Lofts Focus on Fashion in Downtown L.A.
When the Eastern Columbia Building in downtown Los Angeles is remodeled into loft-style condos next year, fashion will be all around the landmark structure.
A few blocks to the south is the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. A few steps to the east is the Fashion District, home to thousands of apparel showrooms housed in The New Mart, the California Market Center, the Cooper Design Space and the Gerry Building.
So it only seems fitting that with so much fashion in the air, designer Mimi Levitas will be moving her design studio and showroom into the 1930 Art Deco building. She’ll be using her 1,500-square-foot loft as a place to design sweaters and contemporary-style clothes for her various clients, which in the past ranged from Three Dots to Joie and 7 for All Mankind.
“This building is aesthetically pleasing. It has an aesthetic that goes to the roots of who I am as a creator,” said Levitas, whose current design studio and showroom are located in a 2,000-square-foot artist’s loft on Flower Street next to The Palm restaurant near Staples Center.
But Levitas wants her company, The Focus Design Group, to be closer to the Fashion District. So she is going to rent out her Flower Street loft and move to the Eastern Columbia Building at 849 S. Broadway when the loft conversion project is finished.
“I need that hustle-bustle energy the garment district gives you,” said the South African native, who has been in the design business for 23 years. “There is more community and restaurants in this neighborhood. The Tiara Cafeacute; is opening at The New Mart and the Broadway Bar recently opened next to the Orpheum Theatre.”
Calling all artists
Levitas, who has a home in the Hollywood Hills and will use her loft just for work, isn’t the only person who prefers the artistic ambience of a loft. Several designers are finding that loft living and working is the way to go. Recently, designer Monah Li set up house and office at the Little Tokyo Lofts, built in 1922 in downtown Los Angeles.
Designer Perry White, who has had his own contemporary-clothing label for years but now spends most of his time doing private-label work for Guess Inc., Rampage and Arden B. clothing stores, has been living and working out of his Arts District loft on the edge of downtown L.A. for 12 years. Inside the 1,400-square-foot space on Traction Avenue, he is well-equipped with a pattern table and all the necessary accouterments to design.
“There are advantages and disadvantages to working out of your loft,” he said. “You don’t have to travel to work back and forth every day. If I have an idea in the middle of the night, I can knock it off right away at 2 a.m.”
Also, he is surrounded by artistic types. One block away is the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Several painters and songwriters have chosen the area as their home base.
“It’s an interesting mix of people who can inspire you. Just looking at artists on the way they put things together and how they dress gives you ideas,” White said. “The disadvantage is that work is never far away. The sketchbook is always calling. I never have a chance to get away from work unless I leave for the weekend.”
In the same building lives Robin De Vick, an artist who creates hand-painted velvet wraps and hand-painted fabrics that interior designers use for throw pillows, duvet covers and curtains.
She finds all her professional needs are filled right in the building. Rita’s Cards, located one floor below, uses a letter press to print all of De Vick’s hang tags. Upstairs, a photographer shoots all her catalog photos. “I save a lot of time not commuting,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t get into my car for an entire week.”
Retail roots
The 13-story Eastern Columbia Building, which was built by immigrant Adolph Sieroty and opened as a department store in 1930, ended up as offices by the late 1960s. The Kor Group, headed by Brad Korzen, purchased it and an adjacent property last year for $20 million.
Korzen and his wife, interior designer Kelly Wearstler, have put their magic touch to such projects as the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica and the Avalon Hotel and Maison 140 in Beverly Hills. The Kor Group has branched out from hotels and is now embracing residential projects.
Other Kor Group projects include the Molino Street Lofts in the Arts District, currently under construction; the Santa Fe Lofts at 6th and Main streets; The Broadway at Hollywood & Vine, the 1920s-era former Broadway Department Store in Hollywood that will become 96 lofts; and The Sunset Silver Lake, 43 live-work condos near Sunset Junction. In 2003, the Kor Group converted the Pegasus, a former office building in downtown Los Angeles, into 322 apartments.
The Eastern Columbia Building will become 147 lofts ranging in size from 860 to 3,200 square feet. The prices range from $400,000 to $3 million. Even though the building is technically located in the Historic Core, a downtown business improvement district, it is focusing much of its marketing on the fashion community. One of its marketing slogans is: “Located at the Corner of Concrete and Cashmere.”
“We are flattered they identify with us rather than their own business improvement district,” said Kent Smith, executive director of the Los Angeles Fashion District, the 90-block business improvement district that abuts the Eastern Columbia Building. “It goes to illustrate the cachet the district has come to be known for.”
