Art Deco Society hopes to shine a spotlight on a forgotten gem
E. CLEM WILSON building is on the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulvard and La Brea Avenue. Photo: Downtowngal
On Preservation, by Brian Curran
“Skyscraper Reveals New Type of Architecture,” announced the Los Angeles Times Real Estate section in 1929 at the release of plans for a new tower set to become the eastern gateway of A.W. Ross’ Miracle Mile. Almost a century later, it is hard to imagine the majesty of the once heralded E. Clem Wilson Building, at 5225 Wilshire Blvd., at the northeast corner of La Brea Avenue. Its unique design is now obscured and its stature reduced amid the construction of a new subway station at that intersection. A new application for Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) designation submitted by the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles (ADSLA) aims to remind the public — and, hopefully, the property owners — of this forgotten Art Deco gem’s significance and potential.
The building was the late-career project of Mr. Elihu Clem Wilson, who lived at nearby 108 Fremont Pl. and was a millionaire member of the old guard, having made his fortune in the patenting and manufacture of drilling equipment for the oil industry. For his new venture, he chose the firm of Meyer & Holler to design his eponymous office tower, the same firm popular with the Hollywood elite that had designed the Egyptian and Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, as well as Wilson’s own home in Fremont Place, and the Getty House, where the mayor resides today. The commission would prove to be Meyer & Holler’s swan song, however, as the firm went bankrupt soon after, due to the combined pressures of a lawsuit filed by director King Vidor and the onset of the Great Depression.
For a grand finale of the storied firm, the result was nothing short of spectacular. Meyer & Holler had designed a 192-foot “Zigzag Moderne” Art Deco tower with a Greek cross plan and a variety of setbacks and terraces, a feature unheard of in Downtown. It was also the first height-limited building on the Miracle Mile with usable floor space above 150 feet. Its massing was broken up with vertical fluted columns terminating in chevron “zigzag” parapets with Gothic pinnacles. At its summit was the pièce de resistance.
“Whenever we show a historic photo of the building everyone is amazed by its Gothic Deco crown!” exclaimed Steve Luftman, board member of the ADSLA and author of the application. This extraordinary crown was later covered over with a wraparound neon sign in a modernization of the tower by the General Insurance Company around 1950. They also added a beacon on top for good measure. This sign in more recent years became the “blue moon” neon Asahi Beer and later Samsung signs, which went dark in 2015. “You could say that the real reason we nominated it is that everyone wants the old Asahi/Samsung beer sign removed!” Luftman quipped.
By 1930 the Wilson Building and two other Art Deco towers, Gilbert Stanley Underwood’s Wilshire Tower, at 5514 Wilshire Blvd. (1929), and Morgan, Walls and Clements’ Dominguez-Wilshire Building, at 5410 Wilshire Blvd. (1930), dominated the skyline of the Miracle Mile and cemented the autocentric retail stretch as an upscale version of Downtown.
Today the E. Clem Wilson Building, an identified historic resource since 1983 and hopefully soon a newly minted HCM, awaits a revival. Perhaps a combination of historic tax credits and new adaptive reuse and transit-oriented development incentives will encourage a restoration and redevelopment. The building “does not have the problem of other office conversions in that all the offices have windows [and terraces],” explained Luftman, who would like to see the Art Deco tower restored to its former glory and converted to apartments. “It would be a dream!”
Category: Real Estate
