preservation effort has even won the backing of Jerome Cleary, an actor and comic who has lived next door for 22 years. Cleary acknowledges that he hated the neighborhood "chaos" the store caused when it was in business but said the structure was important enough to be saved from the wrecking ball. Residents in the hills above the store aren't thrilled with a large development replacing the low-rise structure.
Constructed in 1971, the Tower Records building is not exactly an architectural landmark. Squat and unassuming, it is sandwiched between a tiny asphalt parking lot and a larger, nondescript office building. It even lacks the space-age 1950s look that drove earlier preservation efforts for such unlikely L.A. landmarks as "Googie"-style carwashes, motels and diners.
But for decades it was a center of activity in the Sunset Strip's vibrant music scene. The store's walls were plastered with giant reproductions of album covers. Record labels routinely kicked off new releases by sending bands there to perform.
