The
Hillview Apartments was built in 1917 by studio head and film mogul, Jesse L.
Lasky who founded Famous Players-Lasky, the forerunner of Paramount Studios. He
wanted to insure that their actors had a place to live close to the studios
because housing for people involved in the young film industry were in short
supply. Many landlords considered actors
unreliable tenants at the time and would not rent to them.

The Mediterranean
Style Hillview Apartments is a contributing building to the National Register-listed Hollywood Boulevard
Commercial and Entertainment District and is one of the only multi-family
residential buildings listed in the district.
The Tifal Brothers served as both architect and builder.
As
mentioned, it played a role in the emerging film industry as the first known
multi-family residential building built for actors. One of the up and coming motion picture stars
at the time that resided in the Hillview Apartments was Mae Busch, who was best
known for her supporting roles in Laurel and Hardy movies.
Prior to
the rehabilitation, the building was in such poor condition that it was in
proceedings to be condemned and demolished.
The towers were shored together with chain link fence and steel cable to
prevent debris from falling off after being damaged by the 1994 Northridge
Earthquake. This was compounded by
settlement and leaning of the towers due to Metro Rail construction.
After
sitting unoccupied for many years, vagrants started a fire in the basement that
raged up the main stairwell to the top floor, resulting in the loss of much of
that floor. The building then sat
exposed to the elements and suffered water damage, bird infestation and mold
growth throughout. In addition, past
alterations resulted in the infilling of the front arcade and loss of the
original storefronts.
The
rehabilitation strategy was to restore the building to the period of its greatest
significance while providing modern amenities for market rate housing. The challenge beyond rehabilitating the
character defining features was to even restore the heavily damaged building to
a habitable condition.
First, the
structure had to be upgraded. The
leaning front towers were stabilized by underpinning the towers and foundation
with new caissons. Shotcrete was applied
at select interior locations on the masonry walls and structural connections
were added at the floor and roof locations.
Second,
fire-damaged construction and intrusive non-historic elements such as the front
arcade infill were removed. The
extensive mold throughout the building was treated.
Thirdly,
the character defining features were rehabilitated. Numerous missing or altered wood doors and
windows were carefully replicated.
Because of the amount of fire damage, much of the wood trim had to be
recreated to match as well. The fourth
floor and main stair was reconstructed based on photographs and leftover ruins.
One of the
challenges of the project was restoring the original arcade and
storefront. At some point in the past,
the open arcade was demolished and infilled and the storefronts were altered
and new storefronts were installed. No
original plans were available, but photographs were analyzed and digitally
measured.The historic architect and
precast concrete artisan worked closely together to recreate the ornamentation.
The
rehabilitated Hillview Apartments now shines proudly on the boulevard. It is recognizable by many and stands out as
one of the few rehabilitated buildings within the vicinity. Perhaps more than anything its stands in the
community as a survivor, a survivor of earthquake, subway construction
settlement, vandalism, fire, water damage and mold. It stands as an example that saving
individual buildings save the character of its entire neighborhood.