The Los Angeles Department of City Planning has unveiled details on the restoration of the Streamline Moderne Firestone Building. First opened in 1938, the project operated until its closing in 2016. Built by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, it was used as a retail outlet for the company’s tires and related automotive products, and the garage remained one of the flagship stores of the company’s operations in Los Angeles.
Located at the intersection of S. La Brea Ave and 8th Street, the subject building has two primary facades at the northern and western elevations and is square in plan. As the Los Angeles Department of City Planning notes, the one-story commercial building exhibits character-defining features of the Streamline Moderne style. The curved northwest corner of the building creates a continuous elevation and is a primary character-defining feature of the building. Constructed of masonry, the building exhibits a bowstring truss roof. The western façade is highlighted by a distinctive, cantilevered overhang that abuts the buildings south wall and the adjacent building.
The prototype building is the product of twentieth-century Machine Age design and was considered ultra modern at the time it was constructed. Designed in the Streamline Moderne (then known as "Modernistic") style, its aerodynamic design gives the illusion of speed, precision, and efficiency, with uninterrupted horizontal lines and rounded corners. Original rooftop lettering sits atop the dramatic, curving canopy illuminated by fluorescent lights. The exterior is clad in original baked porcelain enamel panels of pale yellow accented with burgundy, a popular color scheme in the thirties.
Two companies are part of the transformation. Pouring With Heart, a local nightlife and hospitality company, will open up a brewery with 13,000 square feet of the building’s interior. Chicas Tacos will take over the remaining floor area of the building. The interiors will be done by M. Winter Design. The Firestone Building restoration plans to be complete by early 2020.
