Our reporting is free for everyone, but it’s not free to make.
LAist only exists with reader support. If you're in a position to give, your donation powers our reporters and keeps us independent.
Frank's first place
Did this classic-but-down-on-its-luck apartment building inspire Disney Hall? We can't be sure, but we are reasonably certain that it was Frank Gehry's first home in Los Angeles.
At Monday's press conference, he said the first place he lived in LA was at 9th and Burlington; he took the red car from there to his job as a truck driver in the Valley. When he mentioned that the building still stood, we had to check it out — luckily we remembered that part of 9th street was renamed James M. Wood a few years back. Of the four corners, only one was residential (and you're looking at it). It had no pipes on the outside, no curved walls, no titanium. It's just a plan old apartment building ... maybe that was the inspiration.
Where was the first place that you lived in LA? Is it still standing, too?