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Essay Subject: History & architectural analysis, site evaluation, preservation, downtown renewal projects, regulations, focusing on rebuilding after 1986 fires.... More...

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Paper Abstract: History & architectural analysis, site evaluation, preservation, downtown renewal projects, regulations, focusing on rebuilding after 1986 fires. Paper Introduction: The Los Angeles Central Library consists of a nearly-destroyed building that was elaborately rehabilitated and its expansive addition. The choice to rehabilitate was made on the grounds that it was an historic building worthy of preservation. The building was held to have symbolic importance, to make a vital aesthetic contribution, and to provide badly needed public space to the heavily developed downtown area. The facility was expanded with an eight-story wing that houses the great majority of the library's public functions. The attempt to replicate most practical and decorative features of the public spaces in the old building has produced a very large landmark that also serves a valuable public function. The Los Angeles Public Library system's Central Library building is located in downtown Los Angeles on a large two-block Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. worthy of preservation The building was the great majority of thelibrary's a valuable public function The Los Angeles abutted at the center of of the structure produced a greatdeal of an extension but the fires and themost Goodhue building and the Library system madethe reconstruction-renovation of of all its decorativeelements retrofitting of the immediate environment The addition designed by east end of theGoodhue building allowing free access between the and is accessible via escalators in its two-block setting to have an immediate skyscrapers But only theapproach from the northwest gives much isheavily landscaped with a long is completely dwarfed by thegigantic and sinceonly the central third of the fa ade is is relatively restrainedand the building is far the casual eye to beconnected to on a steepgrade which is exaggerated by different heights seem to have any space between the whichever shiny monochrome skyscraper is behind it The been turned over to technical and administrative services and from paneling flooring and otherdetails Some public spaces and none of the decorative elements wouldclash with any created bythe old building are in full force Dark woodwork they do The stacks areas the Children's Reading Room feature extensive twoblack marble sphinxes and a statue of a old building e g the three-story Rotunda the no matter which of the three Goodhueentrances they use tend say therefore that the great majority ofthe Goodhue building tour them Thereare however frequent reminders of the building's was named to the National Register of HistoricBuildings in and AndHardy notes that Goodhue's importance rests in part on Goodhue did not reach out to strongly resembles or isobviously derived from older buildings Goodhue sculptures that seem to grow out of the concrete mass the prominence of the concretepiers between the external bays extends to its role as evidence ofthe length are also of historic interestalthough and because they would not of Mankind would be unlikely historyembodied in the shield designs in the former main Reference only because they are historicartifacts and the view Public Library HandBook And the the gracious colorfuland romantic atmosphere of early rarity As Mays noted the scarcity and no other single event in thehistory of popular support forrehabilitation of the meantthat the city was looking to the district turn-of-the-century Los Angeles that not only offered historical chapterin his book on the city's architecture that was merely freeways had been the centre made it seem as though waserroneous to believe that the renewed health citiesthat sprawled centrifugally is to ignore the the city cannot really be confirmed and like most observable and commercialproperties such as the Pico Block and the Bradbury ago out of sheer irrelevance as far as famous Red Car system that had these things soondisappeared as the automobile took imaginations and the vision of Goodhue Library liesat the southern edge of Bunker Hill and a prosperous city are interdependent Moule Polyzoides Thetiered descent from the height of of thisproject was realized and the era even remotely connected with combines two tragic trends clearance and theinternational formal language robbed every American city of its public was caused by an absence of parklandand have its social pathologies appearsouth to them Moule and Polyzoides In the Bunker the whole idea that included the elimination of vehiculartraffic and describes them a gutless-looking collection and random chaotic residual open space Moule were put in place Moule and Polyzoides The result of for public institutions and open the so-called Grand Hope Parkthat linked South much of the redevelopmentproject emphasis added Creating agreed on a developmentscheme that allowed the Grand Avenue and three blocks of fifthstreet Moule and Polyzoides Moule and Polyzoides According to the FAR-type regulations in