Historic Building

Bravo for your editorial ("Preserve That Piece of History!" Jan. 11) on preserving the Herald Examiner building. For all the reasons you stated, it must be saved. The threat to this wonderful building makes it clear that it is time for Los Angeles to have a stronger cultural heritage ordinance. Your recent coverage on the poor state of preservation in Los Angeles pointed out that we have one of the worst preservation records in the nation. This is shameful! The great cities of the world preserve their worthy past and protect their heritage for future generations.

A huge former department store on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is being sold to a New York real estate investment firm that intends to pump new life into the old building and its rebounding neighborhood. The century-old flagship of the May Co. contains 1.1 million square feet of space surrounded by Broadway, Hill Street and 8th Street. The commercial district was once one of the best in the Southern California, but fell on hard times in the late decades of the 20th century. Waterbridge Capital has agreed to buy the property now known as Broadway Trade Center, city officials and property brokers said.

When the Banks Huntley Building--an impressive 12-story Art Deco structure--was erected in the late 1920s at 634 S. Spring Street, it was the first building in the city of Los Angeles to have central air conditioning and heating. Today, after years of renovation, it serves as the national headquarters for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a leading Latino civil rights organization.

The gig: Ray Adamyk, 52, is president of Spectra Co., a Pomona firm that has played a major role in restoring such prominent historic buildings as the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, the Catalina Casino in Avalon and the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In his view, preservation and environmentalism are two sides of the same coin. "The greenest building is one that already exists," he said. "I think people want to see old buildings restored. " Early days: Adamyk was born in England and reared in Canada, where he enjoyed physically demanding sports in his school days.

One of this city's historic buildings will be demolished if someone doesn't step forward to claim it and take it away from its Main Street home. City officials are giving away the two-story Siemson building to anyone who can relocate it in the next 60 days. Otherwise, it will be flattened so construction of a new building can begin at 1818 N. Main St.

The long-awaited Veterans Park Community Center in Redondo Beach has finally opened in the landmark library building. The oceanfront center is housed in the 60-year-old Redondo Beach Historic Library Building in Veterans Park, a Spanish colonial-style building that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. According to Paula Matusa, a spokeswoman for the city, the building has been under renovation for five years to convert it from a library to a community center.

Whittier plans to salvage architectural remnants from a condemned historic building, the City Council announced recently. The building is a former residence and office at the Fred C. Nelles School for Boys, a state juvenile correctional center. The two-story, Mediterranean-style building near Philadelphia Street and Whittier Boulevard, was damaged in the 1987 Whittier-area earthquake and has not been used since.

Ignoring pleas from preservationists, Detroit officials reduced the city's landmark J.L. Hudson department store to a pile of rubble in an implosion that covered downtown in a billowing cloud of dust. More than 2,700 pounds of explosives took less than 30 seconds to bring down the historic building, which opened in 1911 and became the tallest steel structure in the world to be imploded. The Hudson building symbolized a golden era for the city's fading downtown.

The YWCA of Pasadena-Foothill Valley, seeking to raise money for an endowment, has put its historic headquarters on the market for $1.8 million. The 75-year-old building at 78 N. Marengo Ave. was designed by the late architect Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle. The organization, which runs a rape-crisis program and a shelter for homeless women and children, first tried to sell the building more than two years ago for $2.5 million, said Executive Director Valerie Coachman-Moore.

As members of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society well know, it's not easy moving a historic building. A powerful crane must be rented to lift the structure off its foundation and onto an equally powerful truck, which carries the building oh so slowly to its new resting site. Then, sometimes, there are bees.

Broadway, the sparkling entertainment district of mid-20th-century Los Angeles, had a long fall. As residents moved to the suburbs, opulent movie palaces dating to the early days of the film industry closed their doors. Upscale shops were closed, and department stores decamped for newer neighborhoods in the 1970s and 1980s. Businesses catering primarily to Latino immigrants kept the sidewalks active, but most buildings fell empty above the first floor. Much of downtown has enjoyed a renaissance since 2000.

