Redevelopment is rearing its ugly head yet again in Los Angeles, this time threatening a historic Miracle Mile storefront that the L.A. Conservancy notes is “one of the city’s last remaining examples of programmatic architecture.” The style, also known as mimetic or novelty architecture, classifies properties with a façade built to resemble whatever particular wares were sold inside. Wildly popular in the 1920s and ‘30s, the movement gifted the SoCal landscape with such whimsical structures as The Brown Derby, the California Piano Supply Company, The Donut Hole, Fleetwood Square and Mother Goose Pantry, among countless others, most long since lost to the wrecking ball. And now, another shining example faces an uncertain future.
As announced by The Real Deal last week, Canadian-based development company Onni Group just inked a deal to purchase a stretch of buildings located from 5350 to 5376 Wilshire Blvd. for an undisclosed amount. The small span of structures, currently occupied by a post office, a wig boutique, a salon, a print shop and a handful of restaurants, is largely unremarkable, save for one tiny storefront situated mid-block at 5370 Wilshire.
Fashioned to resemble a 1930s-era camera in honor of the photo supply shop it originally housed, known as The Darkroom, the scant frontage has miraculously remained intact for nearly a century despite a slew of subsequent occupants. It has become such an iconic piece of Americana, in fact, that replicas have been erected everywhere from Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida to Walt Disney Studios Park to Universal Studios Orlando. Considering the Onni Group’s plans to redevelop the block into a large-scale apartment complex, though, the fanciful façade could soon be a thing of the past.
The 1.4-acre parcel, which was represented by Kadie Presley Wilson and Laurie Lustig-Bower of CBRE, first hit the market in 2020 and generated quite a bit of attention. With its adjacency to the future La Brea Wilshire Purple Metro Station (set to be completed next year), lack of height restrictions and prime Mid-City location, the block proved highly attractive to developers. Wilson explained to the Connect CRE website, “We took the site to market at the height of the pandemic and generated 20 offers, despite rising construction costs. Demand for multifamily housing in the Greater Los Angeles area, especially with proximity to mass transit, remains at all-time highs, making development opportunities such as this highly sought after.”
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Image Credit: CBRE In its current state, the stretch of buildings comprises 49,000 square feet of retail space, 250 feet of Wilshire Blvd. frontage and a plethora of parking. But as The Real Deal reports, the sale brings with it both Transit Oriented Community (TOC) incentives and Density Bonus incentives, potentially allowing the Onni Group to build up to 430,000 square feet in its place! Sadly, a full-scale demolition seems imminent.
Whether or not The Darkroom frontage will be included in the new development remains to be seen. While the site was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1989, contrary to popular belief, such a classification does not offer much in the way of protection. Los Angeles Principal City Planner Ken Bernstein explains, “Landmark designation ensures a more thorough review of demolition proposals, but it does not prohibit demolition outright . . . even listing in the National Register of Historic Places, which sounds more elevated than ‘mere’ local listing, does not provide for more iron-clad protection.” So 5370 Wilshire’s future is certainly looking bleak.
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Image Credit: Library of Congress The location’s provenance is a bit murky thanks to a slew of differing reports floating around the internet, but the Los Angeles Conservancy credits its design to two architects, Edward J. Borgmeyer and Marcus P. Miller, noting both 1926 and 1938 as its years of construction. From what this author has been able to piece together from the limited building permits available online, it seems that Borgmeyer was originally tasked with designing the stretch of buildings in ‘26 and Miller was then pegged to create The Darkroom frontage twelve years later when the photography supply company moved in.
His design consisted of a nine-foot-tall re-creation of a 35-millimeter Argus camera, complete with a shutter speed indicator, winder and dual rangefinders, tailored out of black Vitrolite and capped by a wall of glass blocks. The camera “lens” was forged from a porthole window, onto which newsreels are said to have been projected for the benefit of passersby during The Darkroom’s early days. Distinctive neon signage spelling out the shop name sat atop the structure, completing its Streamline Moderne-inspired look.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Per newspaper reports, The Darkroom was in operation until at least 1974. At some point in the mid-80s, Sher-e Punjab, an establishment serving North Indian cuisine, replaced it, and the unique frontage, though highly incongruous, was left intact. As such, a Los Angeles Times article from 1986 noted that it was “possibly the only Indian restaurant anywhere that one enters through a camera.” Following Sher-e Punjab’s shuttering in the ‘90s, a succession of different eateries moved in, including La Boca del Conga, a fine dining establishment founded by actors Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez and Paul Rodriguez. When that space opened in December 1999, a massive awning semi-resembling a trio of conga drums was installed above the entrance, partially masking the historic façade.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake La Boca closed up shop in 2006 and a Tex-Mex spot named El Toro Cantina replaced it, leaving the yellow and white awning intact. Patio seating and a smattering of potted plants were subsequently set up out front, further obscuring the camera face from view.
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Image Credit: Spare Tire Kitchen & Tavern In early 2014, the space became home to its current occupant, Spare Tire Kitchen & Tavern. The awning and plants have long since been removed and, save for some bright green picnic tables, the historic façade is much more visible today – for the time being, at least.
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Image Credit: Columbia Pictures -
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake If the site does go the way of the wrecking ball, it has at least been immortalized onscreen via a handful of appearances, most notably in “The Big Picture,” Christopher Guest’s highly underrated movie (and one of my personal favorites), which the Chicago Reader describes as a “hilariously canny 1989 satire about contemporary filmmaking in Hollywood.”
In the flick, recent National Film Institute graduate Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) heads to Sher-e Punjab with his girlfriend, Susan Rawlings (Emily Longstreth), and friends, Emmet and Jenny Sumner (Michael McKean and Kim Miyori, respectively), for a celebratory dinner after his short wins a prestigious award.
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Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Both the outside and inside of the space appear in the movie, though the interior has been revamped several times since the Sher-e Punjab days and no longer resembles its screen self.
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Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures William ‘D-Fens’ Foster (Michael Douglas) also walks by the restaurant while heading to the swap meet next door, where he buys his daughter a snow globe, in the 1993 drama “Falling Down.”
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Image Credit: Lionsgate Films And it pops up as Fantasy Photo, where Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) poses for some shots, in the 2002 black comedy “Secretary.”
Along with The Darkroom’s cinematic posterity, the site’s Art Deco-inspired neon signage has also been preserved for future generations to enjoy. Saved by the man hired to dismantle it when the photography shop shuttered decades ago, it is now on proud display for all to see at the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Glendale.