SOLD OUT: Modern Committee 20th Anniversary Tour ModCom "20|20|20" 20 years | 20 sites | 20 bucks (member price) September 18-19, 2004 Celebrating the 'greatest hits' of L.A. Modern architecture preserved in the past two decades, this two-day, self-driven tour spans L.A. County from the Pacific Palisades to Downey, highlighting 20 outstanding architectural sites. Will Call If you've already purchased tickets, they will be available at Will Call from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at one of two locations: Saturday only: Cinerama Dome at ArcLight Hollywood, 6360 Sunset Boulevard (between Vine Street and Ivar Avenue), Hollywood. Will Call (and Check In) located under Cinerama marquee on Sunset (not in ArcLight box office). Sunday only: Los Angeles Center Studios, 450 South Bixel Street, downtown Los Angeles. Enter parking garage on Bixel off of 5th Street. We will not have tickets available for sale at any tour locations.

It's hard to believe a group devoted to saving the recent past now has a history of its own, but the L.A. Conservancy Modern Committee (ModCom) turns 20 this year! We're celebrating by throwing a two-day birthday party all over L.A. County on Saturday and Sunday, September 18 and 19, from 10 am to 4 pm (except Ambassador College, which is open from 2 to 4 pm). 20|20|20 -- 20 years | 20 sites | 20 bucks (member price) -- is a self-driven tour of highlights from past ModCom events and preservation issues. It spans from Pacific Palisades to Downey and combines docent-led tours of selected sites with special promotions at others. The event includes a book signing with legendary architectural photographer (and great friend of ModCom) Julius Shulman at his Hollywood Hills home. To commemorate the event, celebrated artist (and another great friend of ModCom) Shag will produce a limited-edition print available first to 20/20/20 ticket holders. Ticket holders can purchase a print, and have Shag sign it, at 4 pm on Saturday the 18th at ArcLight Hollywood, home of the historic Cinerama Dome.

Tour Sites Please note that sites, promotions, and events are subject to change.

Day One: Saturday, September 18 Pann’s Coffee Shop (Armet & Davis, 1958) Coupon One of the last and best of the monumental, futuristic coffee shops designed by the prolific firm of Armet & Davis, Pann's boasts all the hallmarks of the California Coffee Shop style: terrazzo floors, massive sheets of plate glass, a soaring roofline, flagstone walls, and planters rising out of the ground. Alan Hess, author of Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture, wrote that these were places where "George Jetson and Fred Flintstone could meet over a cup of coffee." Gregory Ain Mar Vista Tract (Gregory Ain; Garrett Eckbo, landscape architect; 1948) Check-in site; guided tour This innovative grouping of 52 houses recently became the City of Los Angeles' first historic district composed solely of postwar modern homes. Designed by 'second-generation' modernist Gregory Ain with landscape design by Garrett Eckbo, the Mar Vista tract epitomizes the postwar ideal of affordable, yet well-designed, homes. Lincoln Place Apartments, Venice (Heth Wharton and Ralph Vaughn, 1949-51) Guided exterior tour Completed in 1951 by architect Heth Wharton and pioneering African-American designer Ralph Vaughn, Lincoln Place embodies the Garden City planning principles of multi-family housing units placed in a garden-like, open setting with common courtyards. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (Welton Becket and Associates, 1958-59) Photo op This bold experiment in futuristic design marked Santa Monica as a West Coast capital of culture. With its dramatic 72-foot-tall colonnade, dynamic curving concrete screen, and highly advanced engineering, it is a true icon of the space age. Eames House and Studio (Case Study House #8), Pacific Palisades (Charles and Ray Eames, 1947-49) Guided exterior tour Made completely of prefabricated materials and with industrial design techniqueses, the Eames home and studio are both a superb aesthetic statement and an exemplar of comfortable living. Miraculously, the home remains in the same condition as Ray left it upon her passing in 1988 and stands as a quintessentially modern postwar residence. Mutual Housing Association (Crestwood Hills), Brentwood (A. Quincy Jones, Jr. and Whitney R. Smith with structural engineer Edgardo Contini, 1948) Guided tour The only successful housing cooperative in the immediate postwar years, Crestwood Hills offered a high level of detail and experimental designs that raised the level of middle-income family housing. With the bravado characteristic of the period, MHA houses reflect an optimistic view to the future through modern design. Casa de Cadillac, Sherman Oaks (Randall Duell, 1949) Check-in site; guided tour This late streamline moderne polished glass box showroom, complete with lanai, combines two-story-high glass and highly polished terrazzo floors in a dramatic display space for the presentation of the Cadillac. The quintessential showroom of the future beautifuly integrates interior and exterior space, and the iconic neon sign runs the full length of the building. Julius Shulman Home and Studio, Hollywood Hills (Raphael Soriano, 1950) Guided tour; book-signing with Julius Shulman co-presented by TASCHEN America By the time he commissioned a home for himself and his family in 1947, Julius Shulman was already a renowned architectural photographer with a demonstrated knack for communicating the beauty of modern architecture. This striking modern home and studio in the 'urban forest' of the Hollywood Hills provide a perfect setting for the master photographer who, at 94, continues publishing, educating, and producing beautiful photographs. Bob's Big Boy, Toluca Lake (Wayne D. McAllister, 1949) Coupon The oldest remaining Big Boy restaurant in America, this building is a transitional design incorporating 1940s streamline moderne styles (broad, curving window walls and canopies) while anticipating the exuberance of freeform 1950s coffee shop architecture (cantilevers, striking signage, walls of glass). Cinerama Dome at ArcLight Hollywood (Welton Becket and Associates, 1963) Check-in site; Will Call site; guided exterior tour; Dome interior open until 11 a.m. Shag print-signing at 4 pm This theater is the only geodesic concrete dome in the world and was intended as a showcase for the three-camera Cinerama process. Constructed of hundreds of pentagonal panels topped with a hexagonal panel, the dome rises 70 feet and weighs more than 700 tons.

