Cover Story : The Big Buildup

Someone started a nasty rumor about the San Fernando Valley being an architecturally desolate strip of boxy shopping centers and cookie-cutter mini-malls. Not true. Well, not totally.

Some of the most interesting commercial complexes and office buildings in Los Angeles are right here in the Valley.

A few have caused headaches for homeowners, a few may be considered eyesores, but some are known nationally as historically significant structures.

“Marvelous architecture exists right here in the Valley,” said architect Larry Robbins, a Sherman Oaks resident since 1980. “You have to make buildings more human, and commercial buildings in the Valley are turning that way. You don’t need an architect to tell you if it works well as a building or if it’s beautiful.”

Longtime local activist Peter Ireland, president of the Reseda Community Assn., has closely monitored the aesthetic appeal and neighborhood impact of local projects before they are built.

“You can see the changes occurring in the Valley by looking at the buildings,” Ireland said. “There are large office towers, but not far away are little patches of green with vegetable and fruit stands.”

This list is an unscientific, non-judgmental selection of unusual commercial and public space in the Valley. It was compiled after conversations with architects, authors, activists, developers, teachers and designers who live here.

No churches or private homes are included, because in each of those categories there would be extensive lists.

The buildings are conveniently arranged for a New Year’s driving tour that shows some of the history and character of the Valley.

* Teledyne Systems Co., 19601 Nordhoff St., northeast corner of Corbin Avenue, Northridge. Designed by Cesar Pelli with Anthony Lumsden, built in 1967.

It’s best seen at night, when the mirrored oily-green windows gleam in the bright lights.

It is a fairly simple-looking, 1,000-foot-long, flat 25-year-old building. Facilities engineer Chuck Scott, who selected its plans, said he was “surprised that it won so many awards and got so much attention for its architecture.” Scott still takes budding architects on tours of the building. He started working for Teledyne 29 years ago, when the company was relocating from Hawthorne, and he chose this site in the middle of a grapefruit grove. Remnants of the orchard still exist at one corner.

Inside the smoke-free building, employees are making electronic systems and computer hardware. There’s also an atrium where employees can eat lunch and watch special events.

In the building’s early days, the 14,000 lights inside couldn’t be turned off--there were no switches--but this was changed within the last five years.

* The Trillium, 6320 Canoga Ave., Woodland Hills. Designed by Tom Landau, completed in 1986.

Warner Center’s pair of pink towers are set on either side of a huge tennis complex. The two 17-story towers also hold a Hilton Hotel and a few restaurants, including the Cheesecake Factory.

Kenneth Lee, president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said he is impressed with this project because “it is one of the few commercial projects that makes a gesture to bring in the public in a significant way, and it provides public space for concerts and other activities.”

* The Chateau, 20501 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. Replica of a French chateau, finished in 1985.

Tarzana developer Danny Howard saw a picture in a book of a chateau in Strasbourg in the north of France and fell in love with it. Within two years, he had the chateau--which was built in 1789 by the finance minister of King Louis XVI--completely rebuilt on a 20-acre site that Howard owned on Chalk Hill.

“It seemed to fit. I don’t like glass boxes; I wanted to create a landmark,” said Howard, who is still part-owner of the building. “I’m afraid to visit the actual one--I’m afraid mine might be better.”

Commuters stuck in Ventura Freeway traffic can look up the hill to see the imposing palace, which is more than 90% leased. On the side facing the freeway, it has huge arched windows, balconies and multistory Corinthian columns, but in the front, stone lions peek out from the staircases, and mugging faces of gargoyles look out from the facades.

Gerald A. Silver, a business and administration teacher who has published books about graphic arts, doesn’t like the building.

“It’s totally out of character with the area,” says Silver, the founder of Homeowners of Encino, a local activist group.

* The Cadillac Building, 19611 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. Designed by Santa Monica architects Matlin & Dvortesky, completed in 1987.

It may not hit you at first, but this is the biggest pink Cadillac you’ll ever see. Called Fleetwood Square, this shopping center was designed to look like a giant car, and it’s fondly nicknamed the “Cadillac Building.”

Windows are designed to resemble the big front grille of the car and the giant headlights. The building is on the north side of the street between Corbin and Melvin avenues, and the Kids Collection toy store and a mortgage loan company are advertised outside.

Valley architect Lee said he enjoys this whimsical building but wishes it housed something that had to do with cars.

“It is one of the few buildings left in Los Angeles that was designed to look like something else, and it’s very creative,” he said.

Built to be a mini-mall complex, it became a children’s center when Brian Lipman bought it in 1989.

“Every day, people come in and comment on the building,” Lipman said. “They either love it or think it’s an eyesore.”

* The Courtyard Shops, corner of Encino Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, north side of the street. Designed by Howard Kurushima, built in 1991.

This shopping complex has an imposing octopus-like oak tree in front and was designed to look very European, like something you’d find in Milan. Architect Kurushima designed the mall around the two old oaks--one near Ventura Boulevard, the other in the back--to save them. “We wanted to somewhat shield shoppers from the traffic, and we wanted to incorporate the ideas from the neighborhood,” Kurushima said.

