Wednesday, June 27, 2007 – Art Deco Jewel

As a supplement to the page on The Wilshire Tower, here's the Art Deco classic on the east end of the Miracle Mile.  From Wednesday, June 21, 2006, the man who wrote As a supplement to the page on The Wilshire Tower, here's the Art Deco classic on the east end of the Miracle Mile. From Wednesday, June 21, 2006, the man who wrote the book on Wilshire Boulevard, Kevin Roderick, explains –

CityBeat and its parent company, Southland Publishing, are moving on up. Southland closed escrow on the gorgeous former Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles branch at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard, just east of the landmark Wilson tower at La Brea. The art deco bank recently joined the elite group of local buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1929, it was designed by the architecture firm of Morgan, Walls and Clements, which did the Wiltern Theatre tower, the El Capitan and a hundred or so other notable Los Angeles buildings. The old bank vault is still inside 5209 Wilshire, which is the last surviving example of Stiles O. Clements' black-and-gold terra cotta design that delighted downtown architecture buffs on the long-gone Atlantic Richfield building. For the sales staff at Southland and the editors at CityBeat and ValleyBeat, the move means escape from the sealed-window, upstairs environment in the People's Bank tower at 5900 Wilshire. New owner Wayne Ratkovich has big plans for his Miracle Mile property, but there's a lot of grumbling about the parking, elevators and overall conditions.

It's very cool.

And who knew there was an Art Deco Society of Los Angeles? They start here –

Miracle Mile Walking Tour

Saturday, May 12, 2007

10:00 am to noon

Meeting at 5209 Wilshire Boulevard

Los Angeles 90036

The ADSLA announces the return of its Miracle Mile walking tours! These quarterly trips will begin at the Stiles Clements-designed, black and gold terra cotta bank building at 5209 Wilshire and will be led by J. Eric Lynxwiler, co-author and researcher for the book Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles. With plenty of visual aids, Lynxwiler will expand on the book's Miracle Mile chapter as the group explores the famed neighborhood block by block to see what the area was, what it is and what it will be. Walking shoes and appropriate dress for walking and enjoying the tour!

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Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik