My favorite building exterior in L.A. (my favorite interior being the Bradbury Building). L.A. City Hall, built in 1928.

200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles CA.

Tags:   los angeles city hall la city hall los angeles downtown los angeles downtown la los angeles architecture art deco canon 30D

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Taken from the top outdoor deck of Los Angeles City Hall.

Tags:   los angeles los angeles skyline city skylines urban skylines downtown los angeles lightroom los angeles architecture canon 30D

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Front page on Explore 4/9/17.

909 W. 16th St., Merced CA.

Tags:   rice bowl sign signs neon retro vintage 909 w 16th st merced ca sign porn sign geeks Vintage signs vintage signage Vintage neon signs vintage neon sign vintage sign Neon signs neon sign americana vintage americana chop suey retro signs retro sign signage typography merced california

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The Bond Clothing chain was founded in Cleveland in 1914. The first store sold fifteen dollar men's suits. During the 30's and 40's, it was the largest chain of men's clothing stores in the country.

They supplied two pairs of pants for each suit bought.

Also of interest, according to Wikipedia: "Between 1948 and 1954, Bond Clothes operated a massive sign on the east side block of Broadway between 44th and 45th St. in New York's Times Square. The sign had nearly 2 miles of neon and included two 7-story tall nude figures, a man and a woman, as bookends. Between the nude figures, there was a 27 feet high and 132 feet wide waterfall with 50,000 gallons of recirculated water. Beneath the waterfall was a 278 foot long zipper sign with scrolling messages. The Bond zipper was made up of over 20,000 light bulbs. Above the waterfall was a digital clock. Some of the sign remained in place to advertise the Bond Stores location until the stores closure in 1977."

In 1975, the company was sold to foreign investors, then broken up and sold in smaller groups to management. Many of the stores closed.

For some reason, this sign is buried in a back alley accessible off of Main Street.

Tags:   bond bond clothing bond clothes stores two trouser suits signs old signs neon neon signs old neon signs los angeles downtown los angeles canon 30D

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According to www.broadwayloftshollywood.com, "Designed by respected Los Angeles architect Frederick Rice Dorn, the original Renaissance style building is stylized with decorative Corinthian reliefs and columns supporting the upper level loggias. Along Hollywood Boulevard, classical mantelpieces tie the structure to a six-story 1938 International style addition by Parkinson & Parkinson, the designers of another retail grande dame, Bullocks Wilshire.

"1645 North Vine was born in 1927 as the B.H. Dyas Specialty Emporium, one of the city's first department stores. In 1931, the building joined Arthur Letts' retail chain and was rechristened the Broadway Hollywood. A storied haunt of the famous and the fashionable, the influential West Coast retailer allegedly introduced women's slacks at its Vine Street location years before New York tastemakers adopted the look for the fairer sex; a top floor activity room provided a stylish play pen for the under age set while parents shopped below. Hollywood lore also holds that the building appeared in the Charlie Chaplin epic Modern Times.

"Some sixty years after Hollywood Boulevard's first commercial heyday, the Broadway closed its doors to shoppers and embarked on a quiet two-decade stint providing space for urban music stations KACE and KRTO, Capitol Records satellite offices, and exteriors for the Harrison Ford crime feature Hollywood Homicide.

"Today, nearly eighty years since the building's debut, the Broadway Hollywood is readying itself from the marble ground floor to the sun and starlit rooftop for a definitive and lasting close-up."

1645 N. Vine St., Los Angeles CA.

Tags:   the broadway hollywood signs old signs neon neon signs vintage signs vintage neon signs hollywood hollywood and vine los angeles typography type typeface 1645 n vine st los angeles ca southern california renaissance architecture 1927 1920s Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument #664 Frederick Rice Dorn broadway department store vintage vintage signage

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