Tom Gilmore

Tom Gilmore, an aggressive proponent of revitalizing the historic district of downtown Los Angeles, has purchased another once-grand property--the 1911-vintage Palace Theatre at Broadway and 6th Street. Gilmore plans to renovate the French Renaissance-style building's long-vacant office space and move his firm's headquarters there.

Developer Tom Gilmore has made a $1-million planned gift to the Southern California Institute of Architecture to support the school's first endowed chair. Gilmore, a member of the SCI-Arc board of trustees since 2001 and a key player in the renaissance of downtown L.A. over the last two decades, has pledged $1 million from his estate to help create the Gilmore City Chair, a faculty position dedicated to urban studies. Planned gifts aren't realized until the death of the donor.

Clifton's Cafeteria, by some miracle, still stands on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. Opened in the darkest years of the Depression, Clifton's ushers its diners into a fake redwood forest where they can pass the lunch hour agreeably. A tiny creek meanders between some tables and a moose head hangs from the wall. Once, in the heyday of urban cafeterias, Clifton's drew large lunchtime crowds of secretaries, bankers and lawyers.

The gig: Founder and principal of Levin & Associates Architects, a Los Angeles firm that specializes in historic building renovations. Levin has been the architect responsible for restorations of such local landmarks as the Wiltern theater, Griffith Observatory and City Hall. Her latest challenge is the restoration and expansion of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, home to one of the city's oldest Jewish congregations and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation made its largest historic restoration loan to the firm of developer Tom Gilmore. Gilmore will apply the $750,000 to the rehabilitation of four downtown Los Angeles historic structures: the Palace Theater, St. Vibiana's Cathedral, the El Dorado Hotel and the Rowan Building. Gilmore plans to convert the Rowan Building into an apartment house; the El Dorado into a boutique hotel; and the Palace Theater into a 2,000-seat performance venue.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to switch temporary control of the city-owned Los Angeles Theatre Center from developer Tom Gilmore back to the city's Cultural Affairs Department, which had run the building from 1991 until the end of last year. Cultural Affairs assistant general manager Leslie Thomas quickly responded that the agency has no money to take on the task. Last year, Gilmore had been chosen to run the downtown arts building on a permanent basis.

Lone Star Ensemble Theater Company The Lone Star Ensemble (founded by, from left, James Kerwin, Brian Stanton, Corey Hayes and Travis Schuldt) isn't afraid to be hokey in playing up its Texas connection: Three of these four met at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Donors are "ranch hands," "cowpokes," "wranglers" and such. But there's no aw-shucks in the work, which has been eliciting critical yee-haws. The 3-year-old company mounts just two plays a year on rented stages around L.A.

"Loan History May Be Issue in Project" (Jan. 5) didn't mention the amount of losses the L.A. Theatre Center racked up over the years before anyone lived in the neighborhood. It also failed to make any attempt to quantify the amount of investment that has occurred and will occur in the most depressed area of our downtown because of the Old Bank District project. It leaves out some of the terms of developer Tom Gilmore's financing, which distorts the performance of the loans for the three buildings.

Who's running Los Angeles Theatre Center? Three months ago, most observers assumed that downtown developer Tom Gilmore -- who had survived several hurdles in a selection process -- would replace the city's Cultural Affairs Department at the helm of the four-stage municipal complex in downtown L.A. beginning in January. But the Gilmore management proposal is stalled because of continuing disputes with the Latino Theater Company, which had earlier submitted its own proposal to manage the facility.

Tom Gilmore is either a genius or a madman. Or maybe he's a bit of both. The developer has a gutsy new vision for the crumbling, 123-year-old St. Vibiana's Cathedral, in a gritty part of downtown. Gilmore, who is spending big bucks to rehabilitate a series of dilapidated buildings on 4th Street, this week announced his intention to repair the earthquake-cracked historic structure and make it, along with the adjacent school and rectory buildings, the centerpiece of a multiuse complex.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to switch temporary control of the city-owned Los Angeles Theatre Center from developer Tom Gilmore back to the city's Cultural Affairs Department, which had run the building from 1991 until the end of last year. Cultural Affairs assistant general manager Leslie Thomas quickly responded that the agency has no money to take on the task. Last year, Gilmore had been chosen to run the downtown arts building on a permanent basis.

Developer Tom Gilmore's partners in a $27-million Los Angeles housing project want to end the 3-year-old collaboration, contending in a lawsuit that his mismanagement has left the 209-unit development "dead in the water." The suit, filed by Affordable Multi-Family Co. and Multi-Housing Investment Inc.

Who's running Los Angeles Theatre Center? Three months ago, most observers assumed that downtown developer Tom Gilmore -- who had survived several hurdles in a selection process -- would replace the city's Cultural Affairs Department at the helm of the four-stage municipal complex in downtown L.A. beginning in January. But the Gilmore management proposal is stalled because of continuing disputes with the Latino Theater Company, which had earlier submitted its own proposal to manage the facility.

"Loan History May Be Issue in Project" (Jan. 5) didn't mention the amount of losses the L.A. Theatre Center racked up over the years before anyone lived in the neighborhood. It also failed to make any attempt to quantify the amount of investment that has occurred and will occur in the most depressed area of our downtown because of the Old Bank District project. It leaves out some of the terms of developer Tom Gilmore's financing, which distorts the performance of the loans for the three buildings.

Los Angeles city officials have proposed turning over the financially troubled Los Angeles Theatre Center to developer Tom Gilmore, even though the flamboyant champion of downtown development has not paid back any of the principal of his $3.8-million city loan to renovate several buildings downtown. The new proposal would represent a potential windfall for Gilmore, whose 240-unit Old Bank District project has been credited with helping revitalize downtown.

Lone Star Ensemble Theater Company The Lone Star Ensemble (founded by, from left, James Kerwin, Brian Stanton, Corey Hayes and Travis Schuldt) isn't afraid to be hokey in playing up its Texas connection: Three of these four met at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Donors are "ranch hands," "cowpokes," "wranglers" and such. But there's no aw-shucks in the work, which has been eliciting critical yee-haws. The 3-year-old company mounts just two plays a year on rented stages around L.A.

In front of St. Vibiana's Cathedral, its facade cracked and peeling and sprouting weeds, the scene these days is one of homelessness and neglect squatting just a few blocks below the glinting towers of Bunker Hill. But Tuesday, at the 123-year-old building that once marked the city's expansion from a dusty old pueblo, dignitaries and activists came to celebrate a vision of downtown's future that recycles pieces of its past.

The gig: Founder and principal of Levin & Associates Architects, a Los Angeles firm that specializes in historic building renovations. Levin has been the architect responsible for restorations of such local landmarks as the Wiltern theater, Griffith Observatory and City Hall. Her latest challenge is the restoration and expansion of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, home to one of the city's oldest Jewish congregations and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation made its largest historic restoration loan to the firm of developer Tom Gilmore. Gilmore will apply the $750,000 to the rehabilitation of four downtown Los Angeles historic structures: the Palace Theater, St. Vibiana's Cathedral, the El Dorado Hotel and the Rowan Building. Gilmore plans to convert the Rowan Building into an apartment house; the El Dorado into a boutique hotel; and the Palace Theater into a 2,000-seat performance venue.

Tom Gilmore, an aggressive proponent of revitalizing the historic district of downtown Los Angeles, has purchased another once-grand property--the 1911-vintage Palace Theatre at Broadway and 6th Street. Gilmore plans to renovate the French Renaissance-style building's long-vacant office space and move his firm's headquarters there.