The Eastern Columbia Building – now the Eastern Columbia Lofts – designed by Claud Beelman – South Broadway at Ninth in the Broadway Theater District downtown – opened on September 12, 1930 as the new headquarters for the Eastern Outfitting Company and the Columbia Outfitting Company, a chain of stores founded by Adolph Sieroty. At the time of construction, the City of Los Angeles enforced a height limit of 150 feet, but the decorative clock tower was granted an...
more »The Eastern Columbia Building – now the Eastern Columbia Lofts – designed by Claud Beelman – South Broadway at Ninth in the Broadway Theater District downtown – opened on September 12, 1930 as the new headquarters for the Eastern Outfitting Company and the Columbia Outfitting Company, a chain of stores founded by Adolph Sieroty. At the time of construction, the City of Los Angeles enforced a height limit of 150 feet, but the decorative clock tower was granted an exemption – and then the stores failed and the building fell into disrepair. On June 23, 2005, the clock tower was reactivated and the KOR Group then completed their two-year eighty-million-dollar renovation of the building – now 147 work-live condominiums – but this is still considered the greatest surviving example of Art Deco architecture in the city. In context, there is a wall of spooky old windows across the street, and a big white restoration in progress next door – but this is still the Queen of the City. ~ Wednesday, December 27, 2017
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