Wilshire Center, Los Angeles
Wilshire Center is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. As defined by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning's Wilshire Community Plan, adopted September 19, 2001, Wilshire Center is a "Regional Commercial Center...generally bounded by 3rd Street on the north, 8th Street on the south, Hoover Street on the east, Wilton Place on the west”. Services provided by the business improvement district are limited to the commercial area between Wilton Place, Hoover Street, Third Street and Eighth Street. Google Maps defines Wilshire Center with the same boundaries that the City of Los Angeles uses: Third Street on the North, Eighth Street on the South, Hoover Street on the East and Wilton Place on the West. Wilshire Center is served by city buses, including several Rapid lines, three subway stations along Wilshire Boulevard; the Metro Purple Line, which begins at Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles, has stations at Vermont and Western Avenues, where it terminates The Vermont station is a stop on the Metro Red Line, which continues north through Hollywood to North Hollywood.
Wilshire Boulevard is named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire—a millionaire who in 1895 began developing a 35-acre parcel stretching westward from Westlake Park for an elite residential subdivision. A socialist, Wilshire donated to the city a strip of land for a boulevard on the conditions that it would be named for him and ban public transit, railroad lines, commercial or industrial trucking and freight trains. A Los Angeles Times overview of the area referred to "the corridor's former glory as a haven for blue-chip corporations and fine shopping."In the early 1900s, steam-driven motorcars started sharing Wilshire Boulevard with horse-drawn carriages. At the turn of the century, Germain Pellissier raised sheep and barley between Normandie and Western Avenues. Reuben Schmidt purchased land east of Normandie for his dairy farm. In the mid-1990s, it had a reputation for "crime and grime," and many businesses had left the area, but by 2001 it had recovered; the Los Angeles Times noted that: "Another sign of the district's popularity emerged this summer with the opening of a plush, $35-million spa and golf complex called Aroma Wilshire Center just east of Western Avenue that caters to the city's affluent Korean population, many of them entrepreneurs who own businesses in the area."
Distinguished high-rise apartment buildings and hotels were erected along Wilshire Boulevard. The lavish Ambassador Hotel was built in 1921 on 23 acres of the former site of Reuben Schmidt's dairy farm. In 1929, the Academy Awards ceremony was moved from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to the Ambassador Hotel, it closed in 1989 and, despite efforts of historic preservationists, has been demolished. The site is owned by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which in 2010 opened the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools and a small park on the site, it is the most expensive public school in the United States. The area nearby became the site of elegant New York-style apartment buildings such as the Asbury, the Langham, the Fox Normandie, the Picadilly, the Talmadge, the Gaylord, the Windsor. Many film stars lived in these buildings. A recent building boom has increased the supply of apartments and condominiums in the area, older office buildings have been converted into apartments and condos. Large apartment buildings have been constructed at the Metro stops at Wilshire/Western and Wilshire/Vermont.
Gloria Swanson's husband, Herbert Somborn, opened the Brown Derby Restaurant, a hat-shaped building at Wilshire and Alexandria, in 1926. The hat now sits on top of a restaurant in a mini-mall. In 1929, the elegant Art-Deco Bullocks Wilshire was built at Wilshire and Westmoreland as the city's first branch department store in the suburbs, it now houses the library of Southwestern Law School. A section of Germain Pellessier's sheep farm became the site of the Pellessier Building and Wiltern Theatre, which began construction at the corner of Wilshire and Western in 1929; the theater, operated by Warner Brothers, opened in 1931. In 1929, the Chapman Market drew motorcars to the world's first drive-through grocery store at Sixth St and Alexandria; the San Francisco-based I. Magnin opened a store in 1939 at New Hampshire. In 2001, David Y. Lee was the largest landlord in the district, owning 20 buildings comprising about 7 million square feet of space in Mid-Wilshire and three buildings in nearby Park Mile.
