noirish Los Angeles

[srk1941]

R. Williams was Rene Williams, this house and interior were designed by Paul Laszlo.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks Hoss. Now that you rotated the aerial, I recognize the oil area that became the site of Beverly Center. -very cool.



# # #






Here is another striking bar, this one's from 1947 and was located at a private residence in Beverly Hills.


http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...nt/?brand=oac4


http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...ata&brand=oac4

above: Paul R. Williams?






detail

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the information srk1941, much appreciated.



Entry-way to Rene William's home, designed by Paul Laszlo.


http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...id/7445/rec/17

I think Rene and Paul were thinking outside the box. I'm impressed!




below: Fireplace, living room.


http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...id/7445/rec/17




Looking down toward the living room (beautiful woodwork).


http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...id/7445/rec/17

Now I'm intrigued by what the exterior of Ms. Williams home looked like. (judging by the front door......perhaps colonial?)

Does anyone know where she lived.....you know, like the street address?

__

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by HossC

Wow, thx HossC. We've seen this one a few times before, but never in this size. The first time on page 128. I don't recall knowing it was a Shulman. It's always nice to know more.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Russell Clopine was the architect of the Lake Vista Apartments, built in 1925. This is a 1926 photo:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...ll170/id/68000


March 2015; the commercial building behind the fat palm tree appears to also be in the 1926 photo above:

GSV

This is so sad . They've left the building with almost no redeeming qualities.
Everything that made this building so special has been removed.
__

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the information srk1941, much appreciated.



Entry-way to Rene William's home, designed by Paul Laszlo.


Does anyone know where she lived.....you know, like the street address?

__

I found an artcicle in the paper from Feb 17, 1946 that's definately the house in your pictures. It says its in Los Feliz hills and was an older house that they moderne-ized.

Then online I found a link to an auction held held last year of some furniture made for Rene Williams by Paul Laszlo in 1946, and it gives the address as 606 North Beverly Drive.
Link to the (closed) auction here.

2-17-46 la Times



It mentions the bar specifically:


these are all from the auction website-

chairs:


paddle chairs:


lamps:

[jdcamb]

The tangents this thread has thrown me on have been magnificent. Thanks...

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

__

Thank you e_r. Vibiana looks so pretty. And I think I can see the reliquary still there up above the altar.

This was filmed the year before Archbishop Cantwell compared Vibiana to "worn-out garments" and planned her destruction.



__

[CityBoyDoug]

Let's not forget old Ding Dong Daddy of the D Line. Married 17 times, or was it 18. I lost track a long time ago.


LAT

5'2''....Francis Van Wie liked women. He met lots of them on the job: a rail line conductor on the rear platform of aging streetcars heaving themselves around the city under the crush of wartime loads. With so many men overseas in WWII, there wasn’t a lot of competition. So he courted them and married them. Quite a few of them. All at the same time. Divorce? A word that wasn't in his dictionary.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Noircitydame

I found an article in the paper from Feb 17, 1946 that's definitely the house in your pictures. It says its in Los Feliz hills and was an older house that they moderne-ized.

Thanks so much Noircitydame for locating the article!
So the living room walls were a grayish pink with a green accent wall. -very interesting.

Of course we saw the bold Red of the bar area in that earlier photo, but now I'm curious about the dark blue den (walls and ceiling!).
You would think Maynard Parker would taken a photograph of that as well.
__

[srk1941]

I believe Rene was a he... and yes, Laszlo did an earlier re-design of an existing house, and then designed a house and new interior in the later 40s in Beverly Hills. Shulman photographed both in 1947.

If you search Paul Laszlo's work on either the Julius Shulman or Maynard Parker archives, you'll see many examples of bold use of color! He is my favorite!!

http://rosettaapp.getty.edu:1801/del...s_pid=IE130444

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks so much Noircitydame for locating the article!
So the living room walls were a grayish pink with a green accent wall. -very interesting.

Of course we saw the bold Red of the bar area in that earlier photo, but now I'm curious about the dark blue den (walls and ceiling!).
You would think Maynard Parker would taken a photograph of that as well.
__

[ethereal_reality]

originally post by HossC


This photograph got me thinking about the microwave tower.
It reminded me of a couple slides that I've had for quite awhile, but hadn't posted.


Here's a great close-up dated 1964, three years after it was erected. (I kept it large in order to see the details)



eBay

I'm not sure exactly what's going on at the top. If I didn't know better I'd think Debbie Sussman climbed up there and hung a few banners.




This is dated 1964 as well.


eBay

I didn't think the telephone building below the tower was open to the public....so why the mural?