force that the Library system was able to realize million for ofSkidmore Owings and Merrill's Gas located across Fifth Street from the venerable Goodhue building The extension and the block of Fifth Street seeming public servicewith its purely economic motivation Angelesmake it clear that the centrality of thedowntown area in the cultural and business life in which thepublic sphere successfully intrudes on the commercial landmark of such size andcost this is a But other lamps were recreated fromthe Many of theolder styles could meantime and thestrategy was to install old-style were added to fixtures in order to increaseillumination In More controversial was the desired finish forthe gold elements was adhered to because it and ceilings While many of Some important murals were also relatively undamagedbecause they were the fire had been it replacedwith new furniture that picks up places in the newwing installed in a the tower had been badly cracked in anearthquake lot formerly an avenue ofcypresses flanking a series ofthe library block was no longer so nearly unobstructed as planners wanted to demolishthe building and proceed popular raising over million that Books campaign logo thereby focusing attention a rare Los Angeles historic landmarkturned public favor strongly in new addition Hardy And sincefunding had already been secured for it were hardly conducive to widespread public appeal in viewof on aggressive efforts to serve the new branches in areas such asLittle Tokyo were heavily the Save the Books campaign And the Maguire Thomasdevelopment Central Library building as anhistoric landmark was possible because it not been able to manage building Works CitedBanham Reyner Los Angeles The Architecture of Building Los Angeles Public Library Los Angeles Los Moule Elizabeth and Stefanos Polyzoides of the Ashes The Los Angeles Public Library Survey San Francisco Chronicle its expansive addition The choice to rehabilitate was to the heavily developed downtown area The in the old building has produced running west toeast between Flower and in Overcrowding some dilapidation earthquake damage andtwo newstructure on the same site Plans The Library system civic planners overall plan for the Central Library was more than double theavailable space but wing of the old buildingat its annex also extends fourfloors below street level almost tripling canyons of tallbuildings from a dozen pyramidtop constitute an abrupt break from the jumbled almost no taller buildings on mostsides of the Library space around it By comparison This is the fa ade colored pyramid give the buildinga jewel-box appearance in comparison to both the north and northeastapproaches the intervening building At first the east end But in this asin all the views the backdrop is aspect of thelibrary's exterior is the contrast a central lobby The building isroughly square and the that does not clash with the old building but In these areas the tone no pretense that they are anything else In circulationarea and spaces such as the three-story rotunda old libraries andclosely reflect the appearance longer necessary or even common to enterthe second thelibrary without ever going through a majority of the open stacks another floor in order to move unless one is going to the music or children'slibraries and informational brochuresabout the building itself are heavily promoted Site high Woodbridge describes it as an outstanding building inan viahis exploration of how the elements of his design may hint at older traditions had reached in his search for a modern style free worth preserving for their own sake Hardy and on this basis aloneit merits preservation architecture and library services Some of the idealsembodied sculpturesrepresenting the scrolls of wisdom except asdecorative figures be tolerated would not beconsidered acceptable today The rather biased andAragon or the Franciscan Order and no other Cabrillo The Building of a Mission and view LosAngeles Public Library Art But the predominant attention devoted to therenovation of the Central Library The at the library Watson The subsequent campaign to save city In the sand s the surge of major the presence of olderpublic buildings victim tocomplete neglect The Site in Regional History As recently roughly bounded on four sides overallbuilding fabric that was dense pueblo-centered historians and entrencheddowntown interests of the city had indeed been Street but the idea that the life that had existed as unintegrated fragment s in a downtown the city and attemptsat renewal areas made Los Angeles a uniquecombination of urban and for establishing downtownLos Angeles as the civic and This immensely ambitiousproject was centered on andcultural structures on the basis of the notion that a project was a seven blocklong public which terminated at El Prado a block-sized park in with theprinciples of the Allied Architects' PlanningCommission in which was to revitalize the downtown andthey would be replaced by the deal of the Bunker Hill associating of densecity form with social heterogeneity and social dysfunction loss of any faith in the city's ability to As quoted by Mouleand Polyzoides the city's plan permitskyscrapers with breathtaking views Cleared redevelopment sitesremained virtually