Pereira in Peril – The Race to Save William L. Pereira’s Metropolitan Water District HQ (1963), LACMA (1965), L.A. Times (1973, landmark altered by City Council) & CBS Television City (1952, landmarked!)

New petition launched October 6, 2023

NEW: On the indictment of PLUM Committee member Curren Price.

FOR THE LATEST ON LACMA, L.A. TIMES BUILDINGS, ETC. SCROLL DOWN TO PRESS CLIPS

OUR PEREIRA IN PERIL ACTIVISM: On December 3, 2019, Save LACMA board members gave public comment at City Hall opposing the gift of air rights over Wilshire for the new LACMA building, and architect Barton Phelps, FAIA critiqued Peter Zumthor’s new museum building…. On November 6, 2019, Save LACMA board members gave public comment at City Hall opposing the gift of air rights over Wilshire… On October 18, 2019, we are pleased to announce the launch of Save LACMA, a registered 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation that plans to provide a public forum through which to amplify community voices, so that the most positive future for the museum can be achieved.

On October 16, 2019 the Los Angeles Planning Department was scheduled to decide the fate of Times Mirror Square. We invited the public to give public comment or send an email asking the Commissioners to “do the right thing” and approve a redevelopment plan that preserves and protects this architecturally and culturally significant place, while rejecting the appearance of political corruption steering land use decisions in Los Angeles. (Facebook event link.) At the meeting, following passionate public comment as seen in the video above (and partly transcribed on our blog), the planners made no decision. This is likely due to the serious challenge to the EIR submitted by California public benefit corporation SAFER on the morning of the hearing, and reported for the first time on our blog. (December 2, 2019 update from L.A. City Planning on Times Mirror Square: Expected letter of determination NOT issued. No scheduled hearings at this time and it’s highly unlikely one will be scheduled this year. We think no news is good news for the Pereia in Peril!)… On May 20, 2019, we submitted public comment on the Times Mirror Square redevelopment project Draft EIR. You can find it at a blog post entitled “Frankly, it smells.”… On May 12, 2019, we published hundreds of emails received by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors prior to their approval of LACMA’s FEIR, and petitioned them to reconsider their decision to demolish the historic 1965 William Pereira campus…. On May 12, 2019, The Los Angeles Times reports troubling news about cracks appearing inside and out of the newly landmarked Los Angeles Times buildings– damage which might further slow progress on Metro’s Regional Connector, which could fail to hit the 2023 deadline for a $670 Million Federal Grant… On April 9, 2019, the Los Angeles County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the LACMA redesign project, which would require demolition of the 1965 Pereira campus. Enjoy it while you still can.

PRESS CLIPS & UPDATES – ALL PEREIRA IN PERIL CAMPAIGNS

October 4, 2023 – For the New York Times, former Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne flew to Switzerland to interrogate (alternate link) architect Peter Zumthor about his much diminished main gallery for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a project that required demolition of William Pereira’s 1965 LACMA campus, a bridge across Wilshire Boulevard and the loss of a surface parking lot meant to be developed as a tower to provide the museum with additional office and storage space. The story reveals what concerned Angelenos already knew: the new LACMA is a dog. Zumthor flatly states the project has been value engineered to death (“There are no Zumthor details any more”) with much of the budget going to address fossil discoveries and sinking pylons in the tarry soil, a material fact that Museum Director Michael Govan concealed from the public (“Govan asked him to streamline the design, he added, ‘to compensate for all these millions of dollars for all these new [foundation] poles, without going to L.A. County… If we were to go to the county to ask for such an amount, he knew they would say, ‘Let’s cancel it.’ So this we had to avoid.”). Remember: none of this would have happened without the vote of corrupt, prison-bound former County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

August 28, 2023 – Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose support was needed to allow a new LACMA building to cross Wilshire into his district, is sentenced to 42 months in prison for conspiracy, bribery, mail and wire fraud. We were at the courthouse to report from the scene.

June 13, 2023 – Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price, one of the five PLUM Committee members who voted for Jose Huizar’s pay-for-play gutting of the Los Angeles Times landmark designation, is indicted five counts of embezzlement of government funds, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest. Fellow PLUM member Mitch Englander has already been released from prison on his corruption and obstruction charges.

June 1, 2023 – The Cultural Heritage Commission hears from Onni Group about their demolition plans for Times Mirror Square (the video is here), and we ask “Will the Historic Los Angeles Times Buildings be Destroyed Because Jose Huizar Sold His City Council Vote?”

March 30, 2023 – Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose support was needed to allow a new LACMA building to cross Wilshire into his district, is convicted for public corruption.