There’s a Security First Realty office there, and a multi-theater complex was planned, but after Silver’s neighborhood group protested, Security Pacific Developers is planning to put in a grocery store instead. The building was completed after a year of consulting with neighborhood groups.

“They were very open to what the homeowners wanted, and we worked well with them,” Silver said.

Other designers called the complex of wide arches and multiple balconies an over-decorated eclectic fairy tale.

* Encino Terrace Center, 15821 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Built in 1986 by the Fujita Corp. of U.S.A., based in Santa Monica.

Also known as the Fujita Building, this imposing block-long black-and-white office building resulted in years of homeowner grief. Locals complained that the building blocked their view of the hills and said it was “just plain ugly,” as activist Silver puts it.

The edges of the building are sharp and angular, and plants and vines hang over them.

“It looks like a big whale or the Queen Mary bearing down on the residents,” Silver joked. But unlike the Queen Mary in Long Beach, this one isn’t easily moved.

* 94th Aero Squadron Headquarters, 16320 Raymer St., just west of Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys. Designed by Los Angeles-based Lynne, Paxton, Paxton & Cole, constructed in 1974.

Some architects are surprised that their mentor, Charles Moore, listed this restaurant building in his comprehensive guide to architecture and landscape “Los Angeles--The City Observed.” But Moore enjoyed its movie-set atmosphere.

Set just off the runways of Van Nuys Airport, not far from where the final, romantic scenes of “Casablanca” were filmed, the restaurant seems to tell the story of a 1917 World War I flying ace who crash-lands in Normandy and finds an abandoned barn and farmhouse, which the restaurant is designed to resemble. The restaurant is fixed up to the last detail, including a windsock flapping in the breeze and sandbags outside.

“When you walk in there, it really has the feeling of World War I France,” said architect Robbins.

* Kester Avenue Elementary School, 5353 Kester Ave., entrance near the southwest corner of Clark Street, Van Nuys. Designed by Richard J. Neutra, completed in 1950.

Most of the schoolchildren don’t know it, but their 41-year-old school helped set the trend for similar classrooms that are now copied all over the state and the world. Neutra, one of California’s pioneer Modernist architects, created this sleek-shaped school with one-classroom-deep buildings and long, covered walkways.

This school helped support Neutra’s theory that classrooms should seem like living rooms and should open onto patios. The plan is simple and easy to copy. The windows are positioned so that cross-ventilation follows the morning sun to keep temperatures down. The walls once slid sideways to allow more air through, but a past administrator ordered the walls cemented in.

A large, gnarly tree in the front was much smaller when the school was built, and a mural featuring airplanes and space travel is painted on the front wall. Other than that, few alterations have been made.

* Great Western Savings, 13701 Riverside Drive at Woodman Avenue, Sherman Oaks. Built in 1965 by Deasy and Bolling Inc.

This boxy 1960s-style building on the northwest corner of the intersection may not look impressive at first, but consider that it was built upside-down--from top to bottom. Each of the nine floors, made of prestressed concrete, is actually hanging from the top of the yellow steel frame around it.

This construction made it a prototype for similar high-rises. This technique, it was thought, not only would save money, but could be safer in the event of a severe earthquake because it sways better. So far, it’s standing.

“It’s a unique building when you consider it was built in reverse,” architect Lee said.

* Notre Dame High School, 13645 Riverside Drive, Sherman Oaks. Designed by Laurence Viole, finished in 1947.

Just across Woodman Avenue from the Great Western building is a Spanish-style private Catholic school that looks like an ancient rancho estate. It’s not a mission, it’s one of the nicest-looking high schools in the Valley, architect Robbins said.

A sprawling staircase, like a slender pyramid, narrows up to a rose-shaped window of the gymnasium, and there’s an intricate wrought-iron gate in front when the school is closed. The long rows of classrooms are under giant arches and an authentic Spanish tile clay roof. Viole also designed the mission-like St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in North Hollywood. The 21 arches over the classrooms represent the 21 missions on the coast of California.

“I’m not sure the students appreciate how beautiful this school is,” said Tony Scully, the school’s alumni and development liaison. “In Southern California, you get sort of spoiled with architecture like this all around.”

* Lingenbrink Shops, 12632-12672 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. Built in 1933 from architect Rudolph Schindler’s design.

Every day, thousands of cars pass by this string of cute shops across from Jerry’s Deli, but few know that the stores date to the earliest days of chic shopping along Ventura Boulevard.

Some parts of these shops retain Schindler’s original design, featuring a low, stucco box-like look. Built in a curve to hug the hills of the Valley, the original wood-paneled facades were altered by individual store owners. Now there’s a custom picture-framing store, an American Indian art center, an Italian restaurant, an interior decorator, a few awnings and lots of large glass windows.

* Laurelwood Apartments, 11833-12948 Laurelwood Drive, Studio City. Designed by Rudolph Schindler, completed in 1947.

One apartment resident, Mark Wadlinger, a mechanical engineer, loves ‘50s, and that’s why he moved into these pale green apartments on a hill above Ventura Boulevard. Outside the 22 apartments is a sign that reads: “R.M. Schindler, 1947 Laurelwood Penthouse.”

