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The Main Street Chronicles: Part Two
A Turnaround Will Require Vision and Vigilance
by Sam Hall Kaplan
Trying not to be too critical was perhaps the greatest challenge architect Wade Killefer and I faced as we mulled over what could be done to improve Main Street from Fourth to Seventh streets in Downtown.
Since our brainstorming was at the behest of several developers on a pro bono basis we wanted to keep our recommendations positive and in perspective.
"The status on Main Street is similar to what is going on all over Downtown," observed Killefer, whose firm, Killefer Flammang, has designed the transformation of numerous historic buildings into new housing in the Central City. "There are pockets of completed buildings with wonderfully active street life, and there are dead pockets where construction is going on, soon to be improved."
But we didn't want to sound too much like patronizing publicists or pandering politicians putting a spin on Skid Row. Indeed, even on the brightest of days, Main Street can be gray and depressing.
Killefer observed that for all its landmark architecture Main Street was marred by too many buildings "abandoned by their negligent owners who are still waiting for someone to make them rich, and too many surface lots." The image offered was one of missing teeth in a handsome smile.
It was not always like this. There was a time a century ago when the aptly named Main Street was truly Downtown's main street, the city's foremost commercial thoroughfare where the powers-that-be and the wannabes went to see and be seen.
Mansions along the street such as Isasis Hellman's Victorian indulgence at Fourth and Main were being replaced by broad-shouldered banks, as well as first class businessmen's hotels and high-end office buildings. The photos of the era show a bustling street and sidewalk scene populated by suited men.
However, as business and lifestyles changed, so did the city, and the prime commercial scene shifted in relatively short time spans to Seventh Street, then Flower, then the Mid-Wilshire district and scattered real estate constructs and conceits beyond. Meanwhile, Main Street languished, its dominant commerce drugs, drink and assorted criminal trades.
Then came the rise in real estate prices in California, the rediscovery of Downtown and a shifting view of the value of Main Street's aging commercial landmarks as housing. Subsequently, several such buildings were recycled as high-end residences, several more are nearing completion while others have been targeted for reuse.
Yet, the four-block stretch of Main Street is still a downer, not a place you want to walk, no matter how fast. And getting people to walk there is the most critical element toward reinvigorating the street, and the challenge that was put to Killefer and me.
This being Main Street, not Grand Avenue, our suggestions had to be simple and reasonable. No civic commitment catered by costly consultants, academic confabs or a conspired consensus. No calls for pricey public art installations or major public works projects. The sidewalk widths are fine.
Actually, the only public expenditures we envision would be for better and brighter lighting, and some street furniture and planters on the sidewalks fronting the low-income hotels. That would accommodate the resident smokers who are forbidden to light up inside.
Not that we want to encourage the habit, but it is the congregating smokers who informally monitor the street and lend it a needed sense of security. They also tend to be the most congenial of sidewalk schmoozers.
Our most obvious suggestion to enliven Main is to require street-level retail, whether in the current buildings being recycled, or in the planned and projected new construction.
The problem is, what type of retail? The fact is that street-level retail other than that along Broadway and scattered modestly elsewhere in the Historic Core is weak and wanting. We wonder who would frankly want to relocate to Main?
The only answer we could come up with was if the rents were low enough, if not free, and if some sort of theme could be identified and encouraged. Main Street needs to be seeded, be it with establishments catering to a particular proclivity, like music, antiques or seconds. The street can take only so many places like Pete's.
Killefer took another tack. "The solution, of course, is for the owners and tenants to come together to create their own individual neighborhoods," and define a vision.
What we both felt was needed was for the street's boosters to call down on the drug dealers, call out unresponsive city agencies to do their jobs, call on their adjacent neighbors to fix up the dumps. "Be pains in the ass like every other good citizen," added Killefer.
With that in mind, I sought the view of the unofficial mayor of Main Street, the irrepressible Tom Gilmore, at his favorite table on the terrace of Pete's, at Main and Fourth streets. Sitting next to him was Hun Aw, his director of architecture and planning.
Yes, more retail and restaurants are needed, he declared, and, yes, he is planning ground-level retail for his ugly garages in the 400 block. Nodding in agreement was Aw.
Then, without a comment, Gilmore suddenly rose out of his seat, vaulted the terrace railing and strode a few steps to confront and turn away a suspect someone apparently trying to slip uninvited into the lobby of the next-door San Fernando Building.
Gilmore returned to the table triumphantly, to pick up the conversation we were having about the future of Main Street. It was obvious it was going to succeed, I commented, but along with a vision it also is going to take some vigilance.