In 1952, on the driving range on the south side of Wilshire between Mariposa and Normandie, the first three 12-story Tishman Plaza buildings were built in 1952, designed by Claude Beelman. Insurance companies began locating their West Coast headquarters in Wilshire Center because of tax incentives provided by the State; some 22 high-rise office buildings were erected on Wilshire Boulevard from 1966 to 1976 to provide office space for such companies as Getty Oil Co. Ahmanson Financial Co. Beneficial Standard Life Insurance and Equitable Life Insurance; the Chapman Park Hotel, built in 1936, was torn down to make way for the 34-story Equitable Plaza office building erected in 1969. By 1970, firms such as CNA, Pacific Indemnity, Pierce National Life were starting construction of their own high-rise buildings. Southwestern University School of Law moved from its downtown location of 50 years to a four-story campus just south of Wilshire Boulevard on Westmoreland in 1973. In the 1970s and 1980s, commerce moved to the city's less congested Westside as well as the San Fernando Valley, businesses and afflu
Wellington Square, Los Angeles
Wellington Square is a neighborhood in Mid-City Los Angeles, California at the western edge of the West Adams Historic District. Wellington Square contains four streets: Victoria Avenue, Wellington Road, Virginia Road, Buckingham Road; these four streets contain 209 homes of various architectural styles including Spanish Colonial and French Norman. The neighborhood is bordered by West Boulevard on the west, Crenshaw Boulevard on the east, Washington Boulevard on the north and the Santa Monica Freeway on the south; the neighborhood is gated at 23rd Street. The neighborhoods of LaFayette Square and Victoria Park are north. Wellington Square was subdivided in 1912 by George L. Crenshaw. Wellington Square was developed by prominent real estate developer M. J. Nolan. Nolan was a native of Syracuse, New York and settled in LA in 1886. In 1914, Nolan started to develop 90 acres of land between the new La Fayette Square, he passed away in 1918, the W. I. Hollingsworth Co. continued lot sales. The boom years of the 1920s saw the peak of development of the neighborhood.
Homes in the neighborhood are an architectural mixture from Craftsman and Revival styles of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1955, construction of the Santa Monica Freeway was started; the first segment opened in 1961 and the freeway was completed in 1964. It was named by the State Highway Commission on August 14, 1957. Many homes in Wellington Square were demolished by Caltrans to build the freeway. On October 9, 2013, The Haight-Dandridge Residence, located at 2012 S. Victoria Avenue, was added to the list of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments; the house was designed and built by businessman George Washington Haight in 1908. The two-story residence exhibits character defining features of Craftsman Style and Period Revival architecture. In 1951, the family sold the home to mother of actress Dorothy Dandridge, it is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1044. Lucius Allen Dorothy Dandridge Juanita Moore Dorothy Donegan Nick Stewart Evelyn Freeman Wellington Square Website Wellington Square Farmers Market Neighborhood history West Adams Heritage Organization
South Carthay, Los Angeles
South Carthay is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. Located south of Carthay Circle, South Carthay was developed in the 1930s by Spyros George Ponty; the neighborhood is bounded by Olympic Boulevard on the north, La Cienega Boulevard on the west, Pico Boulevard on the south, Cresecent Heights Boulevard on the east. The South Carthay area became a portion of the City of Los Angeles on February 28, 1922. Residential development in the area began during the early 1930s on land that grew produce for Ralphs markets. Greek developer Spyros George Ponty worked with architect Alan Ruoff to design 147 modest Mediterranean-style homes in the area. While the builder's influence is found in Westwood, Beverly Hills, South-Central Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, South Carthay's Spanish Colonial Revival homes represents one of his earliest legacies. All of the 147 homes designed by Ponty share red-tiled roofs and stucco exterior walls, wrought iron and glazed-tile detailing, yet each home was built differently from the next, with flipped floor plans and doors and windows in different places.
