House of Davids pic via b.la's la_koga

Via Curbed Los Angeles comes the news that the House of Davids is having an estate sale. Not only are the Davids themselves all for sale, but their holidays outfits, the hanging dining room table, and many other treasures of Youngwood Court will be sold off this month–including much of Norwood Young’s own wardrobe which apparently is so extensive it’s accessed via those same electric racks they use at your dry cleaner. If you looked at the pictures in Curbed’s previous post about the house you have some idea of the wonders in store for us at the estate sale.

The sale will be two weekends: October 15 & 16, and October 22 & 23. Saturdays from 9 am to 3 pm and Sundays from noon to 4 pm. Thank you Curbed for keeping us all posted about such delights.

Glendale’s A Noise Within (ANW) has been the region’s premiere classical repertory theater company for a long time now.  Other than about a year at the end of last century spent at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal Sate Los Angeles, the company’s home has been the landmark Masonic Temple building at 234 S. Brand Boulevard.

But the company is Glendale’s no longer. It’s leaving its home and heading to its own dedicated space in Pasadena, a move that’s been more than five years in the making. And today as one of its final acts in the Jewel City before beginning its life in the Crown city, the company held a rummage sale to clear out its inventory. Everything from lighting equipment and furniture to props to costumes was priced to move.

But instead of looking for bargains, I took the opportunity to go looking around, sneaking backstage and up the stairs to explorie the 1928 building’s upper levels where I found this jaw-droppingly amazing top-floor space in mid-demolition/arrested decay (click to panoramally enlargify and/or check out this rotate-ready version of the image):

UPDATE (8.26): Where’d the picture go? Short-ish story is that a representative of the building’s owners, Frank DiPietro and Sons, contacted me the day after this post went live wanting to discuss the photograph’s publication. After some further consideration, it was politely requested of me today to remove the above image,  for several reasons. First, it was taken and published without their permission. Second, the picture shows the hall in a condition that doesn’t showcase it in the best light. Third, the company is in the midst of submitting plans and obtaining permits for a renovation/remodel of the space and the company is sensitive about photographs and information about the
building being released as that process progresses. So, basically,  I have agreed to honor their request because the simple fact is that it’s their private property and I was there on those upper floors without their knowledge. Since it’s not OK for them to sneak into my house and take pictures and put ‘em up on the internutz, down comes the pic.

I have no idea what the plans are for this hall and the rest of the building. But in the meantime I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that it doesn’t become a gym..

After the jump, a brief bio on the building’s historical significance excerpted from the Glendale Register of Historic Places.

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Some of the RVs and campers along 3rd Avenue in Venice

Consider this a parting shot from homeless advocates who have lost the latest battle in the long-running Venice parking war: the National Coalition for the Homeless has named Venice’s “oversize” vehicle nighttime parking restriction one of The 10 Most Ridiculous Anti-Homeless Laws in America.

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I admit it: I love Curbed LA. It’s a guilty pleasure and a sort of embarrassing confession from someone who doesn’t even get TV reception. Curbed is blogging junk food. It’s like cheetos or red vines–empty calories, but sometimes just exactly what you want.

For the unitiated, Curbed covers, for the most part, LA real estate. They do link round-ups of stories from around the blogosphere and occasional tangential news stories, as well as “rent check” posts about apartments for rent around LA, but their meat-and-potatoes posts are the ones that detail extraordinary houses/palaces/design catastrophes for sale. I’m sure my fascination with, for instance, this Versailles-lite Sunset Boulevard mansion is the same sort of engine that drives so many of those house-oriented shows on television, but somehow Curbed delivers it in a way that I find compelling instead of off-putting. Who hasn’t always wanted to see inside the House of Davids??!! I know I have. Thank you, Curbed, for making it possible. It is, in fact, more atrocious than I imagined.  

But it’s not all architectural traffic accidents on Curbed, there are also posts like this one that make me wish I had a spare $629,000 sitting around. Or this one that makes me want to organize a b.la expedition to explore the old Nazi ruins in LA.

So thanks, Curbed, for being consistently entertaining and letting me peak inside some of LA’s interior decorating travesties.

Driving down Sunset today (I got the Sad Foot, by the way, and indeed:), I saw that Uncle Jer’s, that little shop of curiousities and knicknacks and randomness across the street from the Vista Theater, was having an “End of an Era” sale.  I got home and checked: yup, sadly, Uncle Jer’s will be closing after 10 years.  Owners Rob and Cassandra simply say they want to spend more time with their two young sons and so it was time to move on.  There is a storewide 20% clearance sale from now until they close their doors at the end of the month.  They plan to have some sort of online presence after they close the shop, but those are tentative for now.

Sorry to see this little shop go – it was always such a delightful way to kill some time before catching a movie across the street.  Oh, sad foot.

Photo courtesy Lush Bunny and used under a Creative Commons license.

[Sorry, too angry to dig for a CC photo]

I realize the world will end anyway on May 21st, but The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that Grauman’s Chinese Theater is being sold and we should Expect Some Changes once their deal closes on May 20th.

Bull SHIT, sez me!

There’s a Facebook page to save it but everybody knows what that’s worth.