December 2022 – The Real Deal reports that the GSA seeks a preservation buyer for the endangered Chet Holifield Federal Building, aka The Ziggurat, in Laguna Niguel. The auction starts on March 7, 2023 with a $70 Million opening bid.

August 2022 – Larchmont Buzz reports on a Neighborhood Council meeting about Hackman Capitol Partners’ proposed remodel of CBS Television City, with a new design that is more respectful of the landmarked Pereira buildings and viewsheds.

July 2022 – The City of Fullerton releases the results of several years of public meetings and surveys on paths to reactivate and program the Pereira designed building and landscaped campus: Hunt Library Revitalization Project Community Input and Programmatic Plan. (PDF link.)

February 2022 – Los Angeles based, Chinese-funded developer Palisades obtains entitlements from the Los Angeles City Planning Commission to demolish the Metropolitan Water District campus for their 1111 West Sunset high rise project which they’ve been hyping since 2018. But by July 2022, the entitled development site is on the market as a flip, price confidential: “1111 Sunset Boulevard is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase 6.19 acres of entitled land on world renowned Sunset Boulevard… The Letter of Determination (“LOD”) dated March 29, 2022 and EIR are available on the City website. In sum, a developer could create a 7.7 acre master planned community of over 1,000 units, including luxury shopping, dining, retail, office, and entertainment.”

October 14, 2021 -The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announces a series of online workshops about potential future concepts for William Pereira’s Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, commonly known as the Ziggurat. There will be five events between October 20 and December 2.

October 13, 2021 – Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose support was needed to allow a new LACMA building to cross Wilshire into his district, is indicted for public corruption.

July 20, 2021 – LACMA Lovers League petition update informs signers of the Save LACMA nonprofit’s billion dollar bailout offer that has thus far been ignored by museum director Michael Govan. Troubling that the local and arts press are not covering this significant development.

May 16, 2021 – Preserve Orange County reports that large sections of Golden West College in Huntington Beach, a 19 building master plan district (1963-66), are being demolished now.

March 30, 2021 – In The Architects Newspaper, the Los Angeles Conservancy expresses reservations about initial proposal for expanding Pereira and Luckman’s landmarked CBS Television City. We look forward to a robust, preservation-driven discussion about the right way to grow this visionary studio complex.

March 26, 2021 – The Real Deal – Hackman unveils massive plan to redevelop CBS Television City. “While the landmark status doesn’t preclude redevelopment, it necessitates a more thorough and lengthy city review process.” When we launched Pereira in Peril, many feared CBS Television City would be demolished. It’s now a protected landmark, and the TVC 2050 plan says it “realizes Pereira’s futuristic vision,” calls for building on and around its production studio legacy. Sign up here to be in the loop as the EIR goes up for public feedback.

February 9, 2021 – Los Angeles Times picks up thge February 5 Save LACMA tweet to report that nine months after buying a (downsized) house for director Michael Govan, LACMA is selling the property, and stripping Govan of his free housing allowance.

February 9, 2021 – Ignoring multiple serious challenges to the EIR, Los Angeles City Council has scheduled a vote on approving Times Mirror Square project, including destruction of the 1973 Pereira addition. Here’s our live tweets as the meeting happened and a thorough report from MyNewsLA.com. Watch the video here.

February 5, 2021 – Arts Journal CultureGrrl asks Can a New LACMA Rise from the Rubble?

January 28, 2021 – CityWatch asks questions about the relationship between Times Mirror Square, Mike Feuer, and Kevin De León.

January 25, 2021 – The Los Angeles Audubon Society is the latest nonprofit to challenge the Times Mirror Square project EIR, on the grounds that the City Planning Department is ignoring the threat of mass bird deaths if Onni Group’s planned towers are erected without an appropriate avian strike remediation design plan. They call for Los Angeles to join San Francisco, New York and the Federal government in adopting bird-friendly building standards. (PDF link.)

January 21, 2021 – Los Angeles City Council Planning Committee (PLUM) hears another appeal from public interest nonprofit SAFER of the city of Los Angeles’ approval of the Times Mirror Square project. They claim that it violates CEQA, demand a new EIR. (Update: PLUM refused to hit the brakes on Jose Huizar’s runaway corruption train. Report from the hearing here. New Councilmember Kevin de Léon’s changes to José Huizar’s sweetheart deal are in PDF form here.)

January 21, 2021 – Through their attorney, the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, a union with 50,000 members across six states, submits a statement challenging the Times Mirror Square EIR over environmental, traffic, housing equity, alcohol and historic preservation concerns. (PDF link.)

January 2021 – The city discovers major errors in LACMA’s permit requests, as the Bureau of Engineering files Notice of Cancellation over 2019 sidewalk easement request that was filed with incorrect information.

