The building at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Cloverdale Avenue once housed the Sontag Drug Store, and later Wilshire Beauty. (photo by Edwin Folven)

Preservationists are hoping that a miracle on the Miracle Mile will save part of a Streamline Moderne building on Wilshire Boulevard that once housed a drug store but is now proposed for a major residential development.

The Art Deco Society of Los Angeles is appealing to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning to require that developer Wally Marks incorporate the entirety of a building at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Cloverdale Avenue into the Mirabel, a 42-story, 348-unit project planned at 5411 Wilshire Blvd. The Mirabel would replace a low-rise commercial building that formerly housed a Staples store, as well as a separate neighboring building at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Cloverdale Avenue that formerly housed the Sontag Drug Store and later Wilshire Beauty. Marks is planning to include the façade of the former Sontag building but not the entire building into the project, which is in the planning department stages and has not yet gone to the City Council for consideration.

“We were going to preserve the two façades that the public sees, and we were going to remove the roof and the two other walls that are interior, that are walls on the west and the south that are really not visible to the public,” Marks said. “We have tried to demonstrate that the Sontag building is going to have the very similar scale and shape and volume as before. We are not building above it. We are putting back a new roof, and we are going to put a garden on top of the roof. But short of that, it’s going to feel very much similar.”

Margot Gerber, executive director of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, said preserving the façade is not enough, as most of the original building will be gone. The Sontag building was constructed in 1936 in the Streamline Moderne style and it remains a prime example of corner drug store architecture prevalent in the 1930s-40s, she added. Not requiring the former drug store building to be preserved sets a dangerous precedent for other properties in the area, she said.

“It is kind of a snowball effect,” Gerber said. “They are going to leave a façade, but when they only leave the façade, it takes it out as a historic resource. That concerns us because the number of [Art Deco and Streamline Moderne] buildings are dwindling.”

Gerber said she hopes Los Angeles City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, 5th District, steps in to require that the entirety of the Sontag building be preserved. Yaroslavsky’s spokesman Leo Daube said the councilwoman has not yet weighed in on the Mirabel project or the former drug store site, as it has not yet reached the City Council review stage.

The Department of City Planning held a virtual public hearing on Aug. 27 to gather input on the Mirabel project, a standard step before a letter of determination is issued and the project proposal moves ahead for consideration by the Planning Commission.

“A joint hearing for the tract map and the City Planning Commission Hearing Officer Hearing was held on Aug. 27. The tract map was taken under advisement by the Deputy Advisory Agency for two weeks, up to Sept. 10. The Letter of Determination will be released after that date. The City Planning Commission date has not yet been scheduled,” read a statement from the Planning Department.

Gerber is encouraging those in favor of preserving the Sontag building to email the Planning Commission and Yaroslavsky’s office to voice support. The public will have additional opportunities to weigh in during the Planning Commission and City Council review stages.

Marks, who said his family has owned the property since 1968, said he is optimistic the project will move through the city entitlement process and hopes to start construction as soon as possible.

“This is where housing needs to be built. There is a disconnect between jobs and housing, and the more people that can live close to their work is going to be fantastic,” Marks said. “I think getting a fully realized ready-to-issue permit is going to take at least a year and a half from now.”