One last slide: This one is dated 1970.


eBay

I wonder what that pile of debris is at lower left?
__

I'm outta' town until Thursday. Have fun everyone!

[HossC]

It was only recently that we discussed the architect of this building. From the 'About the Author' section of 'Love & Anger: Good Relationships Are on a Collision Course' by Maurice Rapkin PhD and Eleanor Kendall:

In 1948, Eleanor moved to Pacific Palisades, CA, where, with her new husband, commissioned Lloyd Wright, Architect, the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright to design a nursery school building. The completed building was called Hill and Dale Nursery Kindergarten. Thiry years later, this school became non-profit and Eleanor started a private practice in family counseling, having already taken many courses from the Thulian Clinic.

It was located at 16706 Marquez Avenue, Pacific Palisades. This is Julius Shulman's "Job 1314: Hill and Dale Nursery School (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1952".









All from Getty Research Institute

The building is very difficult to see in Street View, but it survives as the Palisades Montessori Center.


Google Maps

The listing below is from a PDF file I found at preservation.lacity.org


www.preservation.lacity.org

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

eBay

I didn't think the telephone building below the tower was open to the public....so why the mural?

That artwork is actually on the outside of the building, at street level:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/42...!6m1!1e1?hl=en

[HossC]

Here's the mural on the AT&T building in daylight.


GSV

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

originally post by HossC


This photograph got me thinking about the microwave tower.
It reminded me of a couple slides that I've had for quite awhile, but hadn't posted.


Here's a great close-up dated 1964, three years after it was erected. (I kept it large in order to see the details)



eBay

I'm not sure exactly what's going on at the top. If I didn't know better I'd think Debbie Sussman climbed up there and hung a few banners.




This is dated 1964 as well.


eBay

I didn't think the telephone building below the tower was open to the public....so why the mural?



One last slide: This one is dated 1970.


eBay

I wonder what that pile of debris is at lower left?
__

I'm outta' town until Thursday. Have fun everyone!

The mural is actually a mosaic/ relief and it is located on the Grand Avenue side of the phone company building by the sidewalk. As for the microwave tower, when I worked at Cal Plaza in the 350 building, it was right outside our windows and played havoc with our cell phone reception.

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

originally post by HossC


This photograph got me thinking about the microwave tower.
It reminded me of a couple slides that I've had for quite awhile, but hadn't posted.


Here's a great close-up dated 1964, three years after it was erected. (I kept it large in order to see the details)



eBay

I'm not sure exactly what's going on at the top. If I didn't know better I'd think Debbie Sussman climbed up there and hung a few banners.




This is dated 1964 as well.


eBay

I didn't think the telephone building below the tower was open to the public....so why the mural?



One last slide: This one is dated 1970.


eBay

I wonder what that pile of debris is at lower left?
__

I'm outta' town until Thursday. Have fun everyone!

the dirt and rocks that are piled there are probably from excavations for Cal Plaza.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Incoming Bishop Thomas James Conaty, 1847-1915 (we've heard of him before) took office in 1903 and got to work right away to realize his predecessor's plans. Conaty envisioned a huge suburban cathedral, topped by a vast dome, well away from the business district:

"It was my desire to secure a place that was in a distinctively residential district, where there could be no possible chance for change in character of surrounding buildings..."

(Famous last words those)

To that end, Bishop Conaty purchased most of the block bounded by Green, 8th, Whittier (now Columbia) and 9th (now James M Wood Blvd) in the Westlake district.

Plate No. 8 of the 1910 Baist map reflected the new reality:

historic mapworks

This is described as "the architect's plan for the Cathedral to be" at 9th and Green, but the architect is not named:

Los Angeles, the Old and the New (1911) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=24

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

This is described as "the architect's plan for the Cathedral to be" at 9th and Green, but the architect is not named:

Los Angeles, the Old and the New (1911) @ HathiTrust -- http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...iew=1up;seq=24

Wow Flyingwedge. Thank you for this. It's even grander than the descriptions, "vast dome" and all. What a monster.

Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan, a Boston firm, were the architects.

An inspiration may have been the extant cathedral in Mexico City (built between 1562 and 1813), the largest cathedral in the Americas. It faces south, an anomaly it shared with the proposed cathedral in Los Angeles:

sandiegohistory, 1890 drawing by Bertram Goodhue

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This is dated 1964 as well.


eBay

About that mural. It's a Heinsbergen:

"Untitled, or Bell Communications Around the Globe
Pacific Bell Microwave Tower (Woodford and Bernard, architects, 1954). Grand Avenue north of 5th Street, Bunker Hill, Los Angeles.