November 30, 2020 – LACMA Lovers League petition urges that Los Angeles City Council not vote on a motion brought by lame duck councilperson David Ryu to green light LACMA’s use of public airspace, but allow newly elected councilperson Nithya Raman represent the community interest.

October 2020: Los Angeles Magazine: The Man Who Blew Up LACMA: Inside Michael Govan’s Quixotic Crusade to Reimagine a Landmark. Observation: It’s not “quixotic” to do damage to a public institution with the support of billionaires and politicians. It might be quixotic to fight what Michael Govan represents, as we’re doing with the Save LACMA ballot measure. Los Angeles Magazine does Angelenos a disservice by only talking with the New York-based opposition, not to the locals.

October 2020: The New Yorker (Dana Goodyear): The Iconoclast Remaking Los Angeles’s Most Important Museum Will the new LACMA building be Peter Zumthor’s masterpiece or a fiasco? “Everything Michael Govan has done since he came to lacma has been to create a checkmate situation.” – Kim Cooper, Esotouric

October 2020: New York Review of Books, The Demolition of LACMA: Art Sacrificed to Architecture. More followed in the letters column.

September 2020: In Curbed, Alissa Walker mourns the lack of any public voice in the destruction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (That’s what the Save LACMA ballot measure seeks to correct.)

September 2020: Zumthor, shmumthor. Is anybody excited by these bland LACMA gallery renderings? Our feet and eyes hurt looking at that endless hardscape.

August 28, 2020 – Public interest nonprofit SAFER again appeals the city of Los Angeles’ approval of the Times Mirror Square project on grounds that it violates CEQA, demands a new EIR. (PDF link.)

August 19, 2020 – Orange County Register: Laguna Niguel’s Chet Holifield Federal Building, also known as the Ziggurat, threatened with sale and demolition. Public comment open through September 4.

August 14, 2020 – Rachel Reyes, Los Angeleno: “Along with many other community members, I am thoroughly perplexed by the ongoing redesign of LACMA’s 20-acre campus. It almost feels like a joke.”

August 11, 2020 – Los Angeles Planning Commission releases Letter of Determination approving demolition of William Pereira’s Los Angeles Times Executive Building. Despite reaming developer Onni Group for seeking to use public benefit funds to subsidize historic preservation of the Los Angeles Times building, they approve $7.3 Million in such spending.

August 2020 – Cheers to Claire Cancilla on her Columbia Historic Preservation M.S. thesis on the theme of William L. Pereira’s Modern Architecture in Los Angeles: History and Preservation Challenges. We shared some insights with her on our Pereira in Peril battles.

August 2020 – As LACMA blithely demolishes its William Pereira campus to the horror of Angelenos, San Diego shows us how to properly celebrate and steward a great Pereira building’s 50th Anniversary. Here’s to Geisel Library with a full year of special events.

July 9, 2020 – Los Angeles Planning Commission calls Onni Group back from the drawing board after rejecting the project one day after RICO charges implicate the Planning Department in Jose Huizar’s criminal conspiracy. They still hate the designs, but vote yes after a small number of semi-affordable units are penciled in. Commercial Observer report on the outcome is here, and our live reporting on Facebook is here.

June 23, 2020 – Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar is arrested on public corruption charges and accepting bribes related to Downtown Los Angeles development projects.

May 24, 2020 – Commercial Observer struggles to see a development-centric bright side in the Planning Commission’s torpedoing of Onni Group’s Times Mirror Square project

May 19, 2020 – The Real Deal: “Onni Group has to literally go back to the drawing board if it wants to build its massive mixed-use Times Mirror Square project in Downtown Los Angeles.”

May 18, 2020 – Commercial Observer: LA Planning Commission Tells Onni to Redesign its Massive Times Mirror Project ‘I’m concerned that…time will kill this project,’ Onni exec responds

May 14, 2020 – Esotouric: Richard Schave’s Public Comment to Los Angeles Planning Commission on Times Mirror Square, and commentary on this truly unexpected hearing

May 12, 2020 – Esotouric: As more DOJ public corruption charges are filed, and on the eve of the Times Mirror Square appeal hearing, we send a newsletter describing a threat conveyed to us by a Planning Department staffer over our intention to landmark the L.A. Times, something we have shared with the FBI.

May 12, 2020 – Spectrum News 1: Masked and righteous, Rob Hollman of Save LACMA explains why demolishing the museum during a pandemic is a bad look for a County institution facing deep budget cuts. LACMA’s Michael Govan refused to appear, but emailed the usual talking points. Is he sick?

May 4, 2020 – Artnet News: LA Times Art Critic Christopher Knight Wins the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for His Blistering Appraisal of LACMA’s $750 Million Expansion

May 4, 2020 – Dezeen: Mimi Zeiger calls out the “cruelness of demolishing LACMA, a significant piece of LA architecture, at a moment when Angelenos are unable to bear witness.”

