Taix French Restaurant, a Los Angeles institution since its inception in 1927, recently announced that they are closing for demolition. (The French Hospital was torn down a few weeks ago - did I die and wake up in Hell?)
My fellow preservationists and Francophiles tried to save it - believe me. The battle got ugly.
Sunday, March 29 will be the last day of business. (Make a reservation and go while you still can, obviously.)
The plan is to raze the restaurant and redevelop the lot into a mixed-use project. Concept art shows a smaller Taix in one of the commercial spaces.
But here's an idea...what if the building was moved instead of sent to the dump?
Taix's building is beautiful, and still useful. Suppose it was moved to a burn area, or to anywhere that has the space?
I'd offer to take it off the developer's hands in a heartbeat if I had a place to put it. At 15,000 square feet, the building is big, but it can be more than a restaurant.
Suppose it was subdivided into a mixed-use building, office spaces, or very unique apartments?
What if it was turned into a boutique hotel with an onsite restaurant making use of the existing kitchen?
What if the kitchen and main dining room remained a restaurant space, a wine bar went into the former 321 Lounge, and the rest of the building eventually housed the French Museum?
Moving the building would clear the lot for redevelopment without letting a good and useful (and significant!) building go to waste.
How about it, Holland Partner Group? You'd save on demolition costs. Reach out to Omgivning, which specializes in adaptive reuse and is already moving "unwanted" older houses to Altadena. Who knows, they just might know someone who would happily take all or part of a 15,000 square foot building, even if it has to be moved in two dozen pieces.
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