CommentsDEEGAN ON LA-The Miracle Mile has it all:
rent-controlled housing, great museums, a collection of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings, a residential area full of period homes (circa 1920s) that have been awarded Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) protection, some retail and restaurants with more coming, a landmark Welton Becket building, and a few Renzo Piano creations with a Peter Zumthor on the way (Piano and Zumthor are Pritzker Prize winning architects), all capped off by a subway system that will have two stops -- one at each end of the Miracle Mile.
It also has conflict centered around unavoidable growth and development.
Love it or hate it, as the preservation versus development argument continues, the Miracle Mile keeps evolving into a model “new urbanism” community – a place where you can live, work, shop and play all within walking distance of one another and where you can move about the neighborhood by foot, bike, skateboard or electric scooter (the newest alternative mobility platform that is visible everywhere there), or travel the few blocks north on Fairfax to Third Street and the Original Farmers Market and the Grove, saving your car for the trips where you need distance or cargo space.
What’s not to like, and why all the angst? Simply, the city has different and, to some, controversial ideas about what to do up and down the Miracle Mile -- and it’s primarily to develop this mid-city neighborhood to take advantage of the Purple Line extension of the subway system that will have stops at Wilshire and La Brea and Wilshire and Fairfax.
This development, a co-production of Metro and the Los Angeles City Planning department, is known as a “transit neighborhood plan” t’s roiling the community that is understandably nervous about the prospect of more and possibly taller towers along Wilshire, as well as the proposed zoning conversion of single-family lots to hold four residences instead of one.
The community is just catching up with the who, why, when and how of this plan that’s apparently been in the works for about a year. This is an example of what protesters are calling bad communications between the city and the community; Councilmembers David Ryu (CD4) and Paul Koretz (CD5) are both hearing complaints from their constituents.
Others who support the growth plan as an answer to housing needs -- particularly when they can be built in tandem with mass transit routes -- have a different perspective and are offering well-organized support of the prospect of increased development along the Miracle Mile transit lines.
Amid this tension, sitting as stable and solid as the Rock of Gibraltar in his office atop Wilton Becket’s 1948 masterpiece called “Museum Square” (recently renamed SAG-AFTRA Plaza) is its owner, builder-developer Jerry Snyder (photo left). A fixture on the Miracle Mile since 1978, Snyder has four decades of experience in the community, where his footprint can be seen on several significant buildings.
Originally the home of Prudential Insurance, the SAG-AFTRA Plaza building has a piece of the Rock of Gibraltar displayed in the lobby as a reminder that the building was financed by the Prudential Insurance Company that had adopted it as its company symbol, along with the slogan “as solid as the Rock” to reflect the strength and security it offered to customers.
The buildings that Snyder has owned and/or developed include SAG-AFTRA Plaza, his new “Wilshire Curson” that is expected to open in two years in the surface parking lot of SAG-AFTRA Plaza, the Wilshire Courtyard building, the Office Depot building, the building that houses Ralph’s food store, and the Cal Fed building.
CityWatchapproached Snyder to get some long-view perspective about the Miracle Mile that he calls his business home, and the canvas upon which some of his most significant work is displayed.
CW - There are fourteen Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings along the Miracle Mile that are unprotected landmarks, or that do not have historic cultural monument status from the city, including your own Welton Becket masterpiece known as SAG-AFTRA Plaza. How do you feel about the danger of any of them being demolished in favor of higher towers along the Miracle Mile?
JS- It’s not that easy to tear down existing buildings -- you need political support, community support, and CEQA findings, not to mention dealing with possible litigation.
CW- Can you describe your newest addition to the Miracle Mile that is going up in the surface parking lot of your SAG-AFTRA Plaza building?
JS- It will be called the Wilshire Curson building. I worked very closely with neighbors and the community on the development that will be a 250,000 square foot building with 285 apartments on 20 floors, plus two levels of underground parking with 400 spaces. It will open in about two years.
CW- The Miracle Mile already has lots of rent-controlled housing which makes it an attractive neighborhood for moderate income residents. Will your new building have affordable housing?
JS- There will be no affordable housing, but I made a contribution of $3 million to the City Parks and Recreation Department.
CW - The recent closing of Marie Callender’s Grill was a surprise to the community. Was it to you, as their landlord?
JS- They paid the same rent for 35 years and agreed to a ten percent increase to extend. They just said they couldn't make it here and they left.
CW - Do you have a dream for the Miracle Mile?
JS- I think my dream has come true!
Dreams in the Miracle Mile can come true for both preservationists and developers, but that must start with Snyder’s formula of working “very closely with neighbors and the community.” The Metro and City Hall “deciders” and vocal community opponents are now in conflict as the uproar over the transit neighborhood plan unfolds. If they need a clear-headed arbitrator, they could convene in Penthouse 30 at SAG-AFTRA Plaza and be schooled by Snyder on how to get results by getting along. The city owes that collaboration to the community.
(Tim Deegan is a civic activist whose DEEGAN ON LA weekly column about city planning, new urbanism, the environment, and the homeless appear in CityWatch. Tim can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
