L.A. Story
Architecture speaks to us and has the ability to alter the ways in which we confront a seemingly random and challenging world. Much in the same way that we read nonverbal cues from people, we read buildings and ascribe human attributes to them. Philosopher-writer Alain de Botton has said, ‘What we search for in a work of architecture is not in the end so far from what we search for in a friend. The objects we describe as beautiful are versions of the people we love.’ We behave differently, for example, in a cathedral, a home, a disco; we are different people there.
– from The Age of Sail in the Age of Aquarius
I wrote the above in the context of talking about historic preservation generally, and preservation at New York City’s South Street Seaport specifically. Alain de Botton’s astute comment that “What we search for in a work of architecture is not in the end so far from what we search for in a friend” speaks to me now as it did then, and during a recent trip to Los Angeles I found myself personifying much of the city’s architecture, drawn to certain buildings as drawn to a potential friend.
Before heading to the City of Angels, I had done my homework and booked our stay at a very mod midcentury redux, the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. This is not the Beverly Hills Hotel, or the Beverly Hilton, or the Chateau Marmont (although those all look lovely). Have you seen the Mad Men episodes where Don Draper and crew went to L.A.? The aesthetic is much more like that. Groovy.
And, not unlike those first few moments after meeting an interesting new friend, I very soon moved beyond the visual aesthetic of the Avalon and wanted to know more. Where had this building been all my life? Why was I just meeting you now? What have you been doing all these years?
The Avalon Hotel was originally known as the Beverly-Carlton. Like many of us, the building has undergone at least one name change. Built in 1948 and originally called the Beverly Carlton Apartments, the structure was the creation of architect Sam Reisbord and industrial designer Alvin Lustig. Comprised of 48 units (singles, doubles, and bachelor apartments), the LA Times described it as the only building of its type in California, conceived upon a “South American architectural theme,” and included a steam-heated outdoor pool, roof gardens, cabanas, steam baths and massage rooms. The eye-catching façade was made of Cuban tile, with aluminum fins attached to the windows for sun and wind protection.
Wind protection is key in Southern California. The week before we arrived, Santa Ana winds wreaked havoc across L.A. and San Bernardino counties. A dozen fires burned across the area, with the Getty fire only a few miles northwest of Beverly Hills. Santa Ana winds, gusting up to 80 miles per hour, spread the flames, well, like wildfire. Lustig’s design feature would have been especially appreciated in the era before central air conditioning.
Across the 1950s, the Beverly Carlton was touted for its “ultra-modern informality” : glamourous yet accessible, luxurious yet informal. With rates from $8.00 a night, regular folk might find themselves living just down the open-air breezeway from Hollywood celebs. Hollywood golden girl Marilyn Monroe lived here for three years, first in a one-room apartment in 1948, and then again from 1951-’52 in room 305. Marilyn did many photo shoots in this apartment, from a rooftop terrace, and by the pool. Mae West, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz were hotel guests as well. In fact, an opening scene from I Love Lucy’s “L.A. at Last” episode (1954) shows the Ricardos and the Mertzs pulling up to the Beverly Carlton.
Marilyn
This was all very interesting, and I smiled with a mixture of curiosity and good old-fashioned star-gazing as I admired the Avalon’s groovy patio scene beneath the Southern California sunset. Hollywood’s golden age had not overlooked the Beverly-Carlton, and imagining that Lucy herself very likely enjoyed a drink and a cigarette on this very same patio set off a string of I Love Lucy clips reeling through my mind. Good times…
Ok, Beverly Carlton, you knew some pretty famous people in your heyday. And more recently, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Biel, Jonah Hill, Justin Timberlake, and Kate Hudson have all been spotted at the Avalon Hotel. But aside from name dropping, what else have you got? Tell me something interesting beyond your proximity to the stars. But hold on a moment, and please excuse me while I order some roasted Brussel sprouts and charcuterie from my patio nook. This sunset is spectacular, and a simple dinner by the pool is not to be missed.