Sam Hall Kaplan is the author of L.A. Lost and Found. He is the former design critic for the Los Angeles Times and a former Emmy Award-winning reporter for FOX 11.
page 5, 8/14/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Since our brainstorming was at the behest of several developers on a pro bono basis we wanted to keep our recommendations positive and in perspective.
"The status on Main Street is similar to what is going on all over Downtown," observed Killefer, whose firm, Killefer Flammang, has designed the transformation of numerous historic buildings into new housing in the Central City. "There are pockets of completed buildings with wonderfully active street life, and there are dead pockets where construction is going on, soon to be improved."
But we didn't want to sound too much like patronizing publicists or pandering politicians putting a spin on Skid Row. Indeed, even on the brightest of days, Main Street can be gray and depressing.
Killefer observed that for all its landmark architecture Main Street was marred by too many buildings "abandoned by their negligent owners who are still waiting for someone to make them rich, and too many surface lots." The image offered was one of missing teeth in a handsome smile.
It was not always like this. There was a time a century ago when the aptly named Main Street was truly Downtown's main street, the city's foremost commercial thoroughfare where the powers-that-be and the wannabes went to see and be seen.
Mansions along the street such as Isasis Hellman's Victorian indulgence at Fourth and Main were being replaced by broad-shouldered banks, as well as first class businessmen's hotels and high-end office buildings. The photos of the era show a bustling street and sidewalk scene populated by suited men.
However, as business and lifestyles changed, so did the city, and the prime commercial scene shifted in relatively short time spans to Seventh Street, then Flower, then the Mid-Wilshire district and scattered real estate constructs and conceits beyond. Meanwhile, Main Street languished, its dominant commerce drugs, drink and assorted criminal trades.
Then came the rise in real estate prices in California, the rediscovery of Downtown and a shifting view of the value of Main Street's aging commercial landmarks as housing. Subsequently, several such buildings were recycled as high-end residences, several more are nearing completion while others have been targeted for reuse.
Yet, the four-block stretch of Main Street is still a downer, not a place you want to walk, no matter how fast. And getting people to walk there is the most critical element toward reinvigorating the street, and the challenge that was put to Killefer and me.
This being Main Street, not Grand Avenue, our suggestions had to be simple and reasonable. No civic commitment catered by costly consultants, academic confabs or a conspired consensus. No calls for pricey public art installations or major public works projects. The sidewalk widths are fine.
Actually, the only public expenditures we envision would be for better and brighter lighting, and some street furniture and planters on the sidewalks fronting the low-income hotels. That would accommodate the resident smokers who are forbidden to light up inside.
Not that we want to encourage the habit, but it is the congregating smokers who informally monitor the street and lend it a needed sense of security. They also tend to be the most congenial of sidewalk schmoozers.
Our most obvious suggestion to enliven Main is to require street-level retail, whether in the current buildings being recycled, or in the planned and projected new construction.
The problem is, what type of retail? The fact is that street-level retail other than that along Broadway and scattered modestly elsewhere in the Historic Core is weak and wanting. We wonder who would frankly want to relocate to Main?
The only answer we could come up with was if the rents were low enough, if not free, and if some sort of theme could be identified and encouraged. Main Street needs to be seeded, be it with establishments catering to a particular proclivity, like music, antiques or seconds. The street can take only so many places like Pete's.
Killefer took another tack. "The solution, of course, is for the owners and tenants to come together to create their own individual neighborhoods," and define a vision.
What we both felt was needed was for the street's boosters to call down on the drug dealers, call out unresponsive city agencies to do their jobs, call on their adjacent neighbors to fix up the dumps. "Be pains in the ass like every other good citizen," added Killefer.
With that in mind, I sought the view of the unofficial mayor of Main Street, the irrepressible Tom Gilmore, at his favorite table on the terrace of Pete's, at Main and Fourth streets. Sitting next to him was Hun Aw, his director of architecture and planning.
Yes, more retail and restaurants are needed, he declared, and, yes, he is planning ground-level retail for his ugly garages in the 400 block. Nodding in agreement was Aw.
Then, without a comment, Gilmore suddenly rose out of his seat, vaulted the terrace railing and strode a few steps to confront and turn away a suspect someone apparently trying to slip uninvited into the lobby of the next-door San Fernando Building.
Gilmore returned to the table triumphantly, to pick up the conversation we were having about the future of Main Street. It was obvious it was going to succeed, I commented, but along with a vision it also is going to take some vigilance.
Sam Hall Kaplan is the author of L.A. Lost and Found. He is the former design critic for the Los Angeles Times and a former Emmy Award-winning reporter for FOX 11.
page 5, 8/14/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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