HISTORIC-CULTURAL MONUMENT DESIGNATION FOR GRIFFITH PARK?

An urban oasis in perpetuity?
The Griffith Charitable Trust, headed by Col. Griffith’s great grandson, has submitted to the City of Los Angeles, an application to designate Griffith Park a Historic-Cultural Monument.
Having seen Europe’s public parks, Col. Griffith J. Griffith decided that, in order to become a great city, Los Angeles needed a park of its own. In 1896, he deeded 3,015 acres of his Rancho Los Feliz property to the city of Los Angeles. This donation, the largest private land gift Los Angeles has ever received, included the condition that the land forever remain a place accessible free of charge to all residents—a retreat for the “plain people.” Col. Griffith realized public parks were a “safety valve of great cities.”
Periodically, however, plans to commercialize the Park, and urges to make it pay for itself, have ridden roughshod over Col. Griffith’s vision of a “place of rest and relaxation for the masses.”
Griffith Park is essentially an urban island, separating the San Fernando Valley from Hollywood. It is one of the biggest municipal parks in the U.S. and also one of the wildest. It lies wholly within an area considered one of 34 biodiversity hotspots for conservation worldwide due to its high levels of diversity, endemism, and the degree to which it is threatened.
In addition to its biodiversity, Griffith Park contains buildings that are inherently valuable examples of architectural styles. The Observatory (1935) is an example of Classical Moderne and is itself a Historic-Cultural Monument. Its architects designed Los Angeles City Hall. The Greek Theatre (1930) was built in the Second Greek Revival style, and the Municipal Plunge (1927) is an example of Spanish Colonial Revival style. Moreover, many of the structures in the Park—retaining walls, culverts and channels—were built in “Park Style” by workers employed in the federal assistance programs of the 1930s.
The City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Ordinance, enacted in 1962, has made possible the designation of buildings and sites as Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCM). As of September 2007, Los Angeles had over 900 HCMs. The Cultural Heritage Commission has five members, who are appointed by the mayor. An HCM can be “any site (including significant trees or other plant life located thereon), building or structure of particular historic or cultural significance to the City of Los Angeles….” Open spaces such as Echo Park, individual trees, groups of trees and natural features such as Eagle Rock may be designated HCMs.
Some of the criteria for Historic-Cultural Monument eligibility are: that the nominee reflects or exemplifies the broad cultural, political, economic or social history of a community; that it involves historic personages or events in the main currents of local history; that it contains examples of architecture inherently valuable for the study of period, style or method of construction; that it includes notable work of master builders, designers or architects.
The Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, reviews applications for HCM designation, and reports to the Cultural Heritage Commission, recommending whether a formal consideration of the nomination is appropriate. An initial hearing and a vote follow. Once a nomination is officially taken under consideration, a stay on demolition or substantial alteration at the site goes into effect. After a tour of the site, a final staff report by the Office of Historic Resources evaluates whether or not the property meets HCM criteria. If approved, the nomination goes to the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which then makes a recommendation to the full City Council.
“Preservation allows us to retain the best of our shared heritage,” explains Ken Bernstein, formerly Director of Preservation Issues for the L.A. Conservancy and currently Manager of the Office of Historic Resources. HCM designation means that the most significant or character-defining historic elements of a property should be retained. New additions are allowed but should be compatible with a site’s historic architecture. HCM designation requires a Cultural Heritage review for proposed exterior and interior alterations in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, the nationally accepted criteria for evaluating change to historic properties. The designation also allows the Cultural Heritage Commission to object to the issuance of a demolition for 180 days with an additional 180-day extension possible upon approval of the City Council. HCM status activates CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, which protects historic buildings and other entities from adverse impacts without an environmental review. The environmental area at and surrounding the project is assessed in terms of alterations to the land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, noise, socio-economic conditions, health risks, traffic and objects of historical or aesthetic
significance. Alternatives to proposed actions affecting the environment must be considered.
A Draft Master Plan, currently being revised by a working group of concerned citizens, re-invents the Park as a more densely built, more commercial “destination.” HCM designation will likely help to keep Griffith Park as it is—an outcome that the majority of people who commented on the Draft Master Plan said they favored.
And, speaking of masterplans, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Masterplan observes: “The level of stewardship for a community’s
historic resources says much about that city’s awareness of its identity.”