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Vocational Center Another Victim of 1960's Uglification Movement

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, May 27, 2008, at 04:16PM
Friedman Occupational Center Eric Richardson []

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The at 1646 S. Olive is an odd looking building. Built in 1927, the imposing height-limit structure is completely lacking in the seemingly important category of windows.

Turns out it wasn't always this way. Like too many buildings Downtown, the Friedman Occupational Center was once a perfectly normal looking structure. Then came the 1960's and a "remodel" that turned the elegant structure into today's uglified oddity.

Groundbreaking for the Frank Wiggins Technical School was held on March 20, 1925. Wiggins had been Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, and the organization was instrumental in the creation of the school. The building cost roughly $1 million, with another $100,000 put into the equipment housed inside.

Dedication ceremonies were held at the completed structure on April 28, 1927. By October of that same year the Times called the school the "largest trade training plant in the United States."

Over time the school continued to grow. A 1950 article pegged enrollment at 7,364 students. In the mid-1950's the Board of Education approved the purchase of a nearby site, "Poly High," on Washington Blvd. We continue to know the Wiggins Trade School there by its official name, Los Angeles Trade Tech.

Even with Trade Tech's move, the Olive street structure continued in its former role. In 1968 the Board of Education opened a new school in the building, calling it the Central City Occupational Center.

It was in renovations for this reopening that the building was stripped of its looks. A Times story from August of 1967 tells of a fatal accident at the building, where a scaffolding collapse left one worker dead, one severely injured, and a third dangling 100 feet above the ground before he was rescued by firemen. The men's task: removing ornamental bricks from the building.

The same decade saw much of the now-regrettable facade work on Broadway (see also this story on history revealed by the 2007 Broadway fire).

The L.A. Times archives were used in compiling historical facts for this story.

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California Historical Society

An early view of the Frank Wiggins Trade School, built before Olive street was paved.


Conversation

Guest 1

rsebastian on May 27, 2008, at 05:05PM – #1

That is terrible in a completely amazing way.


Guest 2

tornadoes28 on May 28, 2008, at 09:10AM – #2

The current building is hideous.


Guest 3

sebas on May 28, 2008, at 09:12AM – #3

Is the city going to do something with this building?


Eric Richardson () on May 28, 2008, at 09:27AM – #4

It's an LAUSD-run vocational school. I don't know of any plans for any changes, but it would be LAUSD that would need to make them.


Guest 4

Joshman on May 28, 2008, at 09:53AM – #5

There was an odd determination in the 50's, 60's and 70's to take everything old and beautiful and modernize it into something Josef Stalin would approve of.

I had no idea that they did this to buildings of this size. Thanks for the great post and the history lesson.

Is there any way to restore this building? If it is owned by LAUSD, I doubt anything will happen.


Guest 5

Tim Quinn on May 28, 2008, at 12:01PM – #6

The question something like this always brings to mind for me is will a future generation find this building in its current state charming and evocative of long lost innocence like we feel about early 20th century architecture? Obviously, our parents or grandparents found 1920s architecture hideous in some way that we no longer see. They destroyed or covered up facades we would love to have in downtown now.

Do we have a duty to our children and grandchildren to save some of these monstrosities? They will see them in a way we do not.


Guest 6

j latsko on May 28, 2008, at 12:52PM – #7

hideous! and, as a teacher who knows many students who's limited choices include attending school at this awful building - we could do them, and our future, a favor by demolishing this travesty. why weren't there any plans for a new structure here? when many new schools are already underway (including the monstrosity/money pit on grand?)?


Guest 7

John Crandell on May 28, 2008, at 01:36PM – #8

"Monstrosity on Grand". That is what the Bohorts in the Burbs (La Canada) were saying when Gehry finalized the design of Disney Hall. I'd venture that the students who will study in the new high school on Fort Moore Hill will be stimulated, quite proud of their campus. What other major city has such a unique educational environment situated on a prominent site at it's own historic core?


Guest 8

ryan on May 28, 2008, at 03:35PM – #9

@ jlatsko: That "monstrosity" you speak of already appears to be perhaps the most inviting, urban, and social high school campus i have seen in this city despite its challenging location. As a teacher who perhaps teaches students whose futures can be greatly enhanced by such engagement with an academic environment, you should understand the value of these features. Herman Hertzberger would be proud.


Guest 2

tornadoes28 on May 29, 2008, at 10:49AM – #10

Tim, yes, styles change and something that appears "hideous" today may be admired in the future. However, its almost complete lack of windows means to me that it cannot never be admired either today or in the future.



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