The U.S. Bank Tower’s Agressive Security Guards Aren’t Agressive Fans of the Law

Discarted fills us in on the aggressive security guards at the U.S. Bank Tower (fka the Library Tower), who have the reputation for aggressively stopping people from taking photos of the building.

The site notes that a group of photographers set out Sunday to see if “we could exercise our constitutional rights and shoot the array of skyscrapers freely and openly. It turns out we couldn’t.

“As we began photographing the US Bank Tower at 633 W. 5th Street, managed by Maguire Properties, we were approached almost immediately by a United Protective Services (UPS) security guard, and soon there were six (6!). We were told they would call the police and we would be arrested, that no pictures were allowed from their “private sidewalk,” that they actually owned the sidewalk, and that we were idiots and jerks who should quit asking questions.”

Check out the video above.

A New Year’s Present from Martin Schall: New Los Angeles Pics

(Photo of Chip’s Diner, in all its Googie glory, by Martin Schall.)

Germany-based Martin Schall has chronicled the buildings and architecture of Los Angeles for his amazing website, you-are-here.com. Now, Martin writes that he’s just completed a massive update of brand new photos here.

Check it out — but be warned, you may wind up spending hours looking at the shots.

Auctioning Off A Final Look at the Ambassador

(Photo by Nancy Duron.)

The Los Angeles Conservancy tipped us off to a silent auction for photos that were taken a few years ago by high school photography students as part of an effort to document the Ambassador Hotel pre-demolition.

The Location Managers Guild, which sponsored the project, is now auctioning off the images from the exhibition. Half of the proceeds will go to Animo Film and Theater Arts High School, a new Green Dot charter school.

The auction takes place at downtown’s Wilshire Grand Hotel. Check out the evite here and the gallery of photos here.

Julius Shulman At the Movies

(Photo by Gerard Smulevich)

Our friend Jeff pointed out that of all the titles at the L.A. Film Festival, we might like this one the most.

Knowing our love of everything L.A. — not to mention our love of anyone and anything that chronicles our city — he’s got a point. “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman” chronicles the career of the famed photog — who, at 97 years old, is still busting out his camera and shooting L.A.

Dustin Hoffman narrates the film. From the website:

Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch and writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award – nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others.

In addition, the documentary hugely benefited from the dedicated involvement of Shulman himself, who offered exclusive access to his amazing photographic archive and intimate entre into his day-to-day life. Through the exploration of both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life, Visual Acoustics offers an unforgettable portrait of Modernism’s most eloquent ambassador.

Shulman’s famed photos were recently organized into a show at the Central Library.

The June 22 screening of “Visual Acoustics” at the Landmark Theatre is sold out, but according to the site, there are still tix available for the June 25 show, at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. Show starts at 4 p.m.

Julius Shulman At the Movies

(Photo by Gerard Smulevich)

Our friend Jeff pointed out that of all the titles at the L.A. Film Festival, we might like this one the most.

Knowing our love of everything L.A. — not to mention our love of anyone and anything that chronicles our city — he’s got a point. “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman” chronicles the career of the famed photog — who, at 97 years old, is still busting out his camera and shooting L.A.

Dustin Hoffman narrates the film. From the website:

Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch and writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award – nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others.

In addition, the documentary hugely benefited from the dedicated involvement of Shulman himself, who offered exclusive access to his amazing photographic archive and intimate entre into his day-to-day life. Through the exploration of both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life, Visual Acoustics offers an unforgettable portrait of Modernism’s most eloquent ambassador.

Shulman’s famed photos were recently organized into a show at the Central Library.

The June 22 screening of “Visual Acoustics” at the Landmark Theatre is sold out, but according to the site, there are still tix available for the June 25 show, at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. Show starts at 4 p.m.

One Last Look at Julius Shulman’s Los Angeles

It’s your last chance this weekend to catch Julius Shulman’s Los Angeles, which continues until this Sunday at the Los Angeles Central Library’s Getty Gallery. (Yes, I know it’s technically the “Richard J. Riordan Central Library” — but I still can’t say it.)

If you love Los Angeles, you owe it to yourself to see this exhibit. You’ve probably seen some of these pics — particularly his “Case Study House #22″ (above), which served as an iconic image of L.A. in the 1960s. And you’ve probably also seen his shots of Bunker Hill in transition — especially that famous pic of the last two Victorian homes on the hill (waiting to be removed), with a skyscraper looming in the background.

Shulman, who’s now 97, has lived in Los Angeles since 1920… and has been documenting the city almost ever since. In a city that hasn’t always taken care of its landmarks, Shulman’s photos are sometimes the closest thing to a historical record that L.A. has.

As the exhibit points out, Shulman was simply a photographer out to take great shots. It didn’t matter who his client was — in the case of Bunker Hill, he was hired both by preservationists, to record the neighborhood’s legacy, and by the Bunker Hill redevelopment agency, to promote the new skyscraper vision for downtown.

The exhibit isn’t perfect: I noticed several messed up dates listed below the pics: For one photo, it said Shulman took a picture in 1969 of a building that wasn’t even erected until 1974. In another, a modern building — clearly built after the city’s height restrictions were lifted — was listed as having been erected in the 1940s.

But those are minor quibbles. I spent at least an hour examining all those photos; thankfully, the Getty Gallery is near the children’s library (on the second floor), so Blogger Toddler and Maria kept busy as well.

According to the library, the exhibit includes rarely-seen photographs from the Julius Shulman photography archive at the Getty Research Institute. The best part? It’s free and open during regular library hours: Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.