ALL TOGETHER NOW; VILLAGE DEBUTS AS CULTURAL HUB FOR L.A. GAYS.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

A few years ago, Los Angeles' gay community was seemingly in permanent crisis-management mode.

Scrambling to slow the spread of AIDS while battling a conservative political backlash, groups such as the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center had to focus their money and energy on meeting the most critical needs, such as HIV-testing and health care.

The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, a state-of-the-art, $6.7 million facility in Hollywood opening today, may usher in a new era.

Unlike the vast majority of centers for gays and lesbians that mainly provide social services, the Village is designed to become a social, educational and cultural hub for the gay community.

``We had a dream to create an environment where we wouldn't just be reacting (to problems), but where we could celebrate the wholeness and the wellness of our community,'' said Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, the city's largest service provider for gays and lesbians.

The 30,000-square-foot facility features a courtyard with a terrace and tables, a 200-seat movie theater, an art gallery, a career center, a cyber center with 28 computers for surfing the Net, a reading room, and a black box theater for live performances.

Community groups can hold meetings in one of the 13 conference rooms, which will also host lectures and classes offered by Learning Curve, an adult education program specifically geared toward gays and lesbians. A full-time seniors coordinator will organize programs and events especially for older people.

There's office space allocated for smaller, nonprofit community groups. For as little as $100 a month, these groups can lease office space, receive technical support and have access to an on-site print shop and computers.

``For five years, we've been operating off kitchen tabletops and in spare rooms,'' said A.J. Rotella, president of the Golden State Peace Officers Association, which provides support for gay and lesbian firefighters and law enforcement officers. ``Now we can finally have a base of operations, and an office that's staffed. We would never be able to afford this otherwise.''

Dual purpose

Two retail stores - the Stonewall Cafe coffee shop and Xerox Print Center - will operate inside the Village and offer job training for homeless youths staying in the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's shelter.

``Our hope is that if people can come here and enter the community in a more productive way than the bars or the streets, maybe they won't ever have to ... use our addiction recovery services or get HIV medical care,'' Jean said.

The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center will continue to provide extensive free or low-cost services at its headquarters in the McDonald/Wright building at 1625 N. Schraeder Blvd. in Hollywood, about a mile from the new facility.

Fund-raising for the Village began two years ago, when the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center conducted focus groups to determine what their clients, and the community as a whole, felt was missing in Los Angeles. To date, Jean and her staff have raised $4 million for the building and $8 million for an endowment, with plans to raise an additional $3 million in the coming year.

The center's name was inspired by Hillary Clinton's book, ``It Takes a Village,'' and Greenwich Village in New York City, the neighborhood where the Stonewall Riots of June 1969 sparked the modern gay-rights movement.

The courtyard is named after Ed Gould, a late banker, philanthropist and AIDS activist who donated $1.5 million.

Housed in a former cluster of post-production buildings, the decor is not the bare-bones office space you might expect of a nonprofit organization.

``It's inclusive. It's open. It's inviting to hang out, to meet people, read, to play chess, to learn,'' said Morris Kight, a longtime community organizer and a founder of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.

To retain the Hollywood flavor, they kept elements from the previous tenants, including movie reels imbedded in the outer stucco walls and glass-covered, rock-filled foley pits, formerly used to make sound effects.

Brick, cinderblock and plywood walls, oak ceilings, steel beams and cement floors give the building a raw, informal feel that's complemented by splashes of tangerine orange, sunflower yellow and lime green paint.

``Its diverse design elements, the broad use of color, the offbeat and eclectic mix of materials should reflect the diversity of the community,'' said Brian Lane, the architect overseeing the project for Cavaedium architects. ``It should have a relaxed feel, like a well-worn pair of jeans.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Painters put the final touches on the Village at Ed Gould Plaza in Hollywood for today's grand opening.

(2) Built at a cost of $6.7 million, the Village has two theaters, an art gallery, career and computer centers, conference rooms, offices and adult education classrooms.