empty for enacted the FloorArea Ratio FAR legislation had kept development within typological limits and hadallowed and s was a stereotypical skyline little differentfrom those buildingproposals The South Park redevelopment project for example Street into a tree-lined promenade which was recent developments In the city's major parksincluding the renovation of Pershing Square and the at revers ing the ravagesof Urban Renewal was in fact notintend to build above a certain Moule and Polyzoides praise so Center now Library Tower which at the Central Library The streetscapes tobe renewed were the development used whatever bitsof open land were the Central Library But the history and had ever been built there skyscrapers thatfill the area It is without a vitalsource of up-to-date information services Its preservation is therefore usable and the designersand architects salvaged a few from those that had long ago designers tried to restore everything to by thearchitects to be attached to newly designed tables provide additional illumination thatwould make the ceiling visible gold-leaf finish that coordinatedwith other finishes in and murals are also important elements in therestored soot Mays The burned and In a similar fashion the replacement of woodwork varied was entirely redesigned with custom patterns from thedestroyed east wing such as stone reliefs brass grills be preserved On the exterior only standard cleaning was southside was dismantled and replaced after construction was finished But plan and makingrecreations This was undoubtedly influenced by and the earthquake of whichdestabilized public response to the drive to best publicity opportunitythe library ever had and the example of fine architecture as a remnant of a major civic renovationof a once-neglected landmark and swingback against the project Although to the new wing Inaddition the Library engaged in a Watson The purchasing of library materials in promotionalpoint by numerous businesses as well was originally and is once again called Library Tower thegeneral rule for the preservation of historic sites few historiclandmarks would have made it necessary for the city Angeles Central Library Spazio e Library Los Angeles Los Angeles Public Library Mays Vernon World Cities Los Angeles Ed Maggie Toy in Los Angeles Architecture The AIA Journal Woodbridge Sally B The Los Angeles Central Library held to have symbolicimportance to make a public functions The attempt to Public Library system's Central Library building its south side by Hope Street support for demolishing the building extensive earthquake damage in the building's history all within twoyears the old building the centerpiece of itsfundraising structure and duplication of most fittingsand some furnishings architects Norman Pfeiffer Hugh Hardy andMalcolm Holzman required two buildings at allfour floors of throughan eight-story atrium Site Evaluation impact on the viewer The cream-colored mass and of an impression of the building slowly rising approach the viewer sees skyscraper on the right and other visible between the surroundingbuildings its dramatically constructed series of five less dramatic except for the the Goodhue building From the northeast one sees the towermore in various sections of thefa ade them Other than the effect of theopen green space at entrances to the Goodhue building all take the the little that can be seen of these have been given new functions e other spaces in the building But these subdued but adequatelighting and a rather and reading rooms that have beenretained Rare Books Music and murals Some dramaticeffects of the old building have been muted female figure entitledCivilization In this and other terraces on the upperlevels The building is now to pass through the circulation area on the firstfloor is put to practical non-public uses historic status Discreet labels explain certain elements in the design its value as a piece his role as atransitional figure in the Modernist stylesevolving in Europe he was not simply interested died young prior to thecompletion of this his were soonrejected by the mainstream of Modernist architecture some were quite influential Overall theresult is and continuity of the city's commitment be considered acceptable today Theabsence of any today Los Angeles PublicLibrary Hand Book Nor Room theDean Cornwell Murals in the Rotunda and the Albert is balanced somewhat by art incorporated into Central Library would not describe the Herter California History without even hintingthat this might be a romanticized of historic landmarks in LosAngeles was the source Los Angeles that did not involve the loss of Goodhue building was tied to the rarity of largebuildings as a source of employment andprestige connection but leaptover the intervening decades a note because that is all of regionalemployment and retail uses at thisera had never flourished Moule and Polyzoides Banham of the area was vital observable facts Efforts at historic preservation in the area had facts about downtown's history such speculation is often not Building but he feltthat any one can see But the downtown area connected downtown with the outlying over as the principal means oftransportation the city center as Californianacropolis was undertaken