It's that day of the year we thank the people who fight our wars for us and just in time the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall has reopened after a loooong renovation, ready to host LA County's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (on Fig, at the very southern end of Downtown). You've probably seen the odd, old building from the 10, but it hides a lot of secrets underneath that pitched roof. Bob Hope was built in 1925 (it wasn't named for Bob Hope until 2004) and at 10 stories was LA's tallest building for a few years before City Hall opened. While credit is usually given to the Machine-Age-dystopia-sounding Allied Architects, LAObserved hears from an expert that the design was probably stolen/borrowed-without-attribution from a local architect named Ross G. Montgomery. Flash forward to the 1970s, when the hall's original murals, by painter Helen Lundeberg, "mysteriously vanished from the building's lobby," according to County Supe Zev Yaroslavsky's website. They still haven't been found, but Kent Twitchell (known for his nearby "Harbor Freeway Overture," showing members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra) has "reimagined" them over the past several years. His "We the People, Out of Many, One" is made up of three 20 by 12-foot tableaux, with people modeled on actual LA veterans.
· An artful salute to veterans [ZY]
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