At a meeting with his colleagues in the summer of 1958, Los Angeles County Supervisor John Anson Ford raised an item of concern. Scores of young boys had apparently been spotted swimming in the recently dedicated Fort Moore Memorial Fountain (figure 1 below). Designed to be seen from Union Station and the civic center several blocks below, the memorial stretched 400 feet along the rise of Hill Street. At a cost of more than $600,000, the enormous structure honored the patriots of the Mormon Battalion who raised the American flag over Los Angeles in 1847. While sympathetic to the youngsters, noting that there were no other pools in the area, Ford recommended immediate action. Besides the county who was responsible for maintaining the mechanical equipment, the Department of Water and Power who supplied the electricity, and the city staff who raised and lowered the flag each day, the Los Angeles Police Department would, in the future, be tasked with securing the site from any “unscheduled use.”[i]
Over the years, in its search for a “better” civic center, Los Angeles has demolished a state building, a county courthouse, a county hall of records, a law library, and a building dedicated to health services. Will our future selves celebrate or mourn the demolitions authorized today?
This brief anecdote is significant because it gives us a glimpse into the thinking of Los Angeles’ mid-20th-century planners. Specifically, it highlights the struggle between their lofty urban aspirations and the reality of everyday life in the city. Calls for the preservation of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Parker Center and for the addition of more housing and amenities in the civic center area echo this century-long divide. Like our predecessors, we have been asked to find meaning in the buildings and public spaces that make up the civic center. Should the area be grand like an idealized Athenian agora? Is it a place for political action? Should its primary purpose be about the efficient provision of government services? Perhaps the civic center is a didactic landscape that can teach us about the history (good and bad) of our community. Or is it a place for pleasure and sociability, a shady spot for an ice cream on a hot day?
The Los Angeles civic center has, at one time or another, been conceived as all of these things, and during the 20th century more than 30 different plans were created to put these thoughts into action. Revisiting the plans and comparing them with photos from the period reminds us of the gap between our goals and the real places we occupy. A look at the plans also reminds us that the ideas we have today have deep roots and the decisions we make have long term consequences. Over the years, in its search for a “better” civic center, Los Angeles has demolished a state building, a county courthouse, a county hall of records, a law library, and a building dedicated to health services. Will our future selves celebrate or mourn the demolitions authorized today?
Notes
The title comes from J. B. Jackson’s riff on Louis Sullivan’s functionalist mantra.
[i] Van Nuys News (1958) "Supervisors in Dither; Kids in $694,000 Swimming Hole"; Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) (1956) "Mormon Group Raises Flag at Old Ft. Moore"
[ii] For more on the battle between the city and county over the civic center see “Beauty Controlled: The Persistence of City Beautiful Planning in Los Angeles” (2014) Journal of Planning History, 13(4), 296-321.
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