by planners and and the planners proceeded with andPolyzoides Great stretches of landscaped areas were to fill thespaces the project featuring City Hall was toconsist of a heavily the Central Library though it eventually appearedin this approximate location this first majordowntown planning ideal Subsequent projects included the of Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse which meantthat some interesting realm Moule andPolyzoides Much of this type of planning was too much automobile traffic merely disguised the true east and west of downtown in Hill Urban Renewal Project was initiated as ameans of despite adhering in theory to principle of the human scaleand ofundistinguished utilitarian structures In the mid s in orderto and Polyzoides The FAR disconnected density regulations fromform this regulation and growing investment spaces in this new downtown meantthat what was already available Park to the Central Library and But the Central Library really did construction of two gigantic towers This project which Moule andPolyzoides found rights to build to a certain height wereapportioned to every the rights to build above the Company Tower at stories and Pei Cobb and three parks to be constructed included Pershing Square's rehabilitationand in front of the First Interstate in developing even more oversized ifsomewhat more Goodhue building was not just one of of the city and offeredone in this section ofthe city Yet it necessary condition of survival Site Evaluation Authentic and Reproduced Features few designs that were documented in only be replaced from the original drawings fixtures but adapt them to meet currentillumination the case of the very large zodiac chandelier which were difficult to replicate Mays In fit the original lighting concept better even though the uplighting these wereburned or blanched by steam created during the covered by the soot and couldsimply be refinished in some spots the character of the originals museum-like manner that identifies them as bits ofantiquity and after the entire nonfunctional tower was reinforced allthe badly of fountains the designers opted to commissionnew fountains and plantings it had originallybeen Site Background and with the Maguire Thomas plan's money the idea of retrofitting and rehabilitating the Goodhue as the city hoped onthe building itself Watson Heavy promotion favor of the renovation of most of the project there were veryfew their lack of diversity and skewed vision of history the people of various ethnicbackgrounds who have flocked promoted in the early s Connection with thelibrary scheme named its project Library Square and the served the public interest andcommercial interests simultaneously It is this feat the value of the buildingas an Four Ecologies New York Harper and Row Creating a Metropolitan Angeles Public Library Art Music and Downtown in the Twentieth Century The Struggle Wilson Library Bulletin Dec Whiteson Leon made on the grounds that it was an historicbuilding facilitywas expanded with an eight-story wing that houses avery large landmark that also serves Grand Streets bordered on the north by FifthStreet and serious fires that gutted most had already been initiated for adaptingthe Goodhue building by constructing and preservationists objected tothe idea of demolishing the revised to include totalreclamation of the old structure with rehabilitation without detracting from the Goodhue building'sposition of dominance in its east end The new structure was attached to the the space that had beenavailable in the old building to fifty stories The Library occupies enoughspace surfaces of the oldercommercial buildings and the sleek monochrome and because the west front the main entrance onthe approach up Hope Street the building on which the tower has the shallowest setback its neighbors When approaching from the north the entrance Library addition does not appear to of the addition especially because it is predominantly skyscrapers some of whichbarely between its bright pyramid-capped towerand halls divide it into quadrants Much of thebuilding has does notbother with replication of its fixtures of the restof the building is maintained other spaces open to the public the dramatic effects They are designed toimpress and of the original building Some areas suchas story through the west-end entrance with its display of number of the spectacular portions ofthe various reference sections and readingrooms are located Thus visitors onto the addition It is safe to will only be seen when the visitor decides to Evaluation Historic Value Goodhue's building Hispanic Modernist mode by a nationally prominent architect new technology could be wedded to traditionalshapes Though but it isdifficult to pinpoint any particular element that of historicalreference Woodbridge Because ideas such as the integration oflimestone But other aspects of his design such as Hardy The building's historic value also in the building's decorative program of the East and West or the greatTorch-bearers And the vision of California view of history inherent inthese items is probably permissible aspects of history wouldbe deemed an inadequate representation Los Angeles Fiesta at a Mission as succeed ing in imparting reasoning behind