Ave Pildas Art Deco Los Angeles, 1977. Essay: Liza Williams; Photographs: Ave Pildas, Harper & Row: NY, 1977, 64 pp., 1930s, 1920s
[p. 5] "Los Angeles in the twenties and thirties was a city of myth by the seaside. It was a time of boom, of flamboyance and experimentation, and this new city, assisted by a huge public relations program, drew into its environs the talented and ambitious, including the designers and architects who would create a unique testament to the Art Deco style. Wright, Neutra and Schindler were practicing in Los Angeles at the same time as the Art Deco architects Beelman, Clements, Wurdeman and many others.
"Art Deco was obsessed with total design, as exemplified by the basreliefs, the sculptural fountains, exterior and interior ornamentation, As one of the first modern cities, dependent on the automobile, Los Angeles reflected this new mobility in the stream-lining and "moderne" aspect of its buildings. It was a city of Aztec-Egyptian zig zags, round corners and shining surfaces where movement could be seen in the flow of lines. New and varied materials such as many forms of glass, chrome-plated steel, aluminium, Bakelite, Formica, patent leather, cork, decorative tiles, silver and gold were combined and utlized to pioneer a new American style.
"The Pan Pacific Auditorium was constructed in 1935 by Walter Wurdeman and Welton Beckett. It is now threatened with demolition. They employed a style called streamline moderne which rejected disguise for a statement in shape that would correspond to the utilitarian purpose for which the building was intended, and which certainly included aesthetic pleasure. The Pan Pacific is considered a classic and has the distinction of resembling only itself. That distinction should carry some weight in favor of its preservation. Along the same lines, the Coca-Cola Building (currently being used as corporate offices) is located in the central city area and was designed in the shape of an ocean liner. Less than 30 miles away, the Queen Mary, the world's largest floating Art Deco building, now a tourist attraction, lies mournfully tethered to its pier.
"Wilshire Boulevard, perhaps Los Angeles's best known street, struts its way for over sixteen miles from the heart of downtown Los Angeles to the sea. Bordering its wide roadway are some of the finest remaining examples of Art Deco architecture. Not far from downtown, in what was formerly an opulent residential area, the Bullock's Wilshire department store continues to draw its following of exclusive clientele. Above the store entrance is the motto-"To build a business that will never know completion." Bullock's Wilshire was given an air of fantastic glamour by architects John and Donald Parkinson. Its elegance and chic was a fitting match for such star clientele as Greta Garbo and Douglas Fairbanks.
"Further along Wilshire Boulevard the Wiltern Theatre, designed by G. Albert Landsburgh, and one of the best examples of movie palaces of that era still stands in its original extravagant condition. It is housed in the Franklin Life Building, designed by the architectural firm of Morgan, Walls and Clements. That firm, responsible for so [p. 6] many of the fine Art Deco buildings, is still practicing in Los Angeles today. There is no doubt that the film industry had a great influence on the designs of this period. Movies used the talents of their own artists and craftsmen and soon the lavish architectural fantasies of set design began to exert their influence on "real" buildings. S. Charles Lee, a leading theater designer, combined the most stylish of current forms, moderne and decorative, to create fantastic movie palaces which were draped in neon, the signage form of the thirties.
"Running parallel to a major freeway, and looking like a great back lot, is the U.S. Royal Tire Co., formerly the Sampson Rubber and Tire Co. It draws its inspiration from the temple of Sarson II at Khorsabad, after which the facade is modeled. Mr. Adolph Schliecher and the architectural firm of Morgan, Walls, and Clements began their construction of the plant on a 52 acre site in 1928, eleven years after Mr. Schliecher had founded the company. To quote form a brochure, supplied by Uniroyal, "His reasons for pursuing this rather unusual theme remain obscure, but the care and interest he must have taken in this project is apparent as we regard the building today." As you drive along the freeway, it is startling to come across these ancient shapes among the profusion of billboards and corrugated sheds of the industrial landscape.
"The Hollywood Bowl, one of the grandest of ampitheaters, is approached through an entrance of handsome Deco design which features a stunning fountain. Somewhat similar statues and fountains are found elsewhere in Los Angeles, one of which is the William Mulholland fountain. The Mulholland fountain was built as a tribute to "the Father of the Los Angeles Municipal Water System."
"A quite different fountain is inside the Cliftonn Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. It is a waterfall which flows down the "rocks" between the tables set tier upon tier in the mock woodsy atmosphere. At the entrance to Clifton's are terrazzo designs set into the pavement, one design depicts city hall, which is itself clearly visible from that spot.
"Griffith Observatory and Planetarium was erected in 1935. It was a project of the W.P.A., and so contains inside the expected mural and wall decorations. When James Dean was rebelling without a cause, he did part of it on and about the observatory which is situated on top of the hills above the Hollywood area. Through obviously designed for astronomical observations, the building also houses a planetarium, museum and offers, if not a telescopic view of the heavens, one of the loveliest and most unobsructed views of the sprawling city below.
"Los Angeles contains many outstanding examples of Art Deco. They stand wiitness to a fabulous era, ended with Pearl Harbor. But the memory lingers on."
--Liza Williams