Historical Background

Anthony Heinsbergen, 1961. 17'h x 36'w. 420 S. Grand
One of the great pleasures in walking through cities is discovering its hidden visual delights. Indeed, the urban setting--a transition zone between the Central Business District and the high-rise office buildings and culture palaces on Bunker Hill--intensifies the unexpected appearance of the mural on PacBell's 16 story switching station.
The unusual but site specific mural mediates between the operations housed inside the building and the pedestrians walking on the adjacent street. As a metaphor of the dramatic way modern communication has changed the world, Europe is placed east of Australia, which is upside down*, South America is separated and west of North America, and Africa is north of Eurasia. "This mosaic," Heinsbergen said, "was not intended to be a map. Our objective was to tell the story of worldwide communication by cable, radio, telephone and satellite and do this in a way that would capture the attention and interest of people. A certain amount of artistic license was taken to achieve this end." (1) Near the center of the mural, a brass statue modeled on a human figure used in Bell Telephone advertising during the 1960s, holds underwater cables with one hand and a satellite transmitter with the other. A radio beam transmitted up to a small replica of Echo I, the first Bell communication satellite, is relayed to a receiver located in Russia. Red, green, blue and purple patterns representing different ocean depths in the background mosaic tile bring a welcome dash of color to the streetscape.

The mural stood at the cutting edge of the avant-garde. Artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, harking back to Marcel Duchamp's "readymades", were introducing found objects into their sculpture. Heinsbergen paid homage to these pioneers by cementing abstract compositions of coils, coin box chutes, relays and capacitors--parts that were widely used in the telephone system at the time--on the tile. These small components reinforce the link of the 300 foot microwave tower on the roof to telecommunications. Numbers are randomly scattered throughout the mural in recognition of their importance in telecommunication. (2)

When Heinsbergen first drove to the site, he noticed a map in his car and instantly decided to include the world's continents in his design. He submitted a sketch of the unusual layout to officers at Pacific Telephone for their approval.(3) Heinsbergen executed the work, which was built concurrently with the construction of the building, in an enclosed workshop he constructed on the street in front of the wall.

James S. Cantlen, vice president and general manager of Pacific Bell, described the mural at its dedication in May, 1961 as illustrating "for all who pass, the scope and breadth of electronic communication in today's shrinking world." (4) For many who do pass, the distorted world is often scrutinized with a mixture of interest and puzzlement. A time capsule called the "Capsule of Communication," was buried when the building and mural were dedicated to be opened 50 years later."

..............................

"Anthony [Antoon] B. Heinsbergen (1894 -1981) moved from the Netherlands to Los Angeles in 1907.(1) Five years later, he moved to Seattle, where Alexander Pantages commissioned him to execute murals for his theaters. In 1922, Heinsbergen formed a company that subsequently decorated the interior of thousands of buildings, including the Fine Arts Building, The Roosevelt Building, the Biltmore Hotel, the Los Angeles City Hall, the Beverly Hills City Hall, and the Department of Commerce in Washington, DC.(2) Heinsbergen, however, is best known for designing interior murals for movie theaters, including such Los Angeles landmarks as the United Artists, the Warner on Seventh Street, the Hollywood Pantages and the Wiltern."


-Public Art in LA

*Austraila has since been turned right way up:


gsv


gsv

[Flyingwedge]

This is a pre-1930 aerial view looking NE at the 1917 Los Angeles High School. North across what is now Olympic Blvd.,
in the upper left corner, is Memorial Park, future site of the Memorial Branch Library:

UCLA

We've seen the 1917 Los Angeles High School building several times, including here and here.

John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley designed the school, seen here from Memorial Park in 1933:

UCLA -- http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla...bartlett%3A778

This is just a gratuitous 1940 shot of the tower from an inner courtyard:

UCLA -- http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla...bartlett%3A780

Here's another 1940 photo, looking north across Olympic at Memorial Park and the Memorial Library. Austin and Ashley
also designed the library, which opened April 29, 1930:

UCLA -- http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla...bartlett%3A773


The Memorial Library today. It was closed for renovations from 1990-96. Please note the window on the left:

This and the rest of the color photos by me


Here's that window from the inside. The stained glass was done by the Judson Art Studio:



The top two rows; the towers of the 1891 and 1917 Los Angeles High School buildings are at lower left and lower right:



Bottom left two panels:



Bottom middle two panels; the names are of 20 LAHS graduates who died in WWI:



Bottom right two panels:



Bill Judson, great-grandson of Walter Horace Judson (who worked on the design of the front windows) designed five
new windows for the rear of the library during the 1990s renovation. Here is one of them:



And here is another, which depicts the 1917 Los Angeles High School building:



Memorial Branch Library history here

er's post on the Judson Studios

Judson Studios site