Barrington Plaza

Barrington Plaza is an apartment complex in Los Angeles, California, located at 11740 Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles community of Los Angeles, California . At the time of its completion, in 1962, it was described as the largest privately built apartment development in the western United States.

Design

As originally constructed, the plaza consisted of three high-rise buildings which contained 712 apartments. It also included retail and restaurant space, a 330,000-square-foot (31,000 m2) parking garage and a recreational building.[1]

It was designated a fallout shelter, with 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) of its garage space and hallways being expected to be able to shelter ten times the resident population.[2]

It was both the largest,[1] and the tallest,[3] privately built apartment complex west of Chicago.

History

Planning for Barrington Plaza began in 1958, when it was initially envisaged to cost $14 million.[4] It was originally conceived and developed by the B.C. Deane Company, based in Van Nuys, and designed by architect Phillip Daniel of DMJM,[5] which later became AECOM. Louis Lesser Enterprises were brought in as partners at the beginning of 1959, subsequently becoming the sole sponsor and buying out Deane in June 1961.[6] Construction started in 1960;[7] it was completed in 1962 and cost about $20 million.[1] A year after completion, around 50% of the units had been sold.[8][9]

In 1961, Barrington Plaza and its developer, Ben Deane, were selected for an award by the National Association of Home Builders.[10]

The original application for a $14 million Federal Housing Administration loan was described as the largest single application for an insurance commitment under the urban renewal program ever filed in the United States;[11] the actual initial loan was $15.2 million towards the end of 1959.[12] This was reported to have increased to $16.7 million on completion in 1962,[1] and then to $18.6 by the end of Louis Lesser Enterprises' ownership in 1965.[13] In that year, Barrington Plaza was sold to a group from Ohio.[13][14] In 1966, following foreclosure on the loan after it reached $21 million, the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held hearings into investments secured by the FHA, with Barrington Plaza being the first they addressed.[12]

It is currently managed by Douglas Emmett, Inc.[15] It made the news in 2013 after a serious fire was contained. The fire took hold because the age of the building excused it from current fire safety regulations.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "712-UNIT PROJECT FINISHED ON COAST". New York Times. 23 September 1962.
  2. ↑ "Apartment Approved as Official Fallout Shelter". Los Angeles Times. 15 October 1961.
  3. ↑ "Everything Is 'Go' at Barrington Plaza". Los Angeles Times. 16 September 1962.
  4. ↑ "14 Million Rebuilding Job Planned". Los Angeles Times. 19 June 1958.
  5. ↑ "Barrington Plaza, luxury apartment project under construction, West Los Angeles, 1960". Los Angeles Examiner. USC Digital Library. 27 March 1960.
  6. ↑ Investigation into FHA multiple dwelling projects: Hearings, Eighty-ninth Congress, second session. U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 1966. p. 99.
  7. ↑ "Work to Start on Huge Urban Renewal Project". Los Angeles Times. 10 July 1960.
  8. ↑ "'THE ONLY WAY TO GO---UP': High Rise Developer Defends Loss of View to Convenience". Los Angeles Times. 25 June 1963.
  9. ↑ "Personality: Boom Is Loud for Lesser". New York Times. 16 March 1963.
  10. ↑ "L.A. Project Selected for NAHB Award". Los Angeles Times. 15 January 1961.
  11. ↑ "$14 Million Loan Application for West Side Project Filed". Los Angeles Times. 5 April 1959.
  12. 1 2 "Senate Panel to Investigate U.S.-Insured Housing Units". New York Times. 23 August 1966.
  13. 1 2 "HOUSING DEFAULT TRACED IN SENATE". New York Times. 26 August 1966.
  14. ↑ "470 F. 2d 669 - National Labor Relations Board v. Tragniew Inc Tragniew Inc". United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. OpenJurist. 8 September 1972.
  15. ↑ "Welcome To Barrington Plaza". Douglas Emmett.
  16. ↑ "West. L.A. high-rise fire causes millions of dollars in damage". Los Angeles Times. 21 October 2013.

Coordinates: 34°2′54.9″N 118°27′40.5″W / 34.048583°N 118.461250°W / 34.048583; -118.461250 (Barrington Plaza)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.