James Oviatt Building
- Architect
- Walker & Eisen
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
- Collection
- l.a. deco
The James Oviatt Building rises on Olive Street in Downtown Los Angeles, half a block from Pershing Square, and takes its name from haberdasher James Zera Oviatt. Oviatt arrived from Salt Lake City in 1909 to work as a window dresser at C.C. Desmond's Department Store, and in 1912 he and hat salesman Frank Baird Alexander opened the Alexander & Oviatt menswear shop, quietly backed by architect Frank Shaver Allen, whose own career had collapsed in a scandal. On his annual buying trips to Europe, Oviatt encountered the new French Art Deco style of the 1920s and resolved to build it into his own headquarters, designed by Walker & Eisen.
the building
Origins as a haberdashery. Oviatt's men's clothing business began in 1912 as Alexander & Oviatt, a partnership with hat salesman Frank Baird Alexander at 209 West Fourth Street, quietly financed by architect Frank Shaver Allen after a scandal had ended his design career.
Imported French Art Deco. Oviatt discovered the emerging Art Deco style on his summer buying trips to Europe in the 1920s and brought it home, making the building one of Downtown Los Angeles's noted examples of imported French Deco ornament.
Home to Cicada Restaurant. The building's ground floor is now occupied by the Cicada Restaurant and Lounge.
the style
Art Deco, specifically the French strain Oviatt encountered on his European buying trips rather than the more common American Deco of the era — the building is considered one of Downtown LA's notable Art Deco landmarks, its decorative elements imported directly rather than locally adapted.
More on Art Decosignificance
The Oviatt Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and is also a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, a dual designation supporting its standing as one of the city's landmark Art Deco buildings.
nearby
- Giannini Place
- Los Angeles Theatre
- F. and W. Grand Silver Store Building
- Hubert-Thom McAn Building
- Hilton Checkers Los Angeles
- Arcade Theatre