Preservation News for California

I recently attended the 2024 California Preservation Conference held at the grand 1923 Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.  While there were many inspirational topics and presentations, among the most interesting were the Herald Examiner Building reuse and the proposed City of Los Angeles Adaptive Reuse Ordinance.

Source: The Georgetown Company

The Herald Examiner was the Los Angeles flagship of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.  Hearst started the paper as a sister to his already established San Francisco Examiner in 1903.  In 1913 he commissioned Julia Morgan, the first female graduate from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and the first licensed female architect in California to design this building.  She later went on to design Hearst Castle and many other Hearst projects.  The lobby is glorious and opulent and the Spanish Revival exterior is what you would expect from a Master Architect. But the paper folded in 1989 and the building was left to rot.  They showed very sad photos of the deteriorated state it was in.  It was nearly demolished for a parking lot.

A New York developer purchased the building in 2015 and undertook an $80m restoration.  Today, it is home to the Los Angeles campus of Arizona State University, specializing in design, fashion, journalism and film.   It was great to see this gem returned to service.

In 1999, the city of Los Angeles enacted the Downtown Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO), transforming vacant old buildings with no parking into the nation’s most successful measure of its kind, credited with breathing new life into the downtown, with 12,000 new housing units.  “DTLA” has become a thriving 24/7 urban center.

Today, the city has recognized that post-covid, there are many vacant buildings throughout and with the severe housing shortage, has proposed expanding the ARO citywide.  This is an exciting opportunity for transformation of non-residential buildings in a ministerial method (meaning you can go straight to the Building Department, avoiding any kind of entitlement or planning review).

Now, buildings as young as 5 years old can qualify with some discretionary review, but if 15 years or older, need no review (except for buildings deemed historic, which will require historic review for compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards).  Planning has been coordinating with Building and Fire to assure a smooth transition.  The Ordinance has been published, is currently in public review, expected to go to Planning Commission in August and City Council approval this fall or winter.

There is no minimum unit size, projects proximate to transit will require zero parking, you can add one story to buildings that will not be counted as height or FAR if for amenity space.  No outdoor space is required.  And if you have an adaptive reuse project and want to add more affordable units, you can add up to three new floors without regard to building height or FAR.

I’m excited to learn that the success of the downtown’s ARO will be spread throughout the city.  My wife and I own a loft in a National Registered 1914 building, once the tallest building in Los Angeles.  It was originally home to Union Oil.  This new measure will breathe life and provide necessary housing opportunities where it is surely needed.