No Building is Better than Its Finishes
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The Mandel, at 7th and Olive, is a beautiful building. Built in 1917, it has a great brick face and some amazing architectural details. The building is currently being renovated, with upstairs lofts and ground-floor retail. It's in a great location, just three blocks away from the new Ralphs and right in the middle of a burst of activity in the Historic Core.
And yet, The Mandel is turning out to be a perfect example of a great building unmade by poor finishing touches. Three exterior touches in particular make me cringe: the Pottery Barn chandeliers, the non-rounded corner, and the very pleasant sleeping nook. Each is relatively small, but makes a big difference in how the building feels.
Welcome to Pottery Barn
The main residential entrance for The Mandel will be on Olive street, toward the rear of the building. It's a recess entryway, and recently the developer installed a pair of chandeliers that simply don't make sense.
First of all, who hangs chandeliers? I may be no history or architecture buff, but these simply don't feel in any way to match the character of the great structure that they're hanging on. Stylistically they're even completely different than the sleek deco looking fixtures used inside the retail hallways.
I had lunch with a friend yesterday and he noted that the chandeliers feel like someone had the Pottery Barn catalog and $200 to spend.
Corner Space Gone Awry
I absolutely love buildings with rounded corners. It's a touch that'll take a fairly plain building and really make it pop, particularly on old brick structures like this one. The Mandel is a great example, as is the Douglas at 3rd & Spring. For The Mandel, that corner space is supposed to become a 7-Eleven.
The beauty of a rounded edge is completely shot when you take pedestrian space and chop it, creating only a narrow ramp out of what should be an airy approach. Though I'm sure there was some accessibility regulation that mandated the ramp, there simply isn't an excuse for the final product here.
A rounded corner is great because you can hit it from either direction. The developer here has chosen otherwise. You'll enter the corner from 7th, and you'll do so by squeezing by anyone coming down. The wasted brick space is larger than that given to the ramp.
A Sleeping Nook
On the building's 7th street side, just where it meets The Brockman, is a space that I'll call the sleeping nook. Seeing this space just after the scaffolding came off in November, I knew immediately what it would be used for.
It's a recessed space leading to an emergency exit door, which according to fire code must swing out, and according to some other code probably can't swing into the sidewalk. The result is what you see here: a nice little nook for homeless individuals to sleep in. In this photo the edge of a blanket gives proof that it was being put to that very use this morning as I was taking pictures.
The Big Picture
None of these three touches are big deals in the grand scheme of converting a building. They're the little things you don't even think about, and yet they're three things that make a world of difference in how the building is perceived.
It's important for developers to remember that even a great building can be sullied by bad little finishes.
Victor Atomic on July 31, 2007, at 09:57PM – #1
THANK YOU! So its not just me! Ive been watching this building for the last year and the chandeliers are very much out of place, the sconces on the outsides I think are a bit too small and cheap looking as well.
And that corner is horrible as well, Im no architect or designer so Im not sure what they were thinking...or maybe they were just cheeply thinking...an entrance is a entrance right?
Imagine what the original architects were to think if they saw what what they were doing to their work.
...besides the bad areas I would LOVE to live in one of the corner units! (a pool is being built on the roof too)
-V
Bert Green on July 31, 2007, at 11:29PM – #2
Eric, thanks for this post.There are quite a few other buildings that have been wrecked by developers who choose inelegant or lazy, cheap solutions to code problems or pure lack of taste.
1) Main Street Lofts (directly next to Pacific Electric) on Main south of 6th. Ghetto entrance, totally shitty ground floor renovation.
2) SB Lofts and Manhattan Lofts at 6th & Spring. Cheap, badly installed second and third level windows and sashes that show an absolute ignorance of the historic architecture. The ground floor retail spaces in the SB Lofts are completely incompetent in the way they interact with the historic elements. And, worst of all, the granite exterior of the SB lofts was PAINTED GRAY.
It's too bad that these great buildings are in the hands of amateurs. At least most of the damage is not permanent, and could be reversed. Don't blame any of this on codes, any smart designer can come up with an elegant solution to a code issue; in the worst case a variance might be given for an existing condition.
Christina on August 01, 2007, at 11:43AM – #3
Yes, I agree 100%. I'm beginning to think they will never be finished w/this bldg. but I'm very excited to see it one day.
P.S. Eric, I love your blog!
Heather Lowe on August 02, 2007, at 01:38PM – #4
Granted, most of these comments may be coming from artists, but it is a mystery to me that architects do not see what the public can easily see as a catastrophic design.
Lety on August 02, 2007, at 02:14PM – #5
I too have been waiting for the completion of the Mandel. I just got back from my daily walk and saw it. What a disaster. The ramp completely destroys that corner. It takes the beauty away from the timeless brick structure. So sad.