Landmark Status Could Make Plans for RAND Property History

By Teresa Rochester

When the City Council spent $53 million earlier this year to purchase 11.3 acres of prime land owned by the RAND Corporation, its members envisioned a sweeping view from the steps of City Hall to the end of the pier.

What they didn't take into account is that the internationally renown think tank's headquarters - which is slated for demolition -- is potentially eligible for national, state and local landmark status because of its historical as well as architectural significance.

Such a designation, at least at the local level, might protect the Cold War-era structure - a prime example of postwar modernism and the birthplace of major innovations from circling spaceships to email -- from the wrecking ball.

"It's a potentially really significant building," said former planning commission chair Ken Breisch, who is the director of programs of historic preservation at USC's School of Architecture. "It has national significance just because of everything that went on in there. It played a central role in the whole unfolding of the Cold War.

"To me it represents an early part of Modernism," Breisch said of the design. "We've only now begun to look at post-war buildings. This building may be breaking new ground because it is a newer building and it's important to look at before it's just dismissed."

Ironically, the preservation-friendly council recently approved a plan to lower from 50 to 40 years the age of buildings that qualify for automatic review by the City's Landmarks Commission. In addition, the National Register's 50-year-old threshold is not concrete, and younger buildings of "exceptional importance" can qualify. The RAND building was constructed between 1953 and 1957, with the five-story tower added in 1961.

But city staff said the RAND building won't be brought before the Landmarks Commission.

"The way it's planned now is that the Planning Commission would look at it and pass on the recommendations to the City Council," said Deputy Planner Andy Agle, who pointed out that RAND has filed a development agreement with the City.

The agreement, usually reserved for large projects, such as RAND and the renovation of St. John's Hospital, stipulates that the ultimate decision-makers regarding the think-tank's plan to build a new headquarters and demolish the old one is the City Council, which enthusiastically snapped up the property.

On Friday - the same day the Federal Government named the cottage in which President Abraham Lincoln penned the Emancipation Proclamation a National Historic Landmark and earmarked $15 million for preserving such buildings -- city officials and a spokesperson from RAND said they never considered the building's historical significance during negotiations.

"The purchase obviously happened before the historical analysis was done," said Agle.

"No," said RAND spokesperson Iao Katagiri when asked if the City or RAND ever discussed the possibility that the building may be a landmark.

"The building is not over 50 years old and the assumption of the (City's) redevelopment agency and RAND was it may not be a landmark," Katagiri said. "It never occurred to us to raise the issue and they didn't raise the issue with us."

Mayor Ken Genser said the landmarks issue will have to be dealt with by the Planning Commission and the council. The council has expressed interest in replacing the structures with parkland and affordable housing and is awaiting community input on the Civic Center Plan before making a final decision.

While the City and RAND may not have considered the building's landmark potential, the two parties did agree that RAND will be responsible for demolition as part of the purchase agreement.

"As part of the contract with RAND they must demolish those buildings," Genser stressed. "The contract calls for demolition."

The RAND headquarters, designed by Los Angeles architect H. Roy Kelley, might well be both historically and architecturally significant, two key criteria for preservation.

It was at RAND that researchers helped guide the satellite development system, built one of the first computers and developed email - all major developments in the telecommunications revolution that is shaping the modern world.

It was also at RAND that researcher Daniel Ellsberg made copies of the Pentagon Papers he then leaked to the New York Times at the Santa Monica Pier. The Defense Department papers on U.S. involvement in Vietnam hastened the end of the war and helped spur the events that led to President Nixon's resignation.

The RAND headquarters also "is an excellent example of the Corporate International Style of architecture or post-war modernism," according to the Draft Environmental Impact Report.

The telephone-book-sized document describes the building's unique features, including the horizontal mass of the building, its long bands of windows, horizontal striations below the windows and long banks of louvered sunshades.

"The Corporate International Style has been recognized as an important part of the local architectural context since at least 1981," according to the draft EIR. "The 1940s and 1950s were a major period of growth in Santa Monica, and the RAND Corporation building is an excellent example of one of the most important architectural styles of that period."

Historic Preservationist, John English, who is a member of the Los Angeles Conservancy's Modern Committee, said the post war architecture movement is picking up speed as many buildings reach the 50-year mark.

"We are looking at these buildings, absolutely," said English. "I've been thinking about RAND for a while now. The RAND building is very subtle. It is interesting because the exterior is very original and very intact. The demand for examples of these buildings are increasing."

In Santa Monica, preservation of older buildings has met with great enthusiasm. For six years, the City has been fighting to preserve the earthquake-battered Mayfair Theater downtown and is currently waging a legal battle with its owner. Two years ago, the council blocked the demolition of a 100-year old "shotgun" house on Second Street. Since the council's decision, the decaying house, which is uninhabitable, has sat on its lot while an EIR was drafted.

Earlier this month the City held the second of three workshops designed to hammer out means of preserving Santa Monica's historic structures. Photos of some of them - supplied by the Santa Monica Historical Society -- are on display in City Hall's lobby as part of Santa Monica's 125th anniversary celebration.

Despite its historical significance, the old RAND headquarters may very well meet the wrecking ball as part of the purchase agreement between RAND and the City.

"The intent of the City entering into the purchase agreement with us was to receive the land in flat condition," said Katagiri. "They [the City] didn't want the cost and responsibility of demolishing the building."

In order for RAND to pull demolition permits, the draft EIR calls for the non-profit organization to hire a consultant (approved by the City) to prepare an Historic American Building Survey.

The report will document the significance of the building and its physical conditions using site plans, historic maps, photographs, written data and text, according to the draft EIR.

Since the RAND building is eligible as a City of Santa Monica Landmark, all records prepared in accordance with the mitigation measure will be forwarded to the City's Planning Division and the Santa Monica Public Library, which will act as public archivists.

The Planning Commission is expected to hold its hearing on the RAND project next month. As for the current headquarters, Katagiri said the decision falls squarely on the City.

"I don't know where it puts us," said Katagiri about the building's status. "We're just waiting to understand what it means. We really won't be part of the process."