Hauser Wirth & Schimmel LA Gallery
The project has comprised re-generation and adaptation of an existing 116,000 square foot our mill and food manufacturing facility to become a contemporary arts complex. The assignment prioritized preserving the existing buildings and their architectural characters, maintaining the distinctive industrial atmosphere of the site, as well as the speci c decorative and functional details that convey the factory’s long history as a place of local production with national and international impact.
Located in the heart of the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District, the site is bordered by East 2nd and East 3rd Streets, connected by a 400 foot long internal breezeway, and South Garey Street, in an area of the city currently experiencing rapid renewal and growth.
The Arts District is situated on the eastern edge of Downtown Los Angeles, east of Little Tokyo and west of the Los Angeles River. The Arts District’s planning boundaries are Alameda Street on the west; First Street on the north; the Los Angeles River to the east; and Violet Street on the south.
From its beginnings as an area for grape vineyards in the mid-19th century, this geographic portion of Los Angeles evolved in the 20th century into a center for orange and grapefruit groves and the railroad industry that supported the citrus business. By World War II, bustling factories had replaced the citrus groves, and the rail freight business was giving way to the trucking industry. The industrial character of the district changed again in the postwar years, as many of the independent small manufacturers were absorbed by larger competitors or failed.
An increasing number of vacant warehouse and former factory spaces contributed to a decaying urban environment typical of many aging, big American cities of the era. By the 1970s, the expansive spaces of these abandoned factories attracted artists, who pioneered the area and ignited its gradual conversion into a lively hub for creative industries. Today, the Arts District is home to art galleries, architecture and design rms, television and lm production of ces and studios, residential conversions, and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). The Arts District is noted for its complementary mixture of historic buildings and new construction.
A collection of conjoined masonry buildings constructed between 1896 and 1929, the property at 901 East 3rd Street was originally home to McDonald Grain & Milling Company, which later re-organized as Globe Grain & Milling Company (A-1 Globe Mills) in 1902.
After operating as Globe Mill’s largest milling facility and corporate headquarters for nearly 40 years, the property was acquired by Pillsbury Flour Mills in 1941. Pillsbury in turn sold the site to Fuld-Stalfort, Inc., a cleaning supply company from Baltimore MD, in the mid-1960s.
After several years of operating at the property, Fuld-Stalfort sold the site and its business to one of its employees, Art Fleischman, ‘The Buyout King.’ Fleischman operated an import/export business from the site until approximately 2000, having stopped manufacturing there around 1997. Following Fleischman’s death, one of his employees continued to run the business until about 2011, then closed the business. Following 2011, the property’s owners brie y leased to various short-term tenants until 2014.
Now home to Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, the complex at 901 East 3rd Street has been preserved and modernized for another 100-year life, adapting some of the distinctive original architectural features to new use in a dynamic arts center.
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Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947 – 2016
13 March – 4 September 2016