South Carthay remains an architecturally cohesive community, with few intrusions from the succeeding decades. In 1984, South Carthay became the second neighborhood in the city to receive the designation of Historic Preservation Overlay Zone; the South Carthay preservation plan was adopted by the City of Los Angeles on December 9, 2010. Objectives of the HPOZ include: Safeguarding the character of historic buildings and sites and recognizing and protecting the historic streetscape and development patterns; the HPOZ boundaries exclude the commercial thoroughfares of Pico Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard
Brookside, Los Angeles
Brookside is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. It is an enclave of 400 homes. Brookside is located between Olympic and Wilshire Boulevards, includes the homes on both sides of, between, Highland Ave. and Muirfield Ave. There is a natural stream -- the Arroyo de los Jardines -- that runs through Brookside and on to Baldwin Hills and flows into Ballona Creek. According to Mapping L. A. it is located in the Mid-Wilshire district. Brookside, a neighborhood of predominantly large, single family homes, was developed by the Rimpau Estate Co. in 1920. The area — called Wilshire Crest — was built to lure wealthy families from the West Adams District. On October 28, 2015, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a motion to establish an Interim Control Ordinance for the Brookside and Sycamore Square neighborhoods to help prevent residential teardowns and the construction of oversized replacement homes as the city re-works its Baseline Mansionization Ordinance
Fairfax District, Los Angeles
The Fairfax District is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles region of the city of Los Angeles, California. The Fairfax District has been a center of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, it is known for the Farmer's Market, The Grove, CBS Television City broadcasting center, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust in Pan Pacific Park, Fairfax Avenue restaurants and shops. Beverly-Fairfax is a 3.2-square-mile neighborhood bordered by Willoughby Avenue on the north, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, La Brea Avenue on the east, La Cienega Boulevard on the west. According to the Mapping L. A. project of the Los Angeles Times, the Fairfax District is flanked on the north and northeast by the city of West Hollywood, on the northeast by Hollywood, on the east by Hancock Park, on the south by Mid-Wilshire, on the west by Beverly Grove. Street boundaries are Willoughby Avenue or Romaine Street on the north, La Brea Avenue on the east, West Third Street on the south, Fairfax Avenue on the west; the Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood, as it has been called, includes both Fairfax and Beverly Grove.
In the first draft of Mapping L. A. "Beverly Grove" was not included as a distinct neighborhood. The 2000 U. S. census counted 12,490 residents in the 1.23-square-mile Fairfax District—an average of 10,122 people per square mile, about the same population density as all of Los Angeles. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 13,360; the median age for residents was a general average within Los Angeles. The percentage of residents aged 65 and older was among the county's highest. Fifty-four percent of Fairfax residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, a high figure for both the city and the county; the median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $65,938, average in comparison to the rest of Los Angeles. The average household size of two people was low for the city of Los Angeles. Renters occupied 71.5% of the housing stock, house- or apartment owners 28.5%. The percentages of never-married men and never-married women were among the county's highest.
The neighborhood was "not diverse" ethnically, with a high percentage of white people. The breakdown was whites, 84.7%. Ukraine and Mexico were the most common places of birth for the 23.2% of the residents who were born abroad, a low ratio compared to the rest of Los Angeles. The Fairfax District has been a center of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, after the earlier Boyle Heights period, home to largest Jewish community west of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1935, there were four synagogues in the Fairfax District. After World War II, more Jews began to populate the area; as more families moved in, religious schools and a Jewish Community Center sprang up. In 1974, Bet Tzedek Legal Services - The House of Justice, a legal aid charity, opened its doors across from the Farmers Market; the Farmers Market at Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street still retains a 1930s atmosphere, with open-air vegetable stalls and cafes, many Jewish residents of the area still frequent the market as part of their shopping or kibbitzing routine.
The Grove, a commercial retail and entertainment center, opened in 2002 next to the Farmer's Market. The intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard is recognized as Raoul Wallenberg Square, in honor of the Swedish diplomat who saved thousand of Hungarian Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps; the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is located nearby, within Pan Pacific Park. CBS Television City was built in 1952 on the former site of Gilmore Stadium at Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard; the facility has been used to tape several shows both for CBS and other entities, the most notable being The Price is Right, which has shot in Studio 33 continuously since 1972. In the 90s the strip became much more popular. Today the street is covered with designer clothing stores and popular restaurants, like Animal, a restaurant, it is known for popular street art, street culture. FederalCalifornia's 33rd congressional districtStateCalifornia's 26th State Senate district California's 50th State Assembly districtCityLos Angeles City Council District 4 Los Angeles City Council District 5The Los Angeles Fire Department operates Fire Station 61, serving the Fairfax community.