Day Two: Sunday, September 19 Ambassador College Auditorium and Gardens, Pasadena (DMJM, landscape design by Garrett Eckbo, 1974) Guided exterior tour from 2 - 4 pm only The dramatic Ambassador Auditorium Complex combines the Auditorium (1974), Hall of Administration (1967), and Student Center (1965), with lush landscaping by Eckbo, largely regarded as the father of modern landscape design. Municipal Services Building, Glendale (Albert C. Martin, 1966) Guided tour co-presented by the Glendale Historical Society This futuristic building, soaring on its stilts, must have generated many passing glances from Glendale motorists when it opened almost forty years ago, and it remains a head-turner today. Its innovative design incorporates a public plaza almost hidden from the street, featuring iron balconies and a unique central fountain. Elliot House, Los Feliz (R. M. Schindler, 1930) Guided tour This beautifully restored home exemplifies Schindler's mastery of residential hillside design, as well as his innovative use of space and light. It also features perhaps the most exquisitely designed garage in Los Angeles. VDL Research House II, Silver Lake (Richard Neutra with Dion Neutra, 1964-66) Guided tour Modern master Richard Neutra designed this home and office with his son Dion after the first home on the site was destroyed by fire in 1963. The house teems with technical innovations and manifests Neutra's various ideas for sustainable, and sociologically responsible, architecture -- particularly integrating man with nature and addressing the practical realities of living in a dense urban environment. Hemphill Diesel School (Capitol Studios), Glassell Park (Architect unknown for original building, 1923; remodel: Norstrom and Anderson Architects, with Myer Bros. Engineer, 1932-36) Gallery stop: one year in la/David E. Stone Gallery This modest yet striking example of industrial art deco features a richly detailed relief spanning the entire facade of the building, depicting trains, planes, ships, highways, and zeppelins. Formerly a mechanics school and recording studio, today it houses arts-related studios as well as one year in la, an art gallery featuring the work of David E. Stone. Music Center, downtown L.A. (Welton Becket and Associates, 1964-67) Guided tour co-presented by the Music Center Symphonians The Music Center combines three interrelated theaters designed in the new formalist style, mixing elements of classical and modernist architecture. These 'temples to culture' are arranged on a sweeping plaza at the top of a rise overlooking the Civic Center. Union Oil Center (now Los Angeles Center Studios), downtown L.A. (William Pereira and Charles Luckman, 1958) Check-in site; Will Call site; guided lobby tour A 12-story diamond-shaped tower, covered by an extensive grid of thin aluminum louvers screening the east and west facades from sunlight, dominates this office complex. The tower building's lobby is largely intact, with black marble terrazzo floors and glass and aluminum walls. Coca-Cola Bottling Company (Robert V. Derrah, 1936-37) Photo op; coupon The Coca-Cola bottling plant is considered to be one of the finest streamline moderne buildings in the nation, and it certainly is one of the most playful. Crafted from five existing buildings, the building resembles an ocean liner inside and out, complete with portholes and arched doorways. Museum of Neon Art, downtown L.A. Museum open and free to 20/20/20 ticket holders Founded in 1981, the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) celebrates many forms of electric media. Located right across the street from the former Packard dealership that displayed the nation's first neon sign, MONA has an enormous collection that includes Hollywood's historic "Brown Derby" neon hat and a striking "Sears" sign donated by longtime ModCom member Charles Phoenix. World's Oldest McDonalds, Downey (Stanley C. Meston, 1953) Coupon With its 30-foot-high parabolic arches (originally outlined in flashing pink neon) and red-and-white "candy stripe" tile, this iconic structure exemplifies the company that changed how America ate.