Efforts to Designate Faculty Center as Historic Structure Continuing

CurbedLA reports that in the aftermath of the controversy over demolishing the UCLA Faculty Center for a hotel/conference center (now proposed to be located elsewhere), the LA Conservancy is continuing efforts to protect the building.  In part it is doing so by holding events there – see below.  In part it is trying to get a designation of the Faculty Center as an historical resource – also see below.  The photo shows tea on the opening day of the Faculty Center in 1959.

WESTWOOD: The LA Conservancy's Modern Committee is giving out its third annual set of Modern Masters Awards tonight, to honor "Major contributors to Southern California mid-20th Century architecture." The recipients tonight are Victor Cusack, James Delong, WA Sarmiento, and Edward Fickett. They'll also have a special tribute to the recently-deceased Robert Burman and an appearance from Harry Gesner to pick up the award he won last year. The awards are being given out at ModCom's holiday party at UCLA's Faculty Center, which was designed by Austin, Field and Fry in 1959. According to a press release, "The Faculty Center is a rare example of residential ranch-style architecture applied to a civic building and is highly unusual for a university and public institution setting. The post-and-beam structure was recently a preservation issue, but is no longer threatened with demolition. The Conservancy is currently working on a California Register of Historical Resources nomination for the building."

Full article at http://la.curbed.com/archives/2011/12/hollywood_community_plan_makes_its_debut_modcom_honors_midcentury_greats_in_midcentury_great.php

An LA Conservancy article on the Faculty Center is at http://www.laconservancy.org/issues/issues_ucla.php4

Thanks for Bette Billet who found the CurbedLA article.