The schools within Fairfax include: Fairfax High School, LAUSD, 7850 Melrose Avenue. The school was founded in 1924. Most of the original campus facilities were demolished in 1966 because the original Spanish Colonial Revival main building did not meet earthquake safety standards; the historic Dewitt Swann Auditorium and iconic Rotunda, were spared and are in daily use. Greenway Court, built in 1939 as a social hall by the students at Fairfax as a class project, was spared and was moved to Fairfax Avenue, where it was converted into a theater in 1999 by the Greenway Arts Alliance and renamed the Greenway Court Theater; the Otman Center, private secondary, 812 North Fairfax Avenue Yeshiva Ohr Eichonon Chabad, private secondary, 7215 Waring Avenue Westside Community Adult School, LAUSD, 7850 Melrose Avenue Whitman Continuation School, LAUSD, 7795 Rosewood Avenue Bais Yaakov School for Girls, private secondary, 7353 Beverly Boulevard Cheder of Los Angeles, private elementary, 801 North La Brea Avenue Melrose Avenue Elementary School, LAUSD, 731 North Detroit Street Canter's restaurant.
Los Angeles magazine named Canter's waffles the Best Waffle in Los Angeles. Esquire magazine called
Irving Gill
Irving John Gill, was an American architect. He did most of his work in Southern California in San Diego and Los Angeles, he is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve of his buildings throughout Southern California are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, many others are designated as historic by local governments. Gill was born on April 1870, in Tully, New York to Joseph and Cynthia Scullen Gill, his father was a farmer, a carpenter. As a child, Gill attended the Madison Street School in Syracuse. By 1889, Gill was working as a draftsman under Ellis G. Hall in Syracuse. In 1890, he moved to Chicago to work with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, Hall's partner years prior. In 1891, Gill went to Adler and Sullivan, his apprenticeship there coincided with several import Chicago School architects including Frank Lloyd Wright. While there, he worked on the Transportation Building, an exhibition hall at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Long after his death it was claimed; the veracity of this claim has never been documented and is unlikely.
In 1893, the year of the Fair, he moved to San Diego to open his own architectural practice. Once in San Diego, Gill's health improved, he began an architectural practice of his own. Though he was reported to have been working around this time, records of his projects were not well preserved. In 1894, Gill partnered with Joseph Falkenham; the two formed a firm named "Falkenham & Gill, the Architects", completed several projects, including some large commercial buildings. Falkenham left San Diego in 1895, Gill began to take on large residential projects for important figures in San Diego, he worked on the Granger Hall for Ralph Granger, a local musician. In the late 1890s, Gill's designs began to use concrete more and his work in that medium contributed to its use in the future. In 1896, he formed a partnership with William S. Hebbard; the Hebbard & Gill firm was known for work in the Tudor Revival and the Prairie School styles. The George W. Marston House was their most famous project. In this period, Gill trained Hazel Wood Waterman who helped with a group of houses built near Balboa Park for socialites Alice Lee and Katherine Teats.
Waterman went on to become an architect with her own practice. After California passed a law requiring architects to obtain a certificate in 1901, Gill was automatically granted a certificate because his practice was in operation. In 1903, Gill was appointed to a special seat on a Chamber of Commerce committee to build the U. S. Grant Hotel, designed by Harrison Albright, despite Hebbard & Gill's submission of designs to the committee. In 1907, Gill was accused of unauthorized work on a sewer line. Gill denied the accusations. Less than a month Gill entered into a partnership with Frank Mead, a Hebbard & Gill employee; the partnership lasted seven months, completed only a few houses. Gill designed the Broadway Fountain known as the Electric Fountain, in 1908, for the center of Horton Plaza Park, in Downtown San Diego. Though designed in the prime of his Modernist period, its revivalist style is atypical of his work. Gill's design was chosen in a competition among professional architects, was one of the first projects in the country to combine water and colored electrical light effects.
In 1911, Gill's nephew, Louis John Gill, joined his firm as a draftsman. That same year, Gill lost an important commission for the Panama-California Exposition to Bertram Goodhue, he did work for a time as an associate of Goodhue, including the design of the Balboa Park Administration Building, Balboa Park's first structure, located just outside the California Quadrangle. Today, it is known as the Gill Administration Building of the San Diego Museum of Man, houses offices and the Gill Auditorium. Gill was commissioned by Ellen Browning Scripps in 1913 to design the La Jolla Woman's Club. In its construction, he used a "tilt-slab" construction technique to assemble the exterior arcade walls on site; the result is California's first tilt-up concrete building. These walls integrate clay-block infill to lighten the slab's weight. For the interior walls and central "pop-up" volume, however, he employed conventional balloon-frame construction. Though Gill is associated with the tilt-up method, he used it in only a handful of structures.
