New Life at St. Vibiana's

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Lots of press today about last night’s benefit for St. Vibiana’s. The LA Times quotes Tom Gilmore as saying that the preservation process has been a difficult one.

Making the former cathedral into an arts center, said Tom Gilmore, the developer who bought St. Vibiana’s in 1999, has been a lesson in “extreme preservation.”

“Initially, the challenge was getting the archdiocese not to tear it down, but to sell it,” Gilmore said. “Then, it was to come up with an economically viable plan. Then it was working with the state and other agencies to convince them that this was an asset worth saving. And then it got hard.”

Kathy and I ate dinner at Pitfire Pizza yesterday, so we watched a bit of the red carpet goings-on out the window. It was a lot of fun to show up to that corner and see not just the event at St. Vibs, but also a packed gallery opening at de Soto.