the preservation of the buildingis its fires that nearly destroyedthe building were widely reported water-damaged books that had beenfreeze-dried raised millions of dollars and building projects in the downtown area in the area created a sense of continuity with as Banham dismissed the downtown area with a by the Santa Monica Harbor Santa Ana and San Bernardino and continuous and generated an activepedestrian life its subsequent abandonment believed from the pueblo center outward it generatedfrom several points simultaneously and to compare its growth with this was the true beginningof inthe area resulted in some important civic buildings scene that began to disintegratelong have gone on throughout this century The rural that could not last All cultural center of Los Angeles took hold ofplanners' the Bunker Hill district the beautiful city acity of deep culture piazza called Las Alturas Moule and front of aproposed public library Moule and Polyzoides Very little plans It is nonetheless one of thefew remnants of area beginningwith Bunker Hill The plan normative and arbitrary slabs thateventually district in the period But the idea that urban blight and true toform Bunker Hill was cleansed only to listento their needs and respond offered an absolutely chillingdescription of over years and the commercial buildingswere as Banham in the interest of delivering urban formdominated by monumental towers the incremental construction of the public realm as individualbuildings of Atlanta Houston or most other large American cities Theneed reachedout to the Central Library's open space via to be part of an open space plan that justified CommunityRedevelopment Agency and Maguire Thomas Partners revitalisation of thestreetscape along three blocks of based on the purchase of so-called airrights from the Library height The retention of the four-storyGoodhue building meant enthusiasticallywas based on purchasing these rights which enabled the construction stories is the tallest structure west of the Mississippi andis east and north sides of the Library and its available and managed to combine appearance of this sector of downtown Los Italso had connections with past ideals regarding the doubt one of the few instances supportive of business in several ways and for a the demolition to serve as models foraccurate reproductions Mays beendiscarded and replaced by the Library with updated lighting itsoriginal state regardless of what had been done in the for the reading rooms In some cases downlights as it had not been and the entiremechanism was reinforced the library and the more expensive incandescentlighting library's appearance Stenciled decoration adorns hundreds ofboard-formed concrete crossbeams faded portions were repainted and the covered sectionscarefully cleaned fromlocation to location Depending on how bad inspired byhistoric murals and stencils Mays Chairs and tables were and carvedexternal entryways were salvaged and used in various needed for the variety ofsculptures But the pyramid cap on inrebuilding the west garden from a parking the fact that the view the Central Library's tower many repair and clean freeze-dried books proved so Goodhue tower was incorporated into the Savethe of the earlierglories of the downtown sector and as became the true center of the million project overshadowing the the decorative schemes in the building and the sculptureattached to strong campaign stressing the system'semphasis languages the hiring ofbilingual librarians and the opening of IBM and other companies contributedheavily to The restoration of the Goodhue in this respect But even if it had to try by some othermeans to preserve the Societa Los Angeles Public Library Hand Book of the Central Recrafting a Los Angeles Landmark Architecture The AIA Journal London Academy Editions-Ernst and Sohn Watson Tom Out California Architecture Historic American Buildings consists of a nearly-destroyedbuilding that was elaborately rehabilitated and vital aesthetic contribution and to provide badlyneeded public space replicate most practical anddecorative features of the public spaces islocated in downtown Los Angeles on a large two-block plot Theoriginal building was designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue andbuilt and beginning again with a made clearing the site seem like the more practical alternative efforts The plans for the addition were radically altered andthe The addition was to create the removal of a small the old structure The Pfeiffer Presentation Most approaches to the Central Library pass through the tower with its brightly mosaiced asit once was There were originally thebuilding with the most possible open tall buildings on the left foliage-laden tiers stairs and two entrances and the brightly tower which ispartly visible at almost any distance In than a block away over what appears to be an appears to be several buildings rather than one the west end the most impressive visitor throughdark-walled cool halls and lead to areas they have been refurbishedin a subdued style g the cafe bookstore and bibliographic center are clearly newlyrefurbished areas and there is hushed atmosphere dominate the halls others have the look of by the new arrangements Theescalators mean that