Historic West Adams

West Adams is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Though much of its history is forgotten, it was once an area of grand homes and bustling development. The great land boom that turned Los Angeles from a Pueblo to a metropolis came during the period of 1887 through 1915. Contractors were opening up choice lots between Figueroa and West Boulevard, moving south from Pico Blvd to Jefferson. This was the district that came to be known as "West Adams." The new Adams Boulevard Corridor became the magnet for new wealth in the city. Architects filled the area with classic examples of the elaborate styles of the times: Victorian, Queen Anne, Stick/Eastlake, Shingle, Mission, Transitional Arts and Crafts, Beaux Arts and the Revival Styles, and Craftsman. City leaders such as Lawrence Doheny, Isadore Dockweiller, William Andrew Clark, George Ira Cochran, and Frederick Rindge built homes here. Hollywood stars of the silent era, too, such as Fatty Arbuckle, Theda Bara, and later, Busby Berkeley, lived here. By the early 1980s new residents began to discover West Adams. A new generation of homeowners settled in West Adams, where they have worked with long-time residents to restore many of the homes and work toward rebuilding the commercial streets.

Some of the beautiful homes is in this area:

Read more about West Adams at the West Adams Heritage Association.

Finished Deck in Historic West Adams

We decided to go with a torch down roof for the deck. Torch down roofing or modified bitumen is widely used for roofing on flat roofs. Its name is derived from the method of torching the bitumen sheets onto a fiberglass base sheet in the roofing overlap areas during torch down roofing installation. The material used in the roofing torch down process is also sometimes known as rubberized asphalt. Melting of the bitumen by torching creates highly resistant and durable roofing. Because of this, torch-down roofs are long-lasting, with an average life span of up to 20 years.

Our roofer torching down the roof. This hole is the drain that was 

causing leakage problems.

The improved drain.

One of the big advantages of torchdown roofing is its ability to protect the roofing from rainwater. This means it is particularly beneficial for flat roofing, where rainwater could otherwise collect on the surface and cause damage. Although it is slightly more expensive, the roofing torch down method is generally regarded as preferable to the alternative method of roofing used for flat roofs involving the use of tar and gravel. There are no noxious fumes associated with torch down roofing installation, and torch-down roofs are regarded as more durable and resistant. The high quality resins that are combined with the modified bitumen in torch down roofing installation also help to provide protection from UV rays that could otherwise prove damaging. Torch down roofing usually requires few repairs during its lifetime.

 Finished deck after torch down.

Read more about Torchdown Roofing here.

Historic West Adams Deck Repair

This was an upstairs deck that was completely rotted out in Historic West Adams. Stepping onto to it meant your foot would go completely through the deck floor! The roofing had also deteriorated leaving the units inside susceptible to leaking. The plan is to replace the roofing, fix the drainage issues, and replace the floor.

 Removed old roofing and decking.

Ripped wood for new frame.

Reframing deck.

Carpenter hard at work.

Trees Inside and Out by Judith Belzer

This is a project that we did last March for Judith Belzer. We built the boxes that house Belzer's paintings. The space, home to Christina Kim's clothing company, Dosa Inc., is located in Downtown Los Angeles.

“Trees Inside Out”, my installation at Dosa818 in downtown L.A., employs architecture, drawing and painting to explore our relationship with nature. The painted images of tree bark, set into the hand-drawn plywood walls of two, small structures –one squat and stump-like, the other shooting upward-- might clue you in to what you can expect to see once you step up and inside.   Entering the intimate, protected space within, you are invited to take an imaginative leap into the center of a tree. And in fact, there inside, you'll find several painted images on canvas that are about wood: tree rings, wood grain, and other patterning that might or might not be recognizable as specifically tree-like.   As you look at the paintings, housed within these structures made from thin slices of tree glued together (plywood), you are invited to think about trees and wood from the inside out, in its most natural, pristine form as well as its most mundane industrial application.  "Trees Inside Out" brings painted images of natural forms, as well as elements of unreconstructed nature, into a constructed urban setting and asks us to consider just how entwined nature and culture are in our everyday lives.

 ~Judith Belzer

More about Judith Belzer here.
More about Dosa, Inc here.
See full set of the opening at Janine's flickr here.

The Final Touches

 

 

For the sign we went to Simon Gorohovsky of Superior Sign Studios. This guy can do anything. We picked up the sign yesterday and installed just one day before the opening. Just two weeks ago this space was a dusty old tailor shop. Today it is After Ferus Gallery. The show opens tonight!

Ferus Gallery Greatest Hists Volume 1

723 N. La Cienega Blvd.

12-6pm

Exhibition will only view until January 31

Almost There

The space is finally coming together. The art work was hung yesterday and the space is vibrant with energy. My favorite piece so far is the mirrored cube by Larry Bell. The final installation will be the Ferus Gallery sign.

The Cool School

Independent Lens documentary on Ferus Gallery.

Ferus Gallery Redux

Original Ferus Gallery at 723 N. La Cienega. Tom Beeton

will recreate this storefront complete with sign and painting 

by Billy Al Bengston. Photo credit unknown.

The new year brings new and exciting projects. Our first major project of the year is the resurrection of Ferus Gallery. Living in the shadow of the New York art world, Ferus Gallery, founded in 1957 by curator, Walter Hopps and artist, Edward Kienholz, set a precedence for the west coast art scene. By launching the careers of local artists such as Ed Ruscha, Craig Kauffman, Wallace Berman, Ed Moses and Robert Irwin, Ferus Gallery transformed a conservative Los Angeles into a hub of artistic possibilities. When Edward Kienholz left the gallery in 1958 to pursue artistic endeavors, he was replaced by New Yorker, Irving Blum. The new partnership helped to build an infrastructure of exchange between Los Angeles and New York. With Blum came artists Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Ferus Gallery's most notable exhibitions were Andy Worhol's iconic "Soup Cans ", which was Worhol's first solo exhibition, and Marcel Duchamp's first retrospective. Due to the toxic concoction of art and money, Ferus closed its door in 1966.

Interior designer, Tom Beeton, has made it his charge to revive the Ferus Gallery. Under a new moniker, After Ferus Gallery, Beeton will build on the vision of Ferus' original founders by featuring the movers and shakers of today's art world. Perhaps this will be the making of a new "Ferus Gang." Debuting at its original storefront location, at 723 N. La Cienega Boulevard, After Ferus Gallery, in conjuction with the Art Los Angeles Contemporary, will open its doors January 28-31, 2010.  The gallery will exhibit the works of Ferus forefathers: Billy Al Bengston, Craig Kauffman, Ed Kienholz, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol.

 Walter Hopps, Co-Founder of Ferus 

Gallery, 1957 Photo credit: Charles 

Brittin

 

Irving Blum on Ferus Gallery boat 

with Peggy Moffet and others, 1960. 

Photo credit: William Claxton

Follow us as we help transform what has been a tailor's shop for the past 43 years into After Ferus Gallery.

 

Storefront as it stands today.

Interior of what was once Ferus Gallery.