April 28, 2020 – LACMA on Fire blog: The world’s most passive-aggressive architectural competition has just announced six finalists.

April 22, 2020 – Larchmont Buzz: LACMA Update: Demolition Progresses; Protests Continue

April 22, 2020 – Curbed LA: An overview of negative critical responses to William Pereira’s 1965 LACMA campus, nimbly rebutted by architect and historian Alan Hess. Angelenos simply loved the place.

April 21, 2020 – Architectural Record: Unofficial Competition Seeks Alternative Designs for LACMA as Demolition Begins

April 19, 2020 – Los Angeles Times: Op-Ed: Last chance to reconsider LACMA’s bad plan for a new museum?

April 15, 2020 – Los Angeles Times: LACMA has begun demolition. Where are the gallery plans?

April 11, 2020 – Save LACMA: Can LACMA Be Saved? “To say that this was a major PR blunder… is a gross understatement… one of the first phone calls [Govan] placed after his LACMA hire… was to Peter Zumthor. They were going to make Govan’s dream become real and they had the land to do so.”

April 9, 2020 – Video: Preservation pal Victor Atomic swung by LACMA to bear witness to the demolition and a crabby Clark Construction worker violated social distancing, telling him not to film from the public sidewalk and threatened to call the cops.

April 8, 2020 – Video: “The Death of LACMA’s Bing Theatre” by artist Gary Baseman (Fairfax Village/Miracle Mile native son).

April 7, 2020 – Los Angeles Times: Demolition begins at LACMA. Farewell, Bing Theater.

April 5, 2020 – ArtDaily: Save LACMA files ballot measure initiative with L.A. County Clerk’s office.

April 3, 2020 – Los Feliz Ledger: Do We Have to Say Goodbye to LACMA? “Many question why preserving and refurbishing the existing buildings—recognized as the most sustainable practice—is not an option.”

April 2, 2020 – The Architect’s Newspaper: Full Steam Ahead LACMA continues demolition of original buildings amid quarantine.

April 1, 2020 – Artnet: Catherine Wagley spotlights the glaring public corruption problem. LACMA’s $750 Million Renovation Was Once Hailed as a Powerful Vision of What a 21st-Century Museum Could Be. Now, It’s a Lightning Rod.

April 1, 2020 – Esotouric Blog: April Fool: Times Mirror Square EIR Challenge Rejected, or “Nothing to see here, G-Man.” Featuring Jose Huizar’s incredible Schrodinger’s Streetcar.

March 31, 2020 – Artforum: LACMA Moves Ahead with Demolition Amid Coronavirus Quarantine.

March 30, 2020 – Apollo Magazine: Has LACMA lost its way?

March 30, 2020 – Our public comment: Los Angeles County Supervisors, shut down the LACMA demolition project and attractive nuisance “Urban Light” to protect the construction workers and the community!

March 28, 2020 – Los Angeles Times: LACMA demolition moves forward, but coronavirus pauses Academy and Lucas construction. As major funder David Geffen faces outrage for a tone-deaf Instagram photo of his mega yacht, Save LACMA non-profit calls for new building funds to be returned to the County to aid in the humanitarian crisis facing Los Angeles.

February 28, 2020 – Nonprofit Quarterly: L.A. Art Museum Loses Its Largest Donor in Dispute over Display Policy.

February 28, 2020 – KCRW Press Play: LACMA loses Ahmanson Foundation support as it undergoes redesign. So, how serious is this? It’s an 11!

February 26, 2020 – Architect: The LACMA Debacle Keeps Getting Worse. Aaron Betsky (president of the School of Architecture at Taliesin) on the museum’s misguided and wasteful new building.

February 25, 2020: Los Angeles Times – Commentary: After giving $130 million in art to LACMA, the Ahmanson Foundation says: No more.

February 21, 2020: Esotouric blog – South L.A. LACMA Satellite Site in Violation of Sweetheart City of Los Angeles Lease? Two years after big promises, 84,000 square feet of unimproved warehouse space would be better used to house homeless Angelenos.

February 20, 2020: Los Angeles Times – An examination of LACMA debt. Can the museum afford its Peter Zumthor-designed building?

