Committee Votes to Name Hollywood Reporter Building A Monument

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday approved an application to name The Hollywood Reporter building on Sunset Boulevard a historic-cultural monument.

The building is slated for destruction, but if the vote by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee is upheld by the full City Council, its demolition could be delayed at least for a year while preservation options are considered. The application was approved by the committee without any objections.

In June, the Cultural Heritage Commission agreed to accept the application and consider the site a local monument. The property cannot be destroyed as long as the city has the application under review.

The building at 6713 Sunset Blvd. was home to The Hollywood Reporter entertainment trade news publication from 1931 into the 1990s. It is slated for demolition as part of a plan by the Harridge Development Group to build a hotel and two residential towers at the site.

The building, also home to the L.A. Weekly for about a decade until 2008, is historically significant for its Regency Moderne architecture, its association with publisher and businessman William Wilkerson, and its connection to The Hollywood Reporter, according to the application for its landmark status, which was filed by the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.

The Department of City Planning recommended the building be preserved because it "reflects the broad cultural, economic or social history of the nation, state or community as the headquarters for Hollywood's first daily entertainment trade newspaper," but it did not find the building architecturally significant. However, the commission added an architectural designation to its ruling in a 3-1 vote.

"Our city is known the world over for this period of architecture, as well as for the film industry, and the building merges these two key concepts. It should stand as an icon of our city in all times," Margot Gerber, president of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, told the committee.

Although at about 10 people spoke before the committee in favor of preserving the building, no one spoke in support of tearing it down.

"It's great to see that this was nominated. It's a great piece of history and thank you all for coming out today. It's interesting, usually at this time there are two sides, but it was all one side, so that's a good thing," said Councilman Jose Huizar, who chairs the committee.

Attorney Jerry Neuman, representing Harridge Development Group, argued before the Planning Commission previously that the building was not significant and "little is left" after decades of alterations.

"There is no special sense of this structure. It was in effect a warehouse structure that would lend itself to look as though it was part of a printing facility. It is merely a large box," he said.

City News Service; Photo: Hollywood Reporter Building courtesy of Google Maps