of Hollywood’s look in terms of its first heyday
in the 1920s, with its fantastic movie sets and
opulent screening palaces, most of its buildings
were meant to house behind-the-scenes parts of
the business and required the utmost functional-
ity and economic efficiency. Nowhere was the
industrial ethos of early European modernism
more visible than on the back lots of the studios,
Hollywood’s film factories. Although many have
been destroyed, some back lots, like the original
Pickford-Fairbanks Studio, now known as “The
Lot,” are garnering support from preservationists
who see these buildings as the utilitarian precur-
sors to the later modern movement.
Typically, Hollywood film studios comprised
rows of unadorned hangar-like warehouses and
acres of outdoor space where massive exterior
sets could be built. Their street-facing offices were
designed with imaginative historic revival façades
intended to lend respectability to the upstart industry.
RKO Studio (1929, still standing) was fronted by
an urbane Art Deco facade that served as a blank
canvas for its film advertising billboards. Charlie
anamaker/Bison Archives.
Chaplin built a row of English Tudor cottages (now
home to the Jim Henson Company, creator of the
tesy Marc W
Muppets) to mask his 1925 Vine Street lot, while
Cour
Warner Bros. (1923) chose a Greek Revival façade
to front its operations.
The Warner Bros. buildings are a rare studio
preservation success story. Beginning in 1985, its
owner, the Tribune company purchased Warner
Bros.’ main building, then added 12 acres of
its back lots, which had been parceled out over
time. For 10 years, starting in 1996, preservation
architects Bill Roschen and Christie Van Cleve of
Roschen Van Cleve Architects upgraded several of
the studios on the back lots in addition to restoring
the Greek Revival front office, giving the complex
a vibrant new life in television production. This
studio was the first to receive tax credits for pres-
ervation, testament to the building genre’s historic
value. In January 2008, Hudson Capital purchased
the entire complex with plans to keep it in enter-
tainment production, while adding a 300,000
square foot office tower. Plans for the enhanced
historic structures have yet to be announced.
After the Depression, live radio and television
anamaker/Bison Archives.
replaced film as Hollywood’s major industries,
followed in the ‘40s and ‘50s by prerecorded tele-
vision and the recording business. This era also
tesy Marc W
brought with it a bustling nightclub and restau-
Cour
rant scene serving live broadcast audiences who
Opposite William Pereira and Charles Luckman, with Paul Williams and Welton
wanted to mingle with Hollywood’s broadcast
Becket, Theme Building (under restoration), 1961, at Los Angeles International Airport.
stars. Everyone went star-gazing at venues like the
Brown Derby on Wilshire Blvd. (1938, now relo-
Top Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman, Pan Pacific Auditorium (demolished
cated and badly altered) or Sardi’s (1932, by R.
in 1989), 1940.
M. Schindler, now remodeled beyond recognition Above RKO Radio Pictures Building (still standing), 1928.
www.modernismmagazine.com 81
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