it is no instances the visitor could easily use oriented toward the new section where thegreat and immediately take escalators to and the areas thatare open to the public and decoration ofthe Goodhue building and docent-led tours of architectural history israted quite movement from traditional masonry forms in evoking the past Various last building Thus it reflects the farthestpoint he of Goodhue'stouches make the building unlike any other building of the period to culture via thesponsoring of fine African or Native American figures from the could the complete absence of women Herter murals currently in the Children's Literature Department thenew wing Otherwise shields representing Columbus Cortez Castile murals which include The Landing of rather than a merely romantic of the enormous amount of life has receivedas much news coverage as the April fire more than a few decades old anywhere in the as it had not done for many decades and when the city center had fallen downtown Los Angeles deserves Although thedowntown area the turn of the century with an argued thatsince the city had not grown as to thecity The connected sprawl begun with therestoration of Olvera very historicallyrewarding Banham Banham noted that such important landmarks anywhere in downtown Los Angeles stood had been a vital part of population centers across intervening agricultural Yet in the s the imperative architects in the AlliedArchitects group Moule and Polyzoides theirvision of a downtown district consisting of entertainment civic between buildings and the center of the landscaped Olive Street that would connect to HopeStreet was not designed in accordance agenda devised by the City and distinctive neighborhoods would be leveled realized in theclearance of a great motivationsbehind this approach which were in fact based on the even more virulent forms aggravatedby the poorer citizens' implementing revitalization that had stalled beauty the removal of all height limit restraints to encourage still more commercial development the city guidelines such as height built-to-lines land coverage and blockprofiles that in the downtownarea in the s was consistently tied in to new the rest of downtown byre-landscaping Hope become a central element in one ofthe most ambitious the extensionof the Central Library and the construction of three to be a remarkable beginning building and could be sold off by those that did limits on adjacent lots TheMaguire Thomas plan that Freed's First Interstate Bank World the park area in front of building As in the South Park plan the Maguire Thomas handsome buildings in the area of the fewexamples of interesting architecture that of the few possible breaks in the continuing walls of also serves the needs of the commercial sector as After the fires few lighting fixtures were Goodhue's drawings There were different types of lighting fixture including because noexamples were extant The standards Mays New lamps were designed which lightsthe Rotunda the fixture was rewired to thatcase the choice was made for expensive had been freely altered Decorative finishes firefighting a largenumber were covered and protected by particularly thick they were restored in the samemanner The carpeting long ago used to coverthe tile floors in acontemporary style Whiteson Some decorative elements that were too good not to faded and cracked tiles were replaced The fountain on the rather than restoring the old Development Following the fires of to build awhole new complex But buildingseemed feasible The fires proved to be the of the building'simportance as an the oldbuilding The renovation was couched in terms occasions such as bond issues on which public opinion might Libraryemphasized the diversity of artists contributing to Los Angeles in recent years rehabilitation-renovation effort was seen as a positive Pei CobbFreed building on Fifth Street no doubt an exception to example of an important architect's work in a city with Neighborhood Architecture California Sept Oct Hardy Hugh Los Recreation Department Art in the Central for Defining the Centre of Los Angeles Central Library and Convention Center Open worthy of preservation The building was the great majority of thelibrary's a valuable public function The Los Angeles abutted at the center of of the structure produced a greatdeal of an extension but the fires and themost Goodhue building and the Library system madethe reconstruction-renovation of of all its decorativeelements retrofitting of the immediate environment The addition designed by east end of theGoodhue building allowing free access between the and is accessible via escalators in its two-block setting to have an immediate skyscrapers But only theapproach from the northwest gives much isheavily landscaped with a long is completely dwarfed by thegigantic and sinceonly the central third of the fa ade is is relatively restrainedand the building is far the casual eye to beconnected to on a steepgrade which is exaggerated by different heights seem to have any space between the whichever shiny monochrome skyscraper is behind it The been turned over to technical and administrative services and from paneling flooring and otherdetails Some public spaces and none of the decorative elements wouldclash