LAXART receives a $1-million donation, its largest ever, for new Melrose Hill building
The latest renovation of the Melrose Hill building, built in 1911 as America’s first high-rise apartment building, took 10 months of work to complete.
From the outside, the new building looks like all the other buildings surrounding it, except that its lobby is decorated with mosaics and stained glass.
The lobby, which is now located at 3470 Melrose, has a large window that looks out on the newly restored facade of the original building.
The windows in the new lobby are from the 1909 remodel and features mosaic floor mosaics, which represent the different kinds of people who moved into the building at different points in time.
On Friday, LAXART — the Los Angeles chapter of the International Association of Modern Apartment Communities (IAMAC) — welcomed a $1 million donation for its Melrose Hill building. The generosity was in part a result of a recent decision by the building’s longtime owner, the L.A. County Department of Building and Safety.
The donation for the building’s lobby and its main entrance will provide an enhanced meeting and events space, an enlarged event space and more room for residents, said LAXART Executive Director John Stebbins.
“This is just one example of how the Department of Building and Safety has been able to make our residents’ lives better,” said Stebbins. “I am so grateful that they have given away some of the value of the building, which has helped countless residents live safer and more comfortably.”
The donation — made possible by the generosity of Larry and Ann Ralston of South Pasadena — will make up 50 percent of the estimated $2.5 million that it is predicted that the building will bring in when it’s fully renovated.
Also on Friday, LAXART