There was a time when the Los Angeles Times' presence in downtown Los Angeles was a symbol of the possibilities of a burgeoning city.
Ten-foot-high murals in the building's Globe Lobby, commissioned by the Chandlers, touted the role of industry and the newspaper in the life of great cities. "The newspaper is a greater treasure to the people than uncounted millions of gold," a caption underneath reads. "There is no dimming. No effacement."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, July 01, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 51 words Type of Material: Correction
Standard Hotel: A list in Friday's California section, with an article about the possible sale of the Times building, named several former corporate buildings in Los Angeles that have been put to new uses and said the Standard Hotel building once housed Standard Oil. The building was home to Superior Oil.
That was 1935 -- at the peak of downtown Los Angeles' role as the undisputed power center of Southern California. The murals are still there, but today, the mood inside the Globe Lobby is dimmer.
The announcement this week that Tribune Co., which owns The Times, is considering selling the paper's downtown offices is the latest sign of a decades-long corporate disappearance from the city center. Arco, Standard Oil, First Interstate Bank and many other big corporations that once called downtown home are long gone.
And jokes about the Times building eventually becoming condos -- while unlikely any time soon -- aren't as preposterous as they might seem.
In the last decade, the city core has shifted, with many people moving into new high-rise condos and luxury lofts in historic buildings.
Nearly 40,000 people now call downtown home. And many of the former headquarters for downtown L.A.'s biggest names -- including Barker Bros., Westinghouse, Standard Oil and Nabisco -- have been converted to serve that new population.
The residential boom has remade downtown L.A. into a hip district. But some urban thinkers say there is something profoundly depressing about the falling fortune of big business being turned into theme and atmosphere for condos.
"In the big sweep of things, this is just part of the dynamism of urbanization and urban life," said Greg Hise, a historian and USC professor. "That said, people ought to stop and think about what kind of city they aspire to and what would be appropriate symbols of a good and just city."
When the first piece of the Los Angeles Times' headquarters, a Gordon B. Kaufmann-designed Art Moderne building, opened in 1935, the 1st and Spring streets location, cater-corner from City Hall, represented the power wielded by the newspaper and the Chandler family that owned it. Harry Chandler, then the president and general manager of Times-Mirror Co., declared the building a "monument to the progress of our city and Southern California."