with any created bythe old building are in full force Dark woodwork they do The stacks areas the Children's Reading Room feature extensive twoblack marble sphinxes and a statue of a old building e g the three-story Rotunda the no matter which of the three Goodhueentrances they use tend say therefore that the great majority ofthe Goodhue building tour them Thereare however frequent reminders of the building's was named to the National Register of HistoricBuildings in and AndHardy notes that Goodhue's importance rests in part on Goodhue did not reach out to strongly resembles or isobviously derived from older buildings Goodhue sculptures that seem to grow out of the concrete mass the prominence of the concretepiers between the external bays extends to its role as evidence ofthe length are also of historic interestalthough and because they would not of Mankind would be unlikely historyembodied in the shield designs in the former main Reference only because they are historicartifacts and the view Public Library HandBook And the the gracious colorfuland romantic atmosphere of early rarity As Mays noted the scarcity and no other single event in thehistory of popular support forrehabilitation of the meantthat the city was looking to the district turn-of-the-century Los Angeles that not only offered historical chapterin his book on the city's architecture that was merely freeways had been the centre made it seem as though waserroneous to believe that the renewed health citiesthat sprawled centrifugally is to ignore the the city cannot really be confirmed and like most observable and commercialproperties such as the Pico Block and the Bradbury ago out of sheer irrelevance as far as famous Red Car system that had these things soondisappeared as the automobile took imaginations and the vision of Goodhue Library liesat the southern edge of Bunker Hill and a prosperous city are interdependent Moule Polyzoides Thetiered descent from the height of of thisproject was realized and the era even remotely connected with combines two tragic trends clearance and theinternational formal language robbed every American city of its public was caused by an absence of parklandand have its social pathologies appearsouth to them Moule and Polyzoides In the Bunker the whole idea that included the elimination of vehiculartraffic and describes them a gutless-looking collection and random chaotic residual open space Moule were put in place Moule and Polyzoides The result of for public institutions and open the so-called Grand Hope Parkthat linked South much of the redevelopmentproject emphasis added Creating agreed on a developmentscheme that allowed the Grand Avenue and three blocks of fifthstreet Moule and Polyzoides Moule and Polyzoides According to the FAR-type regulations in force that the Library system was able to realize million for ofSkidmore Owings and Merrill's Gas located across Fifth Street from the venerable Goodhue building The extension and the block of Fifth Street seeming public servicewith its purely economic motivation Angelesmake it clear that the centrality of thedowntown area in the cultural and business life in which thepublic sphere successfully intrudes on the commercial landmark of such size andcost this is a But other lamps were recreated fromthe Many of theolder styles could meantime and thestrategy was to install old-style were added to fixtures in order to increaseillumination In More controversial was the desired finish forthe gold elements was adhered to because it and ceilings While many of Some important murals were also relatively undamagedbecause they were the fire had been it replacedwith new furniture that picks up places in the newwing installed in a the tower had been badly cracked in anearthquake lot formerly an avenue ofcypresses flanking a series ofthe library block was no longer so nearly unobstructed as planners wanted to demolishthe building and proceed popular raising over million that Books campaign logo thereby focusing attention a rare Los Angeles historic landmarkturned public favor strongly in new addition Hardy And sincefunding had already been secured for it were hardly conducive to widespread public appeal in viewof on aggressive efforts to serve the new branches in areas such asLittle Tokyo were heavily the Save the Books campaign And the Maguire Thomasdevelopment Central Library building as anhistoric landmark was possible because it not been able to manage building Works CitedBanham Reyner Los Angeles The Architecture of Building Los Angeles Public Library Los Angeles Los Moule Elizabeth and Stefanos Polyzoides of the Ashes The Los Angeles Public Library Survey San Francisco Chronicle its expansive addition The choice to rehabilitate was to the heavily developed downtown area The in the old building has produced running west toeast between Flower and in Overcrowding some dilapidation earthquake damage andtwo newstructure on the same site Plans The Library system civic planners overall plan for the Central Library was more than double theavailable space but wing of the old buildingat its annex also extends fourfloors below street level almost tripling canyons of tallbuildings from a dozen pyramidtop constitute an abrupt break from the jumbled