History of the Wiltern, a Los Angeles Landmark

At the intersection of Wilshire and Western Boulevards one of the most interesting historical buildings in Los Angeles reaches skyward. The building is know as The Wiltern, a popular live venue and an impressive landmark. It is often said that the building is the finest example of Art Deco architecture in Los Angeles.

The 12 story building seems taller than it really is. The tall narrow windows skillfully leads the eye upward creating an illusion of a towering skyscraper. To further the impression, the green terracotta tile that covers the outside of the building is cut in an upward reaching zigzag pattern often knows as French Zig-Zag. Facing diagonally to the intersection it is named after, the Wiltern makes a striking appearance still to this day. When seeing the Wiltern today it is almost impossible to understand how the building came within a hair's breath of being demolished in the late 1970's.

The Wiltern was built by Henry de Roulet in 1931. deRoulet was the grandson of Germaine Pellissier who had bought the land some 50 years earlier to start a sheep farm. The building that houses the Wiltern is actually still called Pellissier building today.

In the late 1920's the intersection of Wilshire and Western was the busies intersection in the United States. de Roulet wanted to take advantage of the booming growth of the area by building office and retail spaces as well as a huge theater capable of showing the biggest Broadway productions. For his landmark building de Roulet turned to the oldest architecture firm in Los Angeles, Morgan, Walls & Clements. The Wiltern was designed by the renowned Art Deco architect Stiles O. Clements who had just completed work on the Richfield Building in down town Los Angeles.

The building opened in 1931 and was closed after one year of operation. Leased by Warner Bros it was originally know as the Warner Bros Western Theater. Despite the booming growth of the Wilshire area and the growing support from the movie star crowd further west, the new theater could not buck the great depression. It closed down until the mid thirties when it was reopened and renamed the Wiltern, a clever mash up of the two streets the building faces (Wilshire and western).

The Wiltern was owned by de Roulet until 1959 when he sold the building to the Franklin Life Insurance Company. This marked a downturn in the Wiltern's fortunes as the Illinois based company failed to keep up the structure. They attempted to sell the theater in 1970, but with no takers the historic landmark was totally ignored. As a result, the building fell into serious disrepair. In 1979 the owners twice filed for demolition permits hoping to build a parking lot on the site. It looked like the Wiltern was following the path of Stiles O. Clements' other master piece the Richmond Building which had been demolished a decade earlier.

Fortunately, the late 1970 also saw the birth of the Los Angeles Concervancy. A group dedicated to conserving and protection historical buildings and neighborhoods in Los Angeles. In fact, the society had been started just one year earlier in response to plans for the demolition of the Los Angeles library. The fresh group managed to rally enough support to keep the Wiltern standing until it was finally purchased by Wayne Ratkovich in 1981. Ratkovitch worked with renowned restoration architects to bring the Wiltern back to it's former glory. In 1983 the office tower was reopened, but the main theater would prove to be a difficult task. The years of neglect had left the Wiltern in heavy disarray. The original murals were heavily damaged, much of the interior sold or stolen, parts of the roof had caved in, and to make matters worse the theater had been used as a filming location for the movie Get Crazy.

The theater was finally reopened in 1985 after impressive restoration efforts. To regain the original look of the theater, the son of the original mural painter was hired to oversee the restoration. In addition to the massive and challenging restoration efforts. Ratkovich wanted to convert the Wiltern into a performing arts center which meant large scale construction efforts to modify the stage and main seating area. Subsequently the theater has been modified again to accommodate live music performances.

80 years after it was built the Wiltern is still going strong. It is now fafely protected in the National Register of Historic Places. The Pellisier-green tower will continue to wow for many new generations.