There is, in every great city of the world, some particularly distinguished thoroughfare beside whose glories the municipality’s other avenues seem commonplace. With Paris, one thinks of the Champs Elysee; with London, the Pall Mall; Berlin, Unter den Linden; New York’s sleek Fifth Avenue; and Chicago, the wide and windswept Michigan Avenue. It is highly significant that Wilshire Boulevard has become, throughout the world, synonymous with Los Angeles. So proclaimed Wilshire Tropics Magazine in 1930. The journal’s assessment was shared by a long line of visionaries, boosters and planners who have marked Wilshire Boulevard as the symbolic spine of the city. Indeed, few streets in any other city can boast the number of landmarks, natural wonders, museums, diversity and density that exist on the boulevard’s 16-mile stretch from downtown to the beach in Santa Monica. The Los Angeles Conservancy will spotlight the history of Wilshire Boulevard during its new “Curating the City” initiative that includes an ambitious slate of programs happening over seven weeks. It launches this Sunday, October 2 with a one-day architectural tour showcasing interior spaces in six important landmarks along Wilshire. “Wilshire Boulevard is a microcosm of the city at large,” says Catherine Gudis, the Conservancy’s director of education. “Its growth parallels the growth of the city.” Gudis goes on to say how the overarching title, “Curating the City,” deliberately takes on the museum metaphor. “Our goal is to turn the city into a living museum. By putting a frame around some place, it gives an opportunity to reflect on ideas and history. There’s no one clear story, rather many layers to the story.” It’s this kind of approach’looking at historic buildings in a much larger context than simply the embodiment of an architectural style’that the Conservancy hopes will broaden its audience. “We want to get people to think of the built environment as part of a whole urban fabric,” Gudis says. The Conservancy, established in the 1970s, grew out of the community-based effort to prevent demolition of the L.A. Central Library. The organization has grown to a membership of over 8,000 households and its mission is two-fold: advocacy and education. “We need to continue to build a preservation ethic among Los Angelenos,” says Gudis, who regards the recent lost battle to save the Roosevelt Hotel as a reminder of the need to be ever-vigilant. “We want people to think about what is lost when buildings aren’t around to tell us about our common heritage.” The Conservancy plans to offer a new “Curating the City” exhibition every few years, highlighting a distinct part of the city. Spanning three cities and countless diverse commerical and residential neighborhoods, Wilshire Boulevard provides an especially rich history lesson. Not only does it showcase all the major architectural styles of the 20th century, it also highlights patterns of migration and immigration, tells the story of L.A.’s fascination with the automobile, and unearths colorful biographies of the city’s early movers and shakers. Interestingly, Wilshire Boulevard did not evolve in a straight westward line. It actually began in 1875 in Santa Monica, as Nevada Avenue, and in the 1880s as Orange Street from downtown to Westlake (now MacArthur) Park, then grew in fits and starts in other sections. The only thing separating downtown from the rest of the Boulevard was Westlake Park. In 1934, a causeway was built over the lake, splitting the park in two but completing the final leg of the Boulevard. The Boulevard got its name from the flamboyant, socialist-millionaire Henry Gaylord Wilshire, who arrived in Los Angeles from Ohio in the late 1800s. “He was such a cool character,” says Gudis, who describes how the man’s unusual legacy includes having a monopoly on the billboard industry and promoting a pseudo-medical device in the form of a belt that promised to cure everything from baldness to cancer. Ironically, while Wilshire espoused socialism and even ran for public office under its banner, he is best known for shaping what was to become the city’s first upscale residential area near downtown. To ensure the residential character of a 35-acre tract he had purchased in 1895 (located between today’s MacArthur and Lafayette Parks), he donated to the city a four-block strip down the center of it for the establishment of a boulevard to bear his name. This came with the stipulation that railroad lines and commercial and industrial trucking be banned. True to Wilshire’s vision, the area soon became dotted with large mansions. Gudis refers to the automobile as the main character in the story of Wilshire Boulevard, serving as the major catalyst in its development. When Bullocks Wilshire opened in 1929, it was the first department store that put the car at center stage, with the main entrance to the building’and valet parking’at the rear. The commercialization of Wilshire continued farther west when the one-mile stretch between La Brea and Fairfax Avenues, dubbed “Miracle Mile,” was developed. Beginning in the 1920s, A.W. Ross envisioned the area as a commercial center to rival downtown. “He knew the automobile was going to make this place happen,” Gudis explains. At the time, it was described as “Ross’ Folly,” since the Boulevard was a dirt road surrounded by bean fields, and the only notable structures were oil derricks. “He had the last laugh,” Gudis adds. Another defining moment for the Boulevard came when the 13-story height limit was lifted in 1957. Some 22 high-rise office buildings were erected in the Wilshire Center area from 1966 to 1976, and during the 1980s, scores of high-rise and high-cost condominiums were erected along the stretch of Wilshire in Westwood. The diverse architectural gems to be opened for docent-led tours on October 2 are The Elks Club, now the Park Plaza Hotel (Curlett and Beelman, 1925), built in the elite Westlake area to host L.A.’s society set; the Art Deco Bullocks Wilshire building (John and Donald Parkinson, 1929) a restored landmark that is now part of the Southwestern University School of Law campus; and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple (A.M. Adelman, S. Tilden Norton, and David S. Allison, 1929) with its immense Byzantine dome. Also featured will be Johnie’s Coffee Shop (Armet and Davis, 1955) an icon of the “Googie” aesthetic; the Victorian-styled Wadsworth Chapel (J. Lee Burton, 1900), the oldest building on Wilshire Boulevard; and the Spanish Colonial Revival Miles Playhouse (John Byers, 1929) in Santa Monica. “The tour is going to be a blast,” says an enthusiastic Gudis. “There will be special attractions at each of the sites.” Tickets for the Sunday, October 2 one-day, self-guided architectural tour are $35 ($25 for Conservancy members and $12.50 for students under 21 with a valid I.D.). To order tickets, call (213) 623-2489 or visit www.curatingthecity.org.
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