8150 Goes Bust!

It was no surprise to me when I saw last night on the Esotouric Tours instagram account that the Frank Gehry monstrosity that was to replace the midcentury modern Lytton bank building (which replaced the Garden of Allah hotel) was now officially kaput. Gonzo. Belly-up. Finito. The lot is now up for sale, according to a WEHO times article.

Here’s a pictorial history of this lot, beginning with the Garden of Allah hotel (1927-1959) shown above, followed by the Chase/Lytton Bank (1960-2021), designed by architect Kurt Meyer:



…followed by an overhead view I shot just before it was leveled:



After the bank was removed:



…and then the rest of the strip mall was removed, too. This is how it looked when I photographed it last month:



I surmised a few months ago that when the lot stayed bare with no construction going on that something was amiss with the Gehry-planned development.

Why did this occur? Very simple. A lot with a building that could be considered “historic” is a headache for developers. It equals bad press because of the potential loss of the historic building and it often means expensive and lengthy legal battles to overcome the demolition pushback. Townscape Partners secured legal approval to demo the bank in 2018; they revised the original Gehry plan to incorporate some historic touches to appease both bank and hotel fans. And then the pandemic hit. The way business is done changed and the need for another mixed use property with an expensive piece of poo on it decreased. 

Still…the bank had to be removed, otherwise the potential for future legal battles to save it could have returned. Thus, the empty lot you see now that is up for grabs again.

Here’s a vintage shot of Robert Benchley and Charlie Butterworth that seems appropriate for this story. The accompanying publicity blurb said that they “…kept open house in the Garden of Allah and invited passing friends in for drinks all night long. Here they are posing as they might have looked by dawn’s early light.”



The silver lining? This design is DOA.



See more photos at my main website.

Sunset Boulevard Update

This bird’s eye from the seventh floor of the Chateau Marmont gives a wonderful panorama of Marmont Lane (on the left) where the infamous John Belushi bungalow is located; at center is the Marmont pool, where Howard Hughes “allegedly” ogled sunbathing females from his sixth floor penthouse suite; and on the right, is Sunset Boulevard, aka “The Strip.”



Zooming in you can see a construction fence surrounding the property that once housed the Garden of Allah Hotel from 1927-1959; it was replaced by the Lytton Savings bank, which has now been torn down to make way for a mixed-use development designed by Frank Gehry, who claims his renderings were inspired by the Garden of Allah.

I was in LA when the Garden of Allah existed, and with this project, I wanted to capture the feeling of the experience of that place which was vibrant and memorable. It has always been important to me to respect this history while also creating something of our time.

Based on the renderings that have been revealed so far, I do not see any correlation between the two projects.



So for now, the lot sits empty, awaiting its fate.



Will the Gehry project ever get off the ground? Or now that the Lytton Savings has been torn down, avoiding any future obstacles with the preservationists, will it appear back on the market for sale again?



Here’s what the property looked like during my last visit in April (above) and from 2017 (below).



Directly across the street from the Chateau is the former office of Jay Ward Productions, where the famous statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle once rotated for all to see along Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood Hounds and PoshPetCare have “left the building” and this place also has a construction fence around it. 



Unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting, so I didn’t get a detailed enough shot to be able to tell if the elbow prints left by local journalists and a few Jay Ward employees in 1961-1962 are still there, but it appears that they could be.



How the property looked in 2012 when it was Hollywood Hounds and Bullwinkle was still there with his little pal, Rocky (somewhat obscured by a palm tree):



See more of my Sunset Boulevard photos at my website.

Vintage Hollywood Bowl

This vintage 1940’s shot of the entrance to the Hollywood Bowl screams art deco in the best way possible. Anyone out there able to figure out what the neon sign at the edge of the frame on the left was for? It’s probably something obvious, but not to me. Too much birthday celebration last weekend. The statue at the entrance was still fairly new when this photo was taken; designed by sculptor George Stanley (designer of the Oscar statuette), it was installed in 1940.

This vintage 1965 image shows a guest posing with the bandshell behind her. The 1928 bandshell concentric circle design was by Lloyd Wright, Frank’s son. Unfortunately, it wasn’t built for the ages and had to be replaced a year later by one that looked similar, but was apparently not quite as good acoustically. Oh those Allied Architects; if only they had consulted with Lloyd. Mercifully, the 1980s Frank Gehry designed fiberglass spheres were removed in 2003 when the entire shell was replaced.

Can you believe the entrance is still there? Or at least it was when I snapped this 2015 image:

UPDATE: Thanks to Darryl for finding this 1948 shot from the USC Digital Library of the mystery neon sign which says “Auto Park Full”:

See more Hollywood Bowl photos at my main website.