Shortly thereafter, in 1914, he accepted his nephew Louis as a partner. After this time, Gill began living and working in Los Angeles County, although the Gill & Gill partnership lasted until 1919. Multiple projects for the fledgling city of Torrance may have prompted the move. Gill returned to live in North San Diego County in the 1920s, but his pace of work slowed due to lingering illness, changing public tastes, his diminishing willingness to compromise with clients. After the late 1920s, his work added "Moderne" touches. In the late 1920s, Gill produced several civic buildings for the city of California; this would be his final large project. His last contract was to create houses for several displaced Native American families who would settle at the Rancho Barona Indian Reservation near Lakeside, California. Irving Gill was concerned with the social impact of good architecture and approached his projects with equal skill and interest, whether he was designing for bankers and mayors or for Indian reservations, an African American church, or migrant Mexican workers and their children.
Gill's architecture
Windsor Square, Los Angeles
Windsor Square is a small and wealthy urban neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. Windsor Square is known for its giant mansions, it is diverse in ethnic makeup, with a population older and better-educated than the city norm. Many notable Los Angeles residents and celebrities live in Windsor Square, it is the site of the official residence of the mayor of the city, it is served by a vest-pocket public park. In 2008, the neighborhood had an estimated population of 6,197. According to the 2000 census, Windsor Square was diverse, with the percentage of Asian people being high for the county; the racial breakdown was 41.6% Asian, 37.7% white, 14.8% Latino, 4.3% black, 1.6% other. About a third of the residents were born outside the United States, considered a high ratio for Los Angeles, the most common country being Korea at 57.7%. The median household income was average for both the city and the county, while the percentage of households earning more than $125,000 was high for the county.
The median age was 38, considered old in both the city and the county, the percentages of residents aged 35 to 64 being among the county's highest. The percentages of both widowed men and widowed women were among the county's highest, but the percentage of families headed by single parents was notably small; the percentage of veterans who served during the Vietnam War was among the county's highest. The tree-lined neighborhood, 0.68 mile in area, is sometimes used as background in crime films because of its multimillion-dollar homes and its "film noir-era look." Windsor Square is bounded on the west by Arden Avenue, on the north by Beverly Boulevard, on the east by South Wilton Place and on the south by Wilshire Boulevard. Relation of Windsor Square to nearby places: Windsor Park residents are educated. According to the 2000 census, 46.1% of the residents had a four-year degree, high compared to the city or the county as a whole. There are no schools within the boundaries of Windsor Park. Robert L. Burns Park, on the southwest corner of North Van Ness Avenue and Beverly Boulevard, is an unstaffed pocket park.
Beginning in 1980, resident Barbara McRae, tired of noise, litter and prostitution around the park, began writing letters to city officials, the next year she presented petitions with 2,248 signatures supporting the idea of private security patrols for the city facility. The city responded by building a 12-foot masonry wall and a chain-link fence between the park and neighboring homes. By 1989, criminal activity had spread throughout the surrounding neighborhood, the Windsor Square Property Owners Association requested that the park is closed at sunset and that it be fenced and locked. On December 3, 1990, an $85,000 tubular steel perimeter fence was installed and put into use. Windsor Square is covered by two Los Angeles Police Department jurisdictions, Olympic, at 1130 South Vermont Avenue, Wilshire, at 4861 Venice Boulevard. In December 2014 the neighborhood was stunned when Antonia Yager, 86, was found stabbed to death in her Beachwood Drive home. An active member of the Assistance League of Los Angeles, known as the "great dame" of Larchmont Village, she was the widow of Superior Court Judge Thomas Yager.
They were prominent people who were said to have donated $500,000 for mathematics and science school scholarships. It was the first homicide in the area since 2001; the case was never solved despite the offer of a $150,000 award. Getty House at 605 South Irving Boulevard is the official residence of the Mayor of Los Angeles; the mayors who have lived there include: Eric GarcettiOther notable Windsor Square residents have been: Christian Audigier, fashion designer Chris Brown, singer Norman Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times Harold A. Henry, Los Angeles City Council president Neal McDonough, actor Oliver Morosco, theatrical producer, director and theater owner. Peter and Harold Janss, land developers.•Samantha Goodman screenwriter and prodcucer Map of Windsor Square Windsor Square Association Hancock Park – Windsor Square Historical Society Windsor Square History
United States of America
California
Los Angeles
