The Brief

Southern California sometimes feels like a small town — its streets, blocks, neighborhoods blurring into one another from familiarity. But step outside your usual radius and you can land in what feels like an entirely different world.

That was me in Claremont, seeing a new eye doctor whose office played a surprisingly important role in Southern California art history.

That morning, my 30-mile drive on the 10 Freeway felt like ellipses of strip malls, bigger strip malls and even bigger strip malls.

Until I got to Claremont Eye Associates — two buildings, one used for file storage off the multilane Foothill Boulevard.

Behind a dense garden of cacti and California native plants, a bird cage once sat, I would later find out, so that artists could practice sketching the birds.

One of the mosaic birds on the exterior wall of the main building.

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“ They would also practice making mosaics of the birds,” said Adam Arenson, a historian at Iona University in New York.

Some of these pieces made their way to the exterior wall of the main building, which since the 1980s has been where eye patients are seen.

“ People have a hard time realizing it's a doctor's office,” said John McDermott III, my doctor at Claremont Eye Associates. His family has owned the property for some five decades.

“I've heard a whole bunch of different things that said, ‘Oh, I thought that was a Buddhist temple and, you know, I thought it was an art gallery.’ And they are surprised to see that it's three ophthalmologists working there,” he said.

The main office building of Claremont Eye Associates.

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Millard Sheets used the taller of the two buildings to lay out and set the mosaics. Claremont Eye Associates uses the building to store files.

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I guessed that the office had a past life as a small art museum. Turns out, I wasn’t far off.

It was the site of the Millard Sheets studio, where giant, breathtaking mosaic murals were made for more than a hundred buildings that dot the region.

Pomona Valley’s very own 

Millard Owens Sheets

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By permission from CalART.com

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Millard Sheets was born in Pomona in 1907 and raised by his grandparents on a horse ranch. As a child, Arenson said, Sheets displayed a flair for painting and watercolor, winning his first local competition at age 12. He went on to study at Chouinard Art Institute — the predecessor of CalArts — and was asked to teach before he even graduated. In 1932, he taught at Scripps College as its only art instructor, quickly building out an entire department, while transforming Claremont into a thriving local art colony over a two-decade long tenure at the school.

“Millard Sheets was involved with so many of the art projects in Los Angeles. It's true that his name is generally not as well-known as his influence,” said Arenson, author of Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California.

While at Scripps, Arenson said, Sheets began constructing a work studio — a hop-and-skip off what is now busy Foothill Boulevard.

“ I've seen pictures when it was built in the ‘50s and there was nothing there but dirt,” McDermott said.

The site of the Millard Sheets studio before it was built.

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Courtesy John McDermott III

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The office of Claremont Eye Associations in Claremont.

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Millard Sheets design studio

The plaque denoting the studio is still in front of Claremont Eye Associates.

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Historian Arenson said construction was finished somewhere in the second half of the 1950s, coinciding with the completion of the first Home Savings and Loan building Sheets was tapped to design by businessman Howard Ahmanson.

That branch on Wilshire Boulevard — with its mosaic mural, stained glass and long rectangular frame — was so beloved by Angelenos that Sheets ended up designing some 120 Home Savings and Loan branches in total, creating a sort of unified aesthetic across these works.

• Go deeper
  
  • The Iconic Murals Of Millard Sheets Are Disappearing From LA
  • A map of Sheets studio projects historian Adam Arenson has compiled

Since he wasn’t a licensed architect, Sheets assembled those with the expertise at his newly built studio in Claremont for these undertakings.

“It was built as a workspace for a number of architects, painters, mosaic assistants,” said Arenson, adding that Sheets was responsible for many of the sketching, subject and color decisions.

Millard Sheets studio being built.

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Courtesy John McDermott III

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Courtesy John McDermott III

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“The team under him were the people doing the mosaics and training new generations of Scripps and Claremont students to join the studio and do the work,” he said.

That included mosaic muralist Denis O’Connor and Sue Lautmann Hertel, a Scripps graduate who became an integral part of the studio and was herself a noted artist. Her paintings still hang in the lobby of the main Claremont Eye Associates building.

The eye doctor’s office

John McDermott III was born and raised in Claremont and returned to gradually take over the business from his father after going away for medical school.

Growing up, what McDermott remembered was a land of lemon groves, before tract homes and suburbanization started to rapidly take over in the 1970s.

A painting by Sue Lautmann Hertel in the waiting room of Claremont Eye Associates.

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“ Claremont back then was a pretty small, tight community,” McDermott said.

He doesn’t know how his parents met Sheets, but knew from overhearing conversations that he was a renowned artist.

The younger McDermott would come to know the Sheets studio well, after his father acquired the building in the mid-1970s.

“ I remember when they bought the building, because shortly thereafter, I was recruited to clean the building and also help out with the landscaping,” McDermott said.

“I was always fascinated by it. Because when I was inside and cleaning the bathrooms or whatever, I always was impressed, you know, with the marble floors and the mosaics. And likewise [the] outside,” he added. “As a kid, I thought that was pretty cool.”

And he got a rare front row seat for the Sheets studio in action, because the artist and his team were still working at the building for several years after it changed hands.

“I remember going in there and seeing the various artists that worked there,” McDermott said. “They had these huge buckets of tiles, as a little kid we'd always want to grab a few, because they were shiny.”

A mosaic mural on the side of one of the buildings.

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McDermott said the property has been kept as intact as possible. A small addition was put in, attached to one of the buildings. It was so seamlessly done, he said, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Some years ago, his wife, Leea, and a former neighbor — an architect who had worked with Richard Neutra — designed and installed the landscaping. But they had to get rid of the bird cage after repeated acts of vandalism.

The inside was also largely preserved, save for the walls added to create exam rooms.

The doctor's favorite area of the entire compound remains sacred.

“ Millard's office is where I sit with my two partners, [at] the same desk that he built in the ‘50s,” McDermott said. “ That's where Millard used to sit. This beautiful desk and these high vaulted ceilings. I really love that space.”

He promised a tour the next time I’m there. But many people, McDermott said, show up unannounced to take in the garden, the mosaics, all the history.

“ I'm a real believer that architecture really influences how people act and feel,” he said. “Beautiful spaces like that, whether it's a doctor's office or a school, really enhance people's well-being.”

Details

• Claremont Eye Associates
  655 E. Foothill Blvd., Claremont
• Esotouric, the gem of all things L.A., has offered guided tours of Sheets’ works in Pomona and Claremont led by Arenson. No word on the next installment yet, but the team has put together this wonderful guide.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Courtesy MRCA

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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Anthony Chieh

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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Anthony Chieh

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.