Hundreds of landmarks on U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs properties are at risk of being permanently abandoned or demolished because of the agency's lack of maintenance and its failure to comply with federal laws aimed at protecting historic buildings, according to a new study by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The VA has more than 2,000 historic buildings across the country, including many on the 11 campuses built in Ohio, Tennessee and elsewhere in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. In West Los Angeles, the sprawling VA campus has about three dozen buildings that have been designated as historic structures or have been deemed eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

Hundreds of landmarks on U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs properties are at risk of being permanently abandoned or demolished due to lack of maintenance and the agency's failure to comply with federal laws to protect historic buildings, according to a new study by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The VA has more than 2,000 historic buildings across the country, including many on the 11 campuses built in Ohio, Tennessee and elsewhere immediately after the Civil War. In West Los Angeles, the sprawling VA campus has about three dozen buildings designated as historic structures or deemed eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the pioneers behind a lively strip of new bars and restaurants in downtown Los Angeles has launched plans to expand. The owners of busy Bottega Louie restaurant - known for its vast menu, long waits, tasty pastries and deafening crowds - have rented quarters in a historic office building across 7th Street. They are adding a kitchen, tasting room, training facilities and headquarters offices. The move is part of an accelerating expansion of bars, restaurants and residences along 7th Street, which was once a key shopping boulevard but fell moribund in the closing decades of the 20th century as much of downtown decayed outside of the financial district.

Silent slapstick filmmaker Mack Sennett moved to Los Angeles in 1913, setting up shop in what is now Echo Park, and began to make short movies starring an upstart comedian named Charlie Chaplin. Three years later, he built a set of soundstages to make movies with his movie star girlfriend, Mabel Normand. Now those Silver Lake soundstages, which became part of the Mack Sennett Studios, are getting a face-lift under new owners. PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments Jesse Rogg, a Grammy-nominated music producer, bought the production space for about $3.3 million this year from Stephen Collins, a former photographer who owned the property for nearly three decades.

Joe Nicoletti started out painting houses in New Jersey. These days, he paints Los Angeles City Hall. Since a major renovation of the historic building began nearly 20 years ago, Nicoletti has been the city's go-to guy when a skilled hand is needed to restore a frieze or touch up a mural. His most recent assignment - repainting the elaborately decorated ceiling of the Main Street lobby - took the 50-year-old Santa Monica resident two weeks and eight assistants to complete. His crew toiled at night, the better to stay out of the way of city bureaucrats, and Nicoletti livened the work space with the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and the like.

As the others had before, the Old Placentia Mutual Orange Growers Assn. packinghouse closed down in 1978, its citrus groves cut down for housing tracts, shopping centers and industrial parks. But unlike the others, the 59-year-old packinghouse was saved from demolition by being declared a historic building. It was left standing as a reminder of Orange County's history and was remodeled for use by small manufacturing firms. The packinghouse's reprieve lasted until last week.

On a recent Tuesday night at Salvage Bar & Lounge in downtown Los Angeles, Bertha Suarez Blankenship, a former member of the National Ballet of Cuba, rose up on her pointe shoes and commandeered the venue's small platform stage. She proceeded to dance a technically precise excerpt from "Swan Lake" and as cheers erupted, Shana Blake Hill, a tall, dark-haired opera singer, strode onstage in a bustier and fishnets and belted out an aria from "Carmen. " For about two hours, members of the newly formed Blankenship Cabaret Theatre entertained some 50 people with an eclectic array of punchy song and dance numbers.

The mirrors lining three walls of Jan Bruno's tiny barbershop make it look as though it extends to infinity. Too bad they can't make its lease extend too. The pint-sized shop has operated for six decades in a 13-by-5-foot storefront in the Taft Building at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. Bruno has owned the one-chair shop for 23 years, riding out the disruptions from the Metro Red Line subway's construction in the mid-1990s and the development of the next-door W Hotel and Residences four years ago. But as Hollywood rebounds, Bruno has been given her walking papers by the Taft Building's new owners.