I’m not completely clear if they’re only getting the Mann Chinese 6 at Hollywood and Highland, or if the rumor that the developers are “considering turning the theater, which has 1,152 seats, into a nightclub,” is anything more than that, but still.

Really? The Chinese Theater? It’s not IT enough for you?

The Chinese is on all the historic registries, but developers (and Samaha in particular) are notorious for moving forward with their nefarious agendas and hoping no one will notice until it’s too late (Yes I Mean You out there bulldozing Johnnie’s Broiler).

Let’s not let this get swept under the rug, Angelenos!

Apparently, the recent takesies-backsies of the Los Angeles Dodgers by Major League Baseball has quiet a few suits talking. Their discussions are starting to get interesting. Yahoo Sports takes a look at how the baseball power struggle may help L.A.’s bid for an NFL franchise.

In short, the Dodgers could move to a new baseball stadium downtown on the site of the currently proposed new NFL stadium. A new football facility would go up in place of Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. Stadium swap.

It’s a fascinating idea. Football fans would now be able to tailgate outside a brand new stadium, as opposed to the downtown site. It would also provide an opportunity to correct an injustice done decades ago – a new stadium could be situated to face Downtown Los Angeles instead of turning its back on the heart of the city. The new Dodger Stadium could also boast DTLA as a dramatic backdrop. Baseball would become more a part of the urban fabric of the city.

Take the subway to a ballgame? In Los Angeles?

What do you think?

It may come as little surprise to many of you that Los Angeles is one of the ten most segregated large urban areas in the United States. With a segregation level of 67.84 (where “1″ is the most integrated and “100″ is the most segregated), LA is only marginally less segregated than the City of Brotherly Love which weighs in at 68.41 or Cincinatti at 69.42.

Congratulations are in order for outgoing Curbed Los Angeles editor Dakota Smith.

Dakota took over the LA edition of the popular real estate and development blog when it was barely in the terrible 2′s. After a 4-year run, she heads to the Valley to report for the Daily News.

We look forward to reading her take on the always amusing 818. Maybe she can help us get the trains rolling.

You never know what you’ll find in the free section of Craigslist. For the first-time home buyer, this may be right up your alley. It’s a free house near 7th and Garland in City West.

You just can’t have the land that it’s on. So, bring a truck and a couple friends, ’cause this sucker’s gotta go.

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What’s being called one of the largest apartment building construction projects in the U.S. since 2008 is underway in our backyard, Marina del Rey. The former Del Rey Shores apartment complex on Via Marina has been demolished to make way for The Shores.  The drab beige and brown 2-story buildings are gone, and in their place will be a dozen modern 4 and 5 story buildings, totaling some 554 units. As the accompanying pictures hopefully demonstrate, it’s quite striking to see such a large plot of temporarily open land in the congested Marina, just a few blocks from the beach.

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KCET just confirmed that they are selling their production facility on Sunset between Los Feliz and Silver Lake to the Church of Scientology for “an undisclosed amount” that undoubtedly has many, many 0′s.  According to the LA Times’ article about potential deal, the Church now gets to add around 4.5 acres of property to its march towards taking over the world, one stress test at a time.

According to KCET’s official statement, the now-independently owned public television station plans to expand their programmingblahblah and currently are looking to relocate to other facilities.  After KCET officially vacates the premises, up to a year from now, will the Church repaint the buildings to movie set blue, like the giant building on Hollywood (above)?  Will you be asked if you would like to be outfitted with contraptions that look like they were pulled out of the The Twilight Zone‘s circa-1960s prop department in a box labelled “Space-y Looking Things” every time you try to go to Rudy’s for a haircut or to Tiki Bar for a tiki drink?  My answers: hopefully yes, and hopefully no.  In that order.

Update:  Thanks to the comments below for pointing me to the Church of Scientology’s news release on this.  They say the KCET facility ” is a perfect fit, in both size and location, for the expansion of the Church of Scientology’s production of religious and social betterment audiovisual properties, and we welcomed the unexpected opportunity to acquire it.”

Photo courtesy jasmined and used under a Creative Commons license.

Hey Y’all!

I’m looking to move, likely somewhere that’s a 20-minute drive from Santa Monica, but I’ve lived in “Los Angeles” since 1982 and know that just a block or two in any direction can mean the difference between Just Fine and Oh No You Di-Int.

So, Peeps, anyone care to give a little info? Mar Vista? Culver City? Museum Row?

Elsewhere?

Looking for the Try Heres as well as the Stay The Hell Away Froms.

Need 2 bedrooms and secure parking.

Eager to hear ~

I spotted this entry for the 2011 award for Most Optimistically Named Condo Development the other day.   I hope the building maintenance fees will cover any damage incurred during attacks by hordes of mystical dragons.

This officey-looking building in Marina del Rey was once known as Pier Pointe.  It was an office building that was converted to condos several years ago.  According to the sales literature I received from them at the height of the recession,  the condos were quite pricey, starting at about $900,000, as I recall.  This unfortunate timing led not to a fully occupied building, but to a reported bankruptcy in 2009.

Now the building is back as Latitude 33.  The condos are being marketed once again.  However, take a look at their logo in the pics here and on their website.   Do you see anything unusual about the logo, given the name of the property?

I do wish these folks the best of luck.