February 20, 2020: Los Angeles Times – Commentary: LACMA caught the teardown bug. The architectural cure isn’t a bulldozer

February 12, 2020, KCRW Greater L.A. – Art world is conflicted over LACMA’s redesign

February 7, 2020, Los Angeles Magazine – Newspaper Ads Call for LACMA to Be Saved

February 6, 2020, Larchmont Buzz – Latest LACMA News: A Big New Donation…and Opposition Speaks Out

February 4, 2020, Hyperallergic – The Bizarre Story Behind the Newspaper Ads Criticizing LACMA’s Expansion Plan

January 31, 2020,Los Angeles County Museum on Fire – LACMA’s billionaire board isn’t willing to pay for its plan to destroy the museum, so now they want taxpayers to cover the bill.

January 31, 2020, Save LACMA – Non-profit denies placing misleading, misspelled ad in Los Angeles Times.

January 30, 2020, Los Angeles Times – LACMA wins $50 million pledge moving stalled campaign forward, and director Michael Govan accuses museum board insiders of lying.

January 21, 2020, Larchmont Buzz – Save LACMA Announces Ballot Measure Effort.

January 16, 2020, The Architect’s Newspaper – Abatement sparks confusion over LACMA demolition.

December 19, 2019, The Architect’s Newspaper – Lacking The Public Voice – LACMA redesign could be undermined by local nonprofit; Park LaBrea News / Beverly Press – Save LACMA announces ballot measure try

December 4, 2019, Los Angeles Review of Books – A Farewell to LACMA’s Bing Theatre

November 27, 2019, Save The Hunt Library – Fullerton puts out a call for a new tenant for this recently landmarked, underused space.

November 19, 2019, The Occidental News- LACMA intern blows the whistle on privatization of the County’s public encyclopedic museum: “I learned underground information about how LACMA runs like a unilateral business. My boss told me only the Board of Trustees and the director Michael Govan had a say in LACMA’s reconstruction.” [Note: link is to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the actual article was no longer online by 1/20/2020.]

November 14, 2019, Los Angeles Times – Commentary: Fundraising for LACMA’s new building has stalled as costs balloon. (See Archinect coverage also.)

November 11, 2019, Los Angeles Times – On LACMA partnering with Hauser & Wirth: “A commercial exhibition conceived and assembled by a nonprofit museum director who is the head of a county department subsidized by taxpayers, on the other hand, creates an ethical swamp of considerable depth.”

September 4, 2019, Archinect – With Peter Zumthor’s LACMA in the Home Stretch, Is Los Angeles Entering its Post-Rational Phase? After museum director Michael Govan seeks to convince him of the project’s necessity, John Southern says “I believe that we have entered L.A.’s post-rational period, where cultural institutions are governed by bean counters, lawyers, and social media marketeers…”

August 30, 2019, Le Monde – Coverage of the planned transformation of the LACMA campus, concluding with preservation-minded petitioner Richard Schave’s observation, “Ce n’est pas sérieux.” (“This isn’t serious”). French original, English translation.

August 23, 2019, L.A. Times – Column: LACMA, largely closed, has become an expensive ghost town

July 9, 2019, L.A. Times – A devastating take down of the planned, mindless destruction of 50 years of curation and collecting at LACMA, in the form of an open letter to Peter Zumthor, who is over in the old country, fingers in his ears, singing “La la la, I can’t hear you!” (But the last lines are wrong: the Pereira must go to clear room for this dog.)

July 3, 2019, Curbed L.A. – LACMA architect Peter Zumthor comments on revised design “So far, I see no difficulties”

June 25, 2019, Los Angeles Times – LACMA opposition group vows to keep fighting the museum’s Zumthor plan.

June 12, 2019: The Architect’s Newspaper – Cracks found on L.A. Times building ahead of controversial development.

June 10, 2019 – CBS Television City logo removed, in violation of the landmark designation (PDF) which protects the original eye graphic. Following public outcry, it returned.

May 30, 2019, Los Feliz Ledger survey of the upzoned TOC projects along Sunset Boulevard, including the enormous 1111 W. Sunset, which threatens William Pereira’s Metropolitan Water District campus.

May 28, 2019, Fix The City Files Lawsuit Challenging the LACMA EIR on the Ogden Garage.

May 16, 2019, Larchmont Buzz – coverage of publication of emails sent to the Los Angeles County Supervisors and the LACMA Lovers League petition

May 15, 2019, artnetNews – A New Petition Calls on Los Angeles’s Board of Supervisors to Reconsider LACMA’s Controversial Redesign

May 13, 2019, The Architect’s Newspaper – LACMA Lovers League starts petition to pause Zumthor’s new building

May 13, 2019: Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Knight finds Peter Zumthor’s gallery interiors old fashioned, and completely unsuitable for hanging art in earthquake country.

May 12, 2019: We published hundreds of emails received by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors prior to their approval of LACMA’s FEIR, and petitioned them to reconsider their decision to demolish the historic 1965 William Pereira campus.