But living in a historic monument has its drawbacks. The ultra-flat roof leaks in spots, and there’s no air-conditioning. Residents pay about $1,000 a month for a two-bedroom place in this twin set of apartments, set like a giant V, with a stair-stepped look and a lot of plants hanging over roof and balcony ledges.

“I studied this place in books, and now I’m living here,” said Wadlinger, who greatly admired Schindler because he was a disciple of legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. “There was such simplicity in the time after the war.”

* The Centrum, 3575 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Studio City. Designed by Johannes Van Tilburg of Santa Monica, built in 1983.

Looking as if it’s going to topple right onto the Hollywood Freeway, this office complex (formerly the Valley State Bank) was awarded a lemon in 1991 for worst architecture by the American Planning Assn. and the American Institute of Architects. The only other lemon awarded in the Valley was to the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum.

This long, red-bricked building is the length of a football field, and most of its five stories seem to lean precariously toward the road. A wall of black glass juts out over the trendy L’Express restaurant on the first floor, and the upper floors have balconies.

* The Black Tower, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, completed in 1969, and the neighboring 10 Universal City Plaza Building, finished in 1976. Both were built by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The first skyscraper in the Valley was a 15-story building off Lankershim Boulevard for MCA/Universal Studios headquarters, and it was dubbed the Black Tower in the late 1960s. A decade later, the taller monolith--at 36 stories the tallest building in the Valley--was built nearby. They house offices for directors and producers responsible for much of the world’s movie-making.

“It’s an impressive view. On a clear day we can see downtown through the Cahuenga Pass and Mt. Baldy,” said Larry Spungin, president of MCA’s development division. Spungin works on the 20th floor of the 10 Universal City Plaza building. Both buildings anchor the east Valley.

“And it’s earthquake-safe; that’s what they say,” Spungin said. “I’ve been up here for a few shakers, and it’s been fine.”

At first, homeowner groups protested such a tall tower in the middle of their rural suburbs, but it is now considered one of the most modern contemporary architectural styles in the world, architect Robbins said.

In the last six months, a red Texaco star was put atop the taller tower because the oil company that owns the top floors of the building finally decided to use its option to display its logo, said MCA General Manager Dan Slusser.

Next year, the Universal CityWalk is planned to open up the hill, next to its movie theater complex. It will combine all of Los Angeles’ unusual, characteristic and kooky architecture, Spungin said, including Spanish, Art Deco, modern and futuristic.

* Team Disney Building, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank. Designed by Michael Graves, completed in 1991.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, the folks who go off to work in this 1 1/2-year-old building see seven giant gents holding it up. They’re anything but dwarfs. They’re 19 feet tall, cast from thin shell glass fiber and reinforced concrete. They are all there, with Dopey holding up the peak of the 330,000-square-foot building’s roof.

Some neighbors hate it. A few even protested having these guys looking out at them from over the Disney lot fence. Graves, a New Jersey architect, said his goal wasn’t to be fanciful.

“What I wanted to create was a corporate office building for a serious company engaged in entertainment,” Graves said. “Snow White” was the first full-length animated feature for Disney, and the wild success of “Beauty and the Beast” shows that animation is still very much in the company’s future. The red sandstone columns are three stories high, and the building stretches to six stories in some parts.

Graves said he didn’t have the famous mouse ears in mind when he designed the round semi-circular curves in the building. He went on to design the Dolphin and Swan hotels for Disney World in Orlando.

* Burbank City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave., Burbank. Designed by William Allen and W. George Lutzi, finished in 1941.

An authentic Depression-era example of the Modern style, this City Hall, with its two stories supporting a 50-foot tower, has been used in countless movies and television shows. Its Art Deco black-and-turquoise fountain out front and stylized concrete eagle perches, gable roof and brass-framed glass doors make it picturesque--it’s harder to laugh at beautiful downtown Burbank because of this building.

The streamlined style is continued in the lobby by a gray marble floor with an inlaid winged star, and various works of art. A mural in the mezzanine has DC-3s flying over the back lots of movie studios, and huge bronze medallions on both sides of the steps depict bare-bottomed men lifting airplanes and a scantily clad woman being filmed.

* The Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park, at the cloverleaf of the Golden State and Ventura freeways, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Designed by Chet Widom, completed in 1988.

Architect Widom wasn’t happy about the museum building’s getting a lemon designation from the American Planning Assn. and the American Institute of Architects. But last summer, the building won the Los Angeles Business Council Grand Award, honors from the Society of American Registered Architects, and applause in major architectural journals.

“My skin is a bit thin about it,” Widom said. “I guess I’m sensitive about getting a lemon, but I love the building.” The $17-million museum has a 250-seat theater, a 140-foot-long mural and a four-story tower. The architect’s firm, Widom Wein Cohen, is doing a lot of work locally, including an annex to Glendale Memorial Hospital.

“I’m gratified by people who have driven by the museum or walked through it and think it’s successful,” said Widom, who worked three years on it. “I’m very disappointed about the critics. That project is not a bad piece of architecture.”