The Return of Allah!

The “lost” Garden of Allah hotel on Sunset Boulevard is one of those vintage Hollywood experiences that I am slightly obsessed with. Located (almost) across the street from the Chateau Marmont, it provided a similar experience for actors, writers, and artists who liked to live on the fringe and play as hard (or harder) than they worked. This aerial view is pre-1951 and shows the Chateau on the fringe left of the shot and Garden of Allah and its distinctive swimming pool top right:

The other day, a friend tagged me in a post about one of the original neon signs reappearing all these years after the hotel closed down and was razed in 1959. How the heck did that happen?!? Here’s a shot of the sign in its heyday:

…and sadly,  how it looks now:

Thinking positively, how incredible is it that it still exists?!?

The main building of the hotel was the residence of silent screen superstar Alla Nazimova and known as Hayvenhurst, after the original owner William H. Hay:

Nazimova converted it into a hotel, hoping it would generate some extra income. Instead, her partners bankrupted her and she was forced to sell, moving east to New York shortly after. Returning to Hollywood in 1938, she stayed in Villa 24 and lived there until she died in 1945. Here is Arch Oboler with Alla Nazimova at the Hotel, September 10, 1940:

One of her final roles was a cameo in “Since You Went Away” (1944) about life on the homefront during World War II. When she recites the poem from the Statue of Liberty, she steals the scene from Claudette Colbert:

Back to Allah (with an “h”): Here is starlet Martha O'Driscoll at the Garden of Allah Hotel pool, June 1937:

Garden of Allah Hotel bungalow 9 with Henry Wilcoxon, 1934. Don’t recognize him? Maybe his role of Pentaur, the pharaoh's captain of the guards in “The Ten Commandments” rings a bell. If not that, how about the priest from “Caddyshack” who gets struck by lightning on the golf course?

Yes, that’s the same guy!

Of course you know this famous Garden of Allah guest, Humphrey Bogart, with his then wife Mary Phillips, shown in their room in the late 1930's

 

Sorry for all the Allah rambling; back to the point of the post! So what’s happening with the sign? Wish I knew. There is a movement to get the sign installed at the steaming-turd-of-a-monstrosity that Frank Gehry has designed to be built on the property where the Garden of Allah once thrived:

The seller is wanting a cool $50k for it, which puts it out of the reach of the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale. Will the city of Hollywood/West Hollywood step forward and buy this piece of history? Only time will tell!

See more vintage Garden of Allah photos at my main website.

The Wright Tour Pt. 8: DTLA

We're closing in on the finish of this series…I promise! After viewing the Hollyhock House, we had a whirlwind tour of Downtown LA, which included the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall.



I remember when I first saw photos of it I was not enthralled; definitely not my taste. However, the incredibly creative building has grown on me.



I dashed around the building snapping as we had very little time at each stop. Up on the building's rooftop garden is this piece of art called "A Rose for Lilly."



The Gehry designed fountain is in honor of Walt's wife, Lillian, and her love for Royal Delft porcelain vases and roses. The fountain is a large rose that’s covered in thousands of broken pieces of Delft porcelain and tiles.



The building looks gorgeous against a blue sky; a photographer's dream. Well…at least mine.



Next up was the Bradbury Building.



It has been used in a number of movies, most notably, "Blade Runner" with Harrison Ford.



The 1893 building was commissioned by Los Angeles gold-mining millionaire Lewis L. Bradbury and constructed by draftsman George Wyman from the original design by Sumner Hunt.



Every time I visit it, there are a number of people gawking over the impressive interiors.



It is jaw-dropping at wide-angle as well as closeup.







Two of my favorite things: vintage tile…



and vintage light fixtures (please note Darryl; a return to sanity).









On the right is a display of info and photos about "Blade Runner" and the Bradbury building:





We were also afforded quite a bit of time at the LA County Museum of Art; always an enjoyable visit.





This spaghetti-like art installation in the courtyard had people mesmerized walking in and out of its tentacles.





I loved the light in this hallway.



The late Gloria Stuart of "Titanic" fame (the older Rose) was also a painter. This one is from the 1960s and part of a series she did on the Watts Towers.



Another favorite discovery for me on this trip was this portrait of Dr. Felix J. Weil, 1926, by George Grosz, a German Painter.



This vintage Bluebird radio is right up my alley.





Loved the lighting and layout in this display also:



A statue from the outdoor sculpture garden:



More Los Angeles photos at my main website.