Cathedral, Fairfax District and library among winners

| June 27, 2019 | 0 Comments
FIRST OPENED IN 1876, Vibiana became part of the centerpiece of downtown’s revival.
Courtesy of Vibiana | Redbird

Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s 38th annual Preservation Awards. They include a Jewish American historic district, a late 19th-century cathedral and a World War II airplane hangar that has found new life in the 21st century.

Vibiana and its former rectory-turned-restaurant, Redbird, won the Conservancy’s highest recognition, the Chair’s Award.

Opened in 1876 as the Cathedral of St. Vibiana, the cathedral designed by architect Ezra F. Kysor stood out in the backdrop of the then-small pueblo.

The cathedral was enlarged in 1924 by another renowned architect, John C. Austin. After suffering what turned out to be minor and reparable damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it became part of the centerpiece of downtown’s revival under the tutelage of developer Tom Gilmore.

It reopened in 2006 as an event venue. (A new cathedral, designed by architect José Rafael Moneo, was built a few blocks away on Temple Street.)

REDBIRD restaurant was named after it’s former life as a home for a cardinal.

St. Vibiana’s former rectory was transformed into the 140-seat restaurant Redbird, so named because of the building’s former life as a home for a cardinal.

Another 2019 preservation award winner, Google Playa Vista, brings new life to Howard Hughes’ 1943 hangar that housed construction of his H-4 Hercules, or “Spruce Goose,” transport aircraft prototype.

Windsor Square developer Wayne Ratkovich transformed the hangar and its surroundings into an office and production campus, named “Hercules.”

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK Memorial Library in West Adams won another of the preservation awards.

Another award winner is the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in West Adams. Built in 1926, the Beaux Arts-style building is what remains of an historic residential estate that took up an entire city block. The library, a part of UCLA, continues to serve scholars today.

Period-revival homes make up much of honoree, the Beverly Fairfax Historic District, which was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Also being honored are Los Angeles Union Station, Bradbury House in Pacific Palisades, the A.V. Walberg Residence & Adjoining Properties, and Asian Americans in Los Angeles Historic Context Statements.

The awards luncheon will take place on Thurs., July 25 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles.

Visit laconservancy.org.

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Category: Real Estate

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