Community News

New GWNC directors elect new slate of officers

The new Board of Directors of the local Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council (GWNC) elected new officers on April 14. President is Conrad Starr, Sycamore Square. Vice president is Charles D’Atri, Larchmont Village Neighborhood. Jennifer DeVore, Hancock Park, is secretary, and Patti Carroll, Ridgewood – Wilton – St. Andrews Square, was re-elected as treasurer. The Los […]

Conversations continue on future of Larchmont Boulevard

Local stakeholders last month continued their dialogue over the future of Larchmont Boulevard. As reported in April, questions have been raised over recent weeks as to whether parking spaces might be permanently replaced with outdoor restaurant dining now that pandemic-related restrictions are ending. That also propelled discussion about perennial Larchmont topics like the existing limitations […]

LPGA: Brooke Henderson takes top spot at Wilshire

The Wilshire Country Club opened its gates to 144 of the best players in women’s professional golf at the third annual “Hugel-Air Premia LA Open,” April 19 to 24. But the gates to this year’s event were not open to the general public due to pandemic-related restrictions. Last year’s event was cancelled for the same […]

Nightmare on Wilton Place: Another historic home lost

There is a disturbance in the atmosphere of the leafy community of Wilton Place. A house has been brutally vandalized. Tragically, it is a familiar story: 215 S. Wilton Pl., a treasured historic home, built in 1907 and designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1992, and also within the Wilton Place National Historic District, […]

What's Entertaining

Will ‘Diana,’ the musical, be as ill-fated as the people’s princess?

“It’s May! It’s May! The lusty month of May,” as Lerner and Lowe wrote in their musical, “Camelot.” Spring has sprung! Announcements blossom like crocuses, as theaters reopen from London to Los Angeles: the Globe, Shakespeare in the Park, our own Hollywood Bowl. The Fountain Theater will turn its East Hollywood parking lot into an […]

Excitement builds for ‘The Grand’ opening

For those who regularly work downtown and/or visit the Bunker Hill cultural venues on Grand Avenue — but who have not ventured to that part of town for more than a year because of COVID-19 — a big surprise is in store. Just as though magically dropped from the sky — on the site of […]

Plan for $1.25 billion expansion of TV City marked by some controversy

Renderings of the proposed expansion of CBS Television City were recently released by Hackman Capital Partners, which purchased the iconic property for a purported $750 million in 2018. The plans are not without controversy. CBS Television City opened in 1952 as the first studio facility built exclusively for the television industry. The William Pereira-designed structure […]

Bernstein’s ‘Preserving Los Angeles’ just released

At a wonderful late-April book launch event attended by 497 people via Zoom, author Ken Bernstein and photographer Stephen Shafer discussed their new book, “Preserving Los Angeles,” with award-winning local author and National Trust for Historic Preservation trustee Lisa See. Bernstein is a principal city planner in the City Planning Department, and he directs the […]

Who's Doing What

Third Street students head back to school: Mascot, testing and on-campus learning greet K-5th graders

As with other elementary level Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) locations, Third Street Elementary on June Street opened its doors to students on April 20. For those families who choose to have their children attend school in person, a hybrid model is being offered with both morning and afternoon cohorts. Remote learning will continue […]

Windsor Villagers rally for their park

In mid-April, the Windsor Village Association (WVA) hosted a weekend morning park trash clean-up at Harold A. Henry Park. Over the course of an hour and a half, residents filled more than 30 bags — 55 gallons each — with trash, pine needles, pine cones, etc. Volunteers from throughout Windsor Village worked on the project. […]

Art Deco-inspired mixed-use building readies for June opening

Some in the neighborhood spoke out against it. It was too tall, they feared, adding that it just would be one more boxy apartment building. But developer Mishel Mikail of Crescent Capital Partners persevered with his mixed-use project, the Gillis House at 5570 Melrose Ave., (with its residence address at 647 N. Beachwood Dr.). Responding […]

Village jeweler: Paul Thompson, July 20, 1937 to April 11, 2021

Paul Thompson, born and raised in San Francisco, came to Southern California in 1960. He made his first home in Palm Springs where he was hairstylist to the likes of actresses Henny Backus and Zsa Zsa Gabor. And although Paul loved his life in the desert, in 1975 he located to Los Angeles where he […]

Real Estate News

Smart co-working office coming to Larchmont Village: Yoube to open in new mixed-use building

While many local retailers have closed shop and moved on, one company is moving in to the neighborhood. Yoube — a smart drop-in, co-work space — will open its second location, at 5570 Melrose Ave., tentatively this summer on the ground floor of a brand-new, mixed-use apartment building. “We love Larchmont. It’s very unique in […]

Real Estate Sales

Townhomes by top architects ready for sale

Located at 610 S. Van Ness Ave., Windsor Row intersects the bustling and hip Korea-town neighborhood with the leafy residential streets of Windsor Square and nearby Hancock Park. Replacing a run-down house and crumbling parking lot full of abandoned vehicles, the new townhouse project is made up of two facing contemporary four-story structures designed with […]

1920s Victorian house gets facelift from local architect

The final touches of a major restoration project are being made this month on a 1920s Victorian-style house on Larchmont Boulevard by Studio AR&D Architects. For the past year, Sean Lockyer, the principal and lead architect for Studio AR&D, has been working to restore the old house, at 424 N. Larchmont Blvd., from the ground […]