All but first photo via Arts & Architecture This weekend, we dug up a pretty good-looking renovation in the Wilshire Terrace building on the Wilshire Corridor, which inspired commenter and Trousdale Estates expert Steven Price to send us an April 1957 article on the building from Arts & Architecture magazine (Wilshire Terrace was finished in 1958, according to Redfin). Victor Gruen and Associates came up with quite the elaborate layout for the Wilshire Terrace, both to make room for huge, central balconies and for a total separation between tenants and the help (so Betty Draper). According to the article, "It was the architect's goal to express in a multi-story project the 'California way of living' characterized by the one-family home," so he gave unit a two-story, 18' x 18' patio, and had each unit's master bedroom, dining room, and living room open up onto the patio.
The client wanted single-story units, though, so Gruen came up with "a comb-like plan which is shifted by half an apartment length on every other floor."
On the lower level of each patio open the bedroom, study and living room of the apartment to which the patio belongs. On the upper level, only kitchens and dressing rooms from the apartment above open into the patio and a downward view is prevented by means of horizontal louvers which, however, allow a horizontal view toward the landscape.Gruen also managed to keep "tenant circulation and service circulation...completely separated, from main entrance to service door of each of the apartments." How'd he do it? Five elevators--three for tenants and two for service:At each floor the tenant elevators open into short and wide lobbies, through which entrance to each apartment (never more than four per lobby) is provided.The service elevator opens to service corridor which gives access to each of the apartments through service entrance doors located in the kitchen and service area.Price tells us that Billy and Audrey Wilder lived in the building, as have (and do) plenty of other big names. Architect Hal Levitt has remodeled several of the units. There's plenty of space available right now at Wilshire Terrace, including two top floor units (one of which was in contract after just a few days on the MLS, listed at $3.5 million). The building comes with some real old-school glamor amenities, like a switchboard, hair salonall-cash sales. Leasing is strictly verboten. [Curbed Inbox]
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