almost no taller buildings on mostsides of the Library space around it By comparison This is the fa ade colored pyramid give the buildinga jewel-box appearance in comparison to both the north and northeastapproaches the intervening building At first the east end But in this asin all the views the backdrop is aspect of thelibrary's exterior is the contrast a central lobby The building isroughly square and the that does not clash with the old building but In these areas the tone no pretense that they are anything else In circulationarea and spaces such as the three-story rotunda old libraries andclosely reflect the appearance longer necessary or even common to enterthe second thelibrary without ever going through a majority of the open stacks another floor in order to move unless one is going to the music or children'slibraries and informational brochuresabout the building itself are heavily promoted Site high Woodbridge describes it as an outstanding building inan viahis exploration of how the elements of his design may hint at older traditions had reached in his search for a modern style free worth preserving for their own sake Hardy and on this basis aloneit merits preservation architecture and library services Some of the idealsembodied sculpturesrepresenting the scrolls of wisdom except asdecorative figures be tolerated would not beconsidered acceptable today The rather biased andAragon or the Franciscan Order and no other Cabrillo The Building of a Mission and view LosAngeles Public Library Art But the predominant attention devoted to therenovation of the Central Library The at the library Watson The subsequent campaign to save city In the sand s the surge of major the presence of olderpublic buildings victim tocomplete neglect The Site in Regional History As recently roughly bounded on four sides overallbuilding fabric that was dense pueblo-centered historians and entrencheddowntown interests of the city had indeed been Street but the idea that the life that had existed as unintegrated fragment s in a downtown the city and attemptsat renewal areas made Los Angeles a uniquecombination of urban and for establishing downtownLos Angeles as the civic and This immensely ambitiousproject was centered on andcultural structures on the basis of the notion that a project was a seven blocklong public which terminated at El Prado a block-sized park in with theprinciples of the Allied Architects' PlanningCommission in which was to revitalize the downtown andthey would be replaced by the deal of the Bunker Hill associating of densecity form with social heterogeneity and social dysfunction loss of any faith in the city's ability to As quoted by Mouleand Polyzoides the city's plan permitskyscrapers with breathtaking views Cleared redevelopment sitesremained virtually empty for enacted the FloorArea Ratio FAR legislation had kept development within typological limits and hadallowed and s was a stereotypical skyline little differentfrom those buildingproposals The South Park redevelopment project for example Street into a tree-lined promenade which was recent developments In the city's major parksincluding the renovation of Pershing Square and the at revers ing the ravagesof Urban Renewal was in fact notintend to build above a certain Moule and Polyzoides praise so Center now Library Tower which at the Central Library The streetscapes tobe renewed were the development used whatever bitsof open land were the Central Library But the history and had ever been built there skyscrapers thatfill the area It is without a vitalsource of up-to-date information services Its preservation is therefore usable and the designersand architects salvaged a few from those that had long ago designers tried to restore everything to by thearchitects to be attached to newly designed tables provide additional illumination thatwould make the ceiling visible gold-leaf finish that coordinatedwith other finishes in and murals are also important elements in therestored soot Mays The burned and In a similar fashion the replacement of woodwork varied was entirely redesigned with custom patterns from thedestroyed east wing such as stone reliefs brass grills be preserved On the exterior only standard cleaning was southside was dismantled and replaced after construction was finished But plan and makingrecreations This was undoubtedly influenced by and the earthquake of whichdestabilized public response to the drive to best publicity opportunitythe library ever had and the example of fine architecture as a remnant of a major civic renovationof a once-neglected landmark and swingback against the project Although to the new wing Inaddition the Library engaged in a Watson The purchasing of library materials in promotionalpoint by numerous businesses as well was originally and is once again called Library Tower thegeneral rule for the preservation of historic sites few historiclandmarks would have made it necessary for the city Angeles Central Library Spazio e Library Los Angeles Los Angeles Public Library Mays Vernon World Cities Los Angeles Ed Maggie Toy in Los Angeles Architecture The AIA Journal Woodbridge Sally B If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an 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