May 12, 2019: The Los Angeles Times reports troubling news about cracks appearing inside and out of the newly landmarked Los Angeles Times buildings–damage which could further slow progress on Metro’s Regional Connector, which might fail to hit the 2023 deadline for a $670 Million Federal Grant. It is unclear what damage, if any, has been found in the Pereira building.

April 25, 2019: We celebrate William Pereira’s 110th birthday in partnership with The Late Group encouraging people to take selfies with favorite Pereira buildings. Find your nearest and dearest landmark on the map and share on social media today and all through May (California Preservation Month) with the hashtag #PereiraForever

April 9, 2019: Ignoring widespread critical and public calls to reject an EIR that raises more questions than it answers, the Los Angeles County Supervisors, joined by celebrity pals, voted unanimously to demolish Pereira’s historic 1965 LACMA campus. The project now requires City Council to give the museum the air space above Wilshire Boulevard. (L.A. Times, New York Times, Curbed L.A.)

April 9, 2019: Los Angeles County Supervisors to vote on LACMA project. Public feedback can be made by email or in person.

April 5, 2019: L.A. Review of Books – LACMA: Suicide by Architecture. “The County Board of Supervisors is now scheduled to vote on April 9 to approve funds based on a deceptive document without having seen a fully documented project or accurate square footage numbers.”

April 2, 2019: L.A. Times – LACMA, the Incredible Shrinking Museum: A critic’s lament.

March 29, 2019: L.A. Times – In a new redesign LACMA experiences shrinkage — and shapeshifts yet again.

March 25, 2019: Curbed L.A. – LACMA by Zumthor, 2019 edition: “under the newly released plans, the building would be 347,500 sq feet—40,000 sq feet smaller than the last version and more than 45,000 sq feet smaller than the four existing [Pereira] LACMA buildings that will be razed.”

February 11, 2019: The Real Deal – Forget celebrity mansions, this bus tour would highlight LA councilman’s alleged misdeeds. Preservationists plan to show people spots tied to Jose Huizar scandals, anti-corruption crusades.

February 7, 2019: Los Angeles Times – Real estate developer Onni Group wants to raze a 1973 office building designed by William Pereira, part of its plan for building two residential towers. Onni gave $50,000 to a committee with ties to Councilman Jose Huizar two months before a crucial vote on the site.

December 12, 2018: NPR – When they write the history of the sale of the historic Los Angeles Times buildings and the possible demolition of William Pereira’s 1973 corporate HQ, they’ll have to consider Michael Ferro’s fundamental misunderstanding of Los Angeles, and his racism.

December 10, 2018: Curbed L.A. – Unlike Times Mirror Square, CBS Television City, newly landmarked, is one Pereira that’s not in Peril. New owners Hackman Capital Partners will maintain the historic features of this groundbreaking modernist production factory—and perhaps use it for its original purpose.

December 5, 2018: Curbed L.A. – Times Mirror Square, longtime home of the LA Times, is now a landmark. / Los Angeles Times – Council backs historic status for just two L.A. Times buildings, clearing way for redevelopment. / MYNewsLA.com – L.A. Times Complex’s Addition Likely to be Demolished Following Council Vote.

December 5, 2018: L.A. Taco – L.A. Times Building Could Be an Unintended Casualty of Councilman Huizar’s Legal Troubles. Who’s in charge? Marqueece Harris-Dawson or Jose Huizar?

November 30, 2018: Fullerton gets it, even if Jose Huizar and the PLUM Committee don’t: William Pereira’s Hunt Branch Library named a protected Local Landmark!

November 29, 2018: Curbed LA – City committee approves landmarking some—but not all—of Times Mirror Square.

November 28, 2018: The Architects Newspaper – Too Little, Too Late Modern / Landmark status denied for Pereira’s LA Times building addition.

November 27, 2018: Los Angeles Times – Times building designed by William Pereira not a monument, council committee says.

November 27, 2018: Courthouse News Service – Split Decision in Bid to Save Landmark LA Times Buildings.

November 27, 2018: NBC / City News Service – Committee to Consider Significance of L.A. Times Complex’s 1970s Addition.

November 26, 2018: The Globe and Mail – “Vancouver developer faces key test as preservationists fight for Los Angeles building.” Ms. Cooper, looking at the Pereira building, declared: “You can’t just clear cut and put up towers. You have to come up with something more sophisticated. It takes more money, more time, and more heart. I don’t think Onni feels the heart of how important this place is.”

October 16, 2018: CBS Television City reportedly selling to Hackman Capital for over $700M. Happily, this Pereira (previously) in Peril is partially protected by its recently obtained HCM status.

