E. Clem Wilson Building

CASE NO.: CHC-2024-6625-HCM | ENV-2024-6626-CE | Council File TBD

The building is located in Council District 5 (Katy Yaroslavsky). Area Planning Commission: Central Neighborhood Council: Greater Wilshire.

CURRENT STATUS

November 7, 2024: The 1930 E. Clem Wilson Building was submitted to the Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC) for consideration as a Historic Cultural Monument (HCM). The CHC will vote at this hearing, whether or not to take the building under consideration as a HCM. The consideration hearing is a hybrid in person/virtual (Zoom) meeting at 10:00 AM.

The Art Deco Society of Los Angeles goes through a nomination process for buildings that we identify as being “historically significant.” We are now in phase 1 of this process with the Art Deco E. Clem Wilson Building in Miracle Mile. We need YOUR PARTICIPATION to achieve a preservation victory. Please read on.

To be effective, we need the public to get behind our nomination, by writing letters of support to key decision-makers and advisors in this process and/or appearing (by Zoom or telephone) to express encouragement to the city to landmark the building.

These meetings have an agenda that lists the address and room where the meeting will be held if you wish to attend in person. They also contain the Zoom link to use to attend virtually. Although the buildings that will be heard are given a number on the agenda, sometimes they change the order once the meeting starts. It is best to join the meeting no later than around 10:15 AM.

It is easy to write a support email. We’ll walk you through it if you click the green button.

When the meeting agenda is published you can access it by clicking the green button below. All details will be there for attending by Zoom as well. Be sure to bring your I.D. to City Hall to gain access to the building.

ABOUT THE E. Clem Wilson BUILDING

It is the tower that marks the gateway to Miracle Mile at Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea, but it has never been landmarked! The number of historic buildings in Miracle Mile is dwindling due to development and the historic district designation is in jeopardy.

The Art Deco Society of Los Angeles has submitted a nomination to the City of Los Angeles in an effort to gain Historic Cultural Monument designation for the E. Clem Wilson Building, a 12-story Art Deco-style office tower with setbacks, designed and constructed by the acclaimed Master design-build firm of Meyer & Holler (they also built his Fremont Place home). The lot that the E. Clem Wilson Building now occupies, was the location of the Wilshire Highland Square tract sales office in 1922. When E. Clem Wilson purchased the lot for a then record $420,000 in 1928, it was also inhabited by a Gilmore automobile service station. This building was the second of three tall towers that defined the Miracle Mile district before World War II.

In 1931 retail chain J.J. Newberry prominently occupied a portion of the building followed by General Insurance Company's Welton Becket remodel in 1954. In 1961 the rooftop beacon bore a Mutual Of Omaha sign that many remember and by 1991 Asahi replaced that. By 2002 Samsung branded the top of the building.

While it would be glorious to get that faded blue cap off the building, this campaign is about designating a building that has been a landmark of the Miracle Mile for nearly a century. First things first...

The hearing at Cultural Heritage is set for Thursday, November 7 at 10:00 AM at City Hall. These meetings can be attended in person or virtually by Zoom.

ABOUT MEYER & HOLLER

Meyer & Holler have built more than 200 structures in the Los Angeles area, with over 20 of these buildings listed as historic resources. By the mid-1920s, Meyer & Holler was established as the exclusive builders of Hollywood’s elite, responsible for Grauman's Chinese Theatre (HCM 43), the Egyptian Theatre (HCM 584), the Fox Fullerton Theatre (National Registry Listed), the Mount Washington Hotel (HCM 845), Pierce Brothers Mortuary (HCM 574), movie studios for Samuel Meyer, Hal Roach, Jesse Hampton, Samuel Goldwyn, Charles Chaplin (HCM 58), King Vidor, and Thomas Ince (Now the Culver Studios, Culver City Designated Landmark), the Beach Club in Santa Monica, Doheny’s “White House” in Beverly Hills, the palatial King C. Gillette mansion that was later occupied by Gloria Swanson in Beverly Hills, Harry Chandler’s estate in Los Feliz, and the Getty House in Windsor Square, which is the official residence of the mayor of Los Angeles.

CHARACTER-DEFINING FEATURES:

Site

• The subject building’s placement on the prominent corner of Wilshire Blvd. and La Brea Ave. along the Miracle Mile commercial corridor

• No setbacks; direct relationship between the building and the street

• Base curves at the corner of La Brea and Wilshire

Exterior

• Two story base that fills the entire lot

• Ten story zigzag Moderne tower over the base

• Poured-in-place steel reinforced concrete

• Multiple setbacks

• Fluted square corner posts that extend beyond the roof line at the stepped levels

• Vertical emphasis

• Flat roofs behind parapets

• Zigzag chevron molding on parapets

• Geometric ornamentation

• Fluted pilasters

• Stylized floral motifs

• Eight corner posts at tenth-floor, topped with pinnacles that resemble abstract men with ribcages

• Flying buttresses that support the building’s crown

• Thin vertical piers that rise from the center of each window at the tenth-floor

• Stylized Figures

• Original fenestration

• Original metal-casement multi-light windows

Interior

• Walls lined with marble panels

• Marble floor with rectangular insets of white marble featuring geometric designs of triangles and diamonds

• Entry to the garage on the north wall of lobby, reflecting A. W. Ross’s Miracle Mile design standards to accommodate the automobile driving customers and tenants

• Tenant directory framed in black marble capped with a black marble in the shape of a pediment

• Brass mailbox featuring a molded geometric angular design, with mail chute

The E. Clem Wilson Building meets the following criteria for designation as a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument (HCM):

• Is identified with important events of national, state, or local history, or exemplifies significant contributions to the broad cultural, economic or social history of the nation, state, city or community, for its association with the rapid development of Los Angeles, and the Miracle Mile before the onset of the Great Depression.

• It represents a notable work of a master builder for its association with the firm Meyer & Holler.

• It embodies the distinctive characteristics of a style, type, period, or method of construction as an excellent example of an Art Deco style office building.

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