Building Gets a Monthlong Reprieve

The Los Angeles Conservancy won a last-ditch reprieve Wednesday for the 50-year-old McKinley Building when a City Council panel agreed to wait a month before reconsidering the demolition of the heavily damaged building.

Despite objections from the building’s owner, his lawyer and lobbyists, the council committee agreed to give the conservancy more time to determine whether developers are seriously interested in saving the Spanish Revival building at Wilshire Boulevard and Oxford Street, across from the Wiltern Theater.

The McKinley Building has been at the center of a lengthy, convoluted battle over its survival between its owner, Robert Larner, and the conservancy. In an unusual turn, the conservancy has won over some City Council members, who typically defer in similar matters to the representative of the district in which the building is located. The building is in Councilman Nate Holden’s district, and he supports demolition.

On Wednesday, however, Councilman Mike Feuer, who chairs the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee, agreed to wait until mid-January before the full council considers whether to allow demolition of the building.

Barbara Hoff Delvac, director of preservation issues for the conservancy, said “there are interested developers out there. The conservancy is extremely interested in seeing this building become a viable, rehabilitated building on Wilshire.�

But Larner reiterated his position that the building should be demolished and that he will not sell it.

The building’s facade was badly cracked by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and later damaged during Metrorail construction. The interior has been destroyed by vandals, Larner and his associates say.

The building was designed by the architects who created the Wiltern, El Capitan, Pantages and Mayan theaters.