September 27, 2018: Amended Cultural Heritage Commission language for our Times Mirror Square nomination, explicitly calling out William Pereira as a master architect (correcting the wishy washy staff report). (PDF link)

September 26, 2018: Save The Hunt Library tour and Pereira talk hosted by Alan Hess.

September 25, 2018: The Architects Newspaper – Opinion (Alan Hess): It’s time to recognize Pereira’s LA Times building.

September 24, 2018: The Architects Newspaper – William Pereira’s LA Times complex one step closer to being landmarked.

September 21, 2018: Curbed LA – Landmark effort for Times Mirror Square breezes through cultural heritage commission.

September 20, 2018: Courthouse News Service – Historic LA Times Building Wins Wrecking-Ball Reprieve.

September 20, 2018: Los Angeles Times – Cultural Heritage Commission supports monument status for former L.A. Times buildings.

September 14, 2018: LAist – Here’s Why Some Officials Think The LA Times’ Former HQ Should Be Preserved.

September 12, 2018: Los Angeles Times – Office of Historic Resources recommends that Times Mirror Square be named an historic-cultural monument of the City of Los Angeles.

August 31, 2018 – You Can’t Eat the Sunshine podcast Episode #130: Once Upon A Time At Times Mirror Square features Harry Chandler on his family’s newspaper empire and Carolyn Strickler, former Times historian.

August 30, 2018 – Larchmont Chronicle preservation columnist Christy McAvoy on landmarking Times Mirror Square: “If there ever was a site to preserve intact, this is one.”

July 31, 2018 – You Can’t Eat the Sunshine podcast Episode #129: Preserving Dynastic Los Angeles County Landmarks in the 21st Century: The Chandlers’ Times Mirror Square & The Bixbys’ Rancho Los Cerritos features Alan Hess talking about efforts to landmark William Pereira’s Times corporate HQ building

July 20, 2018 – Los Angeles Times: For a brief, shining moment, Times Mirror Square was L.A.’s Camelot. Plus: Inside the historic buildings that have defined the Los Angeles Times

July 19, 2018 – Los Angeles Times: City commission will consider bid to declare Los Angeles Times buildings historic-cultural monuments (discusses battle brewing over who owns the Globe Lobby artifacts and if they can be moved)

July 19, 2018 – Curbed LA: LA will consider landmarking Times Mirror Square—including 1970s addition

July 19, 2018 – KTLA: Group Pushes to Make DTLA Los Angeles Times Building a Historical Site

July 19, 2018 – City News Service: Commission Will Consider Historic Preservation Status of L.A. Times Complex

July 19, 2018 – Cultural Heritage Commission hearing #1 for Times Mirror Square landmarking video

July 17, 2018 – Los Angeles Times: Ugly carpets and green marble: The design of the Los Angeles Times buildings changed along with the city, though not always gracefully.

July 15, 2018 – Los Angeles Times Globe Lobby Emptied of Historic Resources Ahead of Landmark Hearing.

July 13, 2018 – Curbed LA: LACMA is #1, MWD is #2 and Times Mirror Square is #5 on Curbed’s list of LA’s most endangered buildings. “Led by groups like the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, and Esotouric, LA has a strong community dedicated to historic preservation.”

July 12, 2018 – New York Times’ California Today: Los Angeles and Its Newspaper, Explained by Three Buildings

July 10, 2018 – KPCC-FM Take Two: The Los Angeles Times buildings apply for Historic Monument Status (Segment starts at 31:14)

July 6, 2018 – Curbed LA: Longtime LA Times headquarters nominated for landmark status – An addition by architect William Pereira is under threat.

July 5, 2018 – KPCC-FM Airtalk: Reporters bid farewell to the landmark (but not landmarked) Los Angeles Times buildings.

July 3, 2018: Los Angeles Times feature about our campaign to landmark Times Mirror Square – “Preservationists call for historic status for Los Angeles Times buildings, threatening redevelopment plans.”

July 3, 2018: Los Angeles Times feature on fundraising trouble for the proposed LACMA campus demolition and redesign.

June 26, 2018: Cheers to our pal Alan Hess, who wrote the LA Conservancy’s successful landmarking nomination for CBS Television City, and to CBS for coming to the table to craft a preservation solution for the future of its historic broadcast production campus.

June 18, 2018: The Los Angeles Times is sold to Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has previously announced his intention to move the newsroom to the city of El Segundo. The future of the unlandmarked buildings of Times Mirror Square, including the vacant 1973 Pereira addition, is uncertain.

June 2018: Another fine mid-century Pereira in Peril, but the citizens of Fullerton aren’t taking the risk to their Hunt Branch library lightly. Can this gorgeous gift from Norton Simon be saved?

