Preservationists try to block demolition of Basque nightclub
1939 renovation eliminated much of the architect's design, as well as the building's historical significance, city council finds. The site was damaged in an April fire that remains unsolved.
Preservationists hoping to save the facade of a Richard Neutra-designed building at Hollywood's most famous corner have been told they are 70 years too late to stop demolition.
Workers are removing the remains of the Basque nightclub, which was gutted about six months ago by a mysterious predawn fire at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.
The owner of the site ordered the tear-down after deciding that the damaged building was a safety hazard and that a 1939 remodel of the place had erased all evidence of Neutra's styling.
This week the demolition was almost complete, with only the curving front of the celebrity hangout -- where Lindsay Lohan celebrated her 21st birthday -- remaining.
But Hollywood activists who consider the building historic have demanded that surviving remnants be saved and incorporated into the design of any replacement structure.
They have protested in front of the fenced-off structure and lobbied state and local leaders to help restore what they claim is Hollywood and Vine's original "golden era" luster.
Recreation of the original modernist granite, glass and steel styling that Neutra used could easily fit into a contemporary structure, said preservationist Gregory Paul Williams, a Hollywood historian and author.
The building was commissioned in 1931 by Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle. He had originally planned a 900-seat movie theater at the corner, but the Great Depression killed that idea.
In his book "The Story of Hollywood: an Illustrated History," Williams recounts how Laemmle instead turned the building into a fashionable lunchroom called the Coco Tree Cafe. Neutra's design made it open and airy, and it was filled with customers despite the period's economic downturn.
Laemmle died in 1939 and the restaurant was converted by Pig 'n' Whistle owner Sidney Hoedemaker into the Melody Lane restaurant. According to Williams' book, "every trace of Richard Neutra's architecture" was ripped out.
The place was turned into Hody's Restaurant in the 1950s and topped by a giant billboard that featured a clown whose beach-ball-shaped nose twirled.
Hoedemaker's junking of Neutra's look is what doomed the building in August when city officials evaluated a request for a demolition permit for the burned Basque nightclub, according to a spokeswoman for Hollywood-area City Councilman Eric Garcetti.
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