Two glasses of merlot and some charcuterie later, the Beverly Carlton spilled a much juicier story from the midcentury past, one involving Grand Theft. The story is this: On February 6, 1954, hotel guest Lewis Gordon gave $12,000 in cash to hotel clerk Jack Kelly for safekeeping. The next day, both clerk and cash were missing. Jack Kelly was arrested in St. Louis the following day and immediately confessed to the charges of grand theft. Clearly he was no professional thief. After running off with the $12k, Kelly had telephoned his wife to meet him in a St. Louis hotel. Somehow, the Beverly Hills PD was tipped off to the meet, alerted the local PD in St. Louis, who quickly found Kelly and arrested him. Kelly admitted to taking the cash from the safe at the Beverly Carlton, after which he had flown to Chicago and spent $3,600 on a car, $2,400 on a watch and a ring (his and her gifts?...), and $5,000 in travelers checks. The Beverly Carlton had not been home to such a scandal since, well, since never. My interest piqued and my eyebrows raised, I wondered if Grand Theft was the only high crime and misdemeanor perpetrated on the hotel’s grounds. A bit more sheepishly, Beverly Carlton admitted that actor Trevor Howard’s car was stolen from the hotel parking lot in 1962. That, however, was simple petty theft.
Across the 1950s and ‘60s, the Beverly Carlton seemed to have it all. Proximity to Hollywood and the homes of the stars, a guest list that would impress all but the most intractable curmudgeons, fame, and scandal. This was an interesting life, indeed. I had hoped the building’s life story would be as captivating as its décor, and I was not disappointed. The Beverly Carlton had been impressing potential guests and travelers for decades, she knew what we wanted.
By the 1970s, however, the Beverly Carlton’s glory days seemed to be in the past. Once admired for its informal glamour and luxury, in 1971 the hotel transformed itself, hesitantly if not begrudgingly I would imagine, into a full service residential and retirement apartment complex. Gone were the days of Marilyn in a swimsuit and heels by the pool. The hotel’s premier customer was now the senior citizen on a budget. A 1986 classified ad in the Senior Lifestyle section of the LA Times announced The New Beverly Carlton Residential Hotel, 20% off the first month’s rent if you Act Now. Amenities included housekeeping and limo service, a coffee pot and fridge in each unit. Glamour was out; convenience and discount rates were in.
But this is L.A., a land where, for over a century, hopeful optimists have migrated in droves looking to pursue an especially glittery version of the American Dream (not everyone has looked so fondly on the City of Angels: in The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West describes the promised land of L.A. as a city of madness, a place which promises a life of miracles but instead creates a bored, resentful, blood-thirsty mob. But that is not this story….) Before the unfortunate and ubiquitous term reimagined was recently coined (and with any mercy at all, the pretentious and preposterous term will die a quiet death before the decade is out), the Beverly Carlton was considering her options. As Mad Men’s Don Draper said, if you don’t like what they are saying about you, change the conversation. And change the conversation she did. In 1998, the property was purchased by developer Brad Korzen for the Kor Group and renamed the Avalon Hotel. With the keen eye of designer Kelly Wearstler (whom Korzen later married: there’s a good story for you. The Avalon, on top of everything else, is apparently a good matchmaker), who pored through back issues of Architectural Forum magazine for photos of the hotel’s original midcentury design scheme, 84 rooms and suites emerged with a midcentury-mod décor. When the Avalon Hotel re-opened in spring 1999, 21st-century hipsters were delighted with the Old Hollywood-meets-1950s-mod aesthetic.
The hotel’s retro look seems effortless, but clearly a lot of work went into redesigning the buildings that had become a senior living facility. The hotel today is comprised of three separate buildings: the Olympic, which is the main and original building; the Beverly, a 5-story tower built in 1962; and the Canon. Each building faces the street for which it is named. The original eye-catching façade made of Cuban tile had been damaged, and was replaced with a new glass-tile mural. A beautiful blue-green Terrazzio tile floor sweeps across the lobby and into the pool area. Midcentury chairs and sofas create seating nooks throughout the patio. One reaches the rooms of the Olympic building via an outdoor staircase and breezeway, reminiscent of a midcentury motel.
The Beverly Carlton, that is, the Avalon Hotel, has had an interesting life to be sure. Now that we’re on a first-name basis and have gone through the preliminaries (where are you from?, do we know anyone in common?, where did you get that cool fabric?...), I am looking forward to catching up next time I am in town. The Avalon Hotel is grooviness personified. I think we have a lot more to talk about.