Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
mystery location
eBay
Hoss, there's a noirish connection. The 1950s-era structure housed the County Coroner's office until the offices were moved to the county health center.
The building was turned over to the Center Theater Group in 1967.
"So what had been the morgue became rehearsal space." -said Stephen Rountree, Music Center pres.
from
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/m...96a8befaa.html
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Here's the front of the building. (which they're thinking of tearing down)
gsv
I wanted to post a photograph of the building when it was the coroner's office, but I haven't located one yet.
below: *This is the best i could do at the moment. It's dated 1967 (so the coroner's office had already moved)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/21768/rec/10 |
No-one'll shed a tear when they tear down this structure, save perhaps for me (and I like to think some of y'all). It's a nifty 1949 Late Moderne office building.
Here's an image from another of these two slides, that I cobbled together. It may be the only good vintage shot of this building unless there's one lurking in the Shulmans.
Save for some futzing around with the windows, survived pretty well unmolested since then, remarkably:
The architect was Jack H. MacDonald, who was a major force in 1950s commercial and industrial Los Angeles. He's no Welton Becket, or Victor Gruen, but he was top-notch and designed tons of stuff. If MacDonald didn't build it in the CMD (Central Manufacturing District) then he was probably the contractor. I've included some here that are
Cejay Parsons; MacDonald & Parsons were partners after '53 and worked hand-in-hand on designs; MacDonald providing contracting, too.
Here's just a smattering of his stuff, all curtain-wall'd, concrete-screened, terrazzo-and-travertine-lobbied Corporate Modern 50s LA in a nutshell:
here
(Above, Valley Times, the rest below from the LAT via Proquest, all about '55-'60. 601 W Temple, being 1949, is very early for MacDonald.)
(speaking of 5820 Wilshire, check out
this)
Jack H. MacDonald is likely best remembered for the Carolina Pines bowling alley, at the NW cnr of Aviation and Century, I say famous because it's
fondly remembered as the
"Live Nude Nude" everyone saw coming in from the airport:
flickr
I love how MacDonald moves from Late Moderne (that 1955 design at 6th & Ardmore is quite masterful) to Corporate Modern to full-blown Googie—Carolina Pines's boomerang roofline and that undulating canopy, and all that floor-to-ceiling glass, etc. Facing parking lots on three sides! Such an ignominious end.
I hope his 601 W Temple/County Morgue/Music Center Annex doesn't fall, but if it does, I hope it gets some recognition. What does it cost to get a marching band to play
funeral marches in the street?