Development would bring Downtown high-rises to Echo Park’s doorstep (Eastsider L.A., 1/11/18)

Downtown L.A.’s development boom heads west with a big new housing and retail complex (L.A. Times, 1/11/2018)

Developer renderings for demolition of most of MWD site (1111 Sunset) published (January 2018)

JANUARY 2018: Developer Palisades Capital Partners proposes demolition of much of William Pereira’s Metropolitan Water District headquarters. However, renderings do show retention of the central low-rise building connected to Pereira’s later tower (now called The Elysian), and reconstruction of that building’s iconic sunscreens that were removed, we believe, to hinder the landmark nomination. As this project moves forward, we will continue to advocate for a sensitive restoration of the extant Pereira campus, and of the 1960s-era water features and landscaping.

Op-Ed: Los Angeles should preserve CBS Television City before it’s too late (Zev Yaroslavsky, L.A. Times, 12/10/2017)

Edifice Complex Mars L.A. County Museum (Sam Hall Kaplan, 10/14/2017)

SOM and James Corner to rework Pereira’s Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles (The Architect’s Newspaper, 10/18/2017)

Another Pereira in Peril: Redevelopment Plans for CBS Television City? (Curbed L.A., 9/27/17)

Fresh Renderings for Onni’s Times Mirror Square Redevelopment (Urbanize. LA, 6/29/17)

First Look at the Times Mirror Square Redevelopment (Urbanize L.A., 1/24/17)

Can Preservationists Save L.A.’s Late Modernist Landmarks From the Wrecking Ball? (L.A. Weekly, 1/5/2017)

Pereira addition of Los Angeles Times complex to be demolished in redevelopment (The Architect’s Newspaper, 12/09/2016)

What’s Next for Times Mirror Square? (Downtown News, 11/2/2016)

William Pereira – modernism on a massive scale (The Soul of California podcast, 10/13/2016)

Which William Pereira Buildings Are Worth Preserving? (Architect, the journal of the AIA, 10/4/2016)

Periera in Peril: Time is running out for William Pereira’s modernist legacy (The Architect’s Newspaper, 9/26/2016)

William Pereira building denied landmark status, paving the way for demolition (Curbed LA, 9/15/2016)

Got questions for the LACMA makeover? Bring them to a “scoping meeting” Wednesday (KCRW’s DnA, 8/23/16)

Inside the William Pereira buildings on Sunset in danger of demolition (Curbed, 8/22/16)

Photos: Inside The Former Metropolitan Water District Building, Now Under Threat Of Demolition (LAist, 8/19/2016)

A Rare Interior Tour of the Endangered Los Angeles Times Compound (Esotouric, 6/18/2016)

Among our most active Pereira in Peril preservation campaigns is The Los Angeles Times Mirror Headquarters addition (1973), which is included in our successful (though altered by City Council, see PDF file) landmarking application (PDF file) for the Times Mirror Square complex.

We are grateful to the many passionate people who joined us as we spoke for the stone, glass, neon and the Globe and sought to make preservation of these significant Southern California landmarks part of the public policy of Los Angeles. At the final hearing on September 20, 2018 at Los Angeles City Hall, the Cultural Heritage Commissioners voted unanimously to declare Times Mirror Square a landmark, sending it on to City Council. But on November 7, Downtown councilman Jose Huizar was raided by the FBI, then removed from his powerful PLUM Committee chairmanship. Nevertheless, on November 27, PLUM deferred to Huizar’s request and altered the landmark nomination by removing Pereira’s building. On December 5, 2018, City Council took up the matter of Times Mirror Square’s landmarking as part of a multi-item block vote, and with no comment or discussion, unanimously gave Huizar and Onni Group their amputated landmark.

What’s next for the landmarked buildings of the Los Angeles Times, as a developer with no historic preservation track record attempts to scrape an important modernist building off the protected 1935 Art Deco Kaufmann building? We’ll be there to tell the story, and continue to advocate for the history and built environment of our beloved Los Angeles!

RECENT PRESS CLIPS – TIMES MIRROR SQUARE LANDMARKING CAMPAIGN (more below)

June 12, 2019: The Architect’s Newspaper – Cracks found on L.A. Times building ahead of controversial development.

May 12, 2019, The Los Angeles Times reports troubling news about cracks appearing inside and out of the newly landmarked Los Angeles Times buildings– damage which might further slow progress on Metro’s Regional Connector, which could fail to hit the 2023 deadline for a $670 Million Federal Grant.

March 2019 – Draft EIR for Times Mirror Square development project published. The public can provide comment on the project by May 1320, 2019. (See our comment here.)

February 11, 2019: The Real Deal – Forget celebrity mansions, this tour would highlight LA councilman’s alleged misdeeds. Preservationists plan to show people spots tied to Jose Huizar scandals, anti-corruption crusades.