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SPANISH COLONIAL REVIVAL -- $950,000 ORIGINAL 1926 VAN NUYS LIBRARY FOR SALE.


Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH

Staff Writer

Looking for Looking for

In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with.
 a good deal on a 1926 Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, complete with original tile roof and fireplace, in a prime Van Nuys location?

Get out your checkbook.

With a minimum bid of $950,000, you can buy the original Van Nuys branch library.

The one-story masonry building, at 14553 Sylvan sylvan

emanating from or pertaining to woods. See also sylvatic.
 St., has been unused and surrounded by chain-link fencing since 2005. The city now plans to auction off the historic building to raise money to build a larger library in the area.

"The building will get a new use that is more suitable to this facility and the community will get a brand new library," said library spokesman Peter Persic.

The library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places This article is about the U.S. Register. For the National Register of Historic Places in Canada see Canadian Register of Historic Places.

The National Register of Historic Places
, a designation that would require the owner to complete a thorough environmental review before altering or demolishing the building.

The city intends to disclose the historic status and expects to sell the building for adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the process of adapting old structures for new purposes.

When the original use of a structure changes or is no longer required, as with older buildings from the industrial revolution, architects have the opportunity to change the primary function of the
.

But some Van Nuys residents want to keep the library in public hands, or at least see it sold to someone who would maintain it as an open, public space.

"Public buildings sold are lost forever. It may still be there, but you can never get in it again," said John Hendry, a member of the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council.

Hendry said he remembers visiting the library as a child, and seeing the wood-beam ceilings and fireplace. The building was designed by Allison and Allison, a firm that built many public buildings, including Royce Hall Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison (James Edward Allison, 1870-1955, and his brother David Clark Allison, 1881-1962) in the Italian Romanesque Revival style and completed  at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. .

Built before the days of air conditioning air conditioning, mechanical process for controlling the humidity, temperature, cleanliness, and circulation of air in buildings and rooms. Indoor air is conditioned and regulated to maintain the temperature-humidity ratio that is most comfortable and healthful. , the library was constructed around a central patio or outdoor reading room, and had casement windows with the coats of arms Here is a list of articles that discuss and/or depict coats of arms. Articles in bold face are specifically about a particular coat of arms. Arms for corporations, etc.
  • The United Kingdom
 of authors such as Cervantes and Shakespeare.

"It might be the best public room in Van Nuys that people haven't seen in 40 years," Hendry said. "I want a discussion on what might be the best use."

Preservation-minded residents are still stinging from the loss of the oldest known home in Van Nuys, which was demolished in June by a developer building condos.

Once that stretch of Sylvan Street was a center of Valley civic life. Landmark buildings line it: City Hall, built in 1932; the Women's Club Women’s clubs first arose in the United States during the post-civil war period. As a result of increased leisure time due to modern household advances, middle class women had more time to engage in intellectual pursuits. , built in 1917; the Van Nuys Post Office (now a shelter that aids child prostitutes), built in 1932; and Fire Station 39, built in 1939.

"To me, it's the historic core of Van Nuys," said Richard Hilton Richard Howard Hilton (born August 17 1955) is an American heir of the Hilton Hotel chain, a real estate broker and developer specializing in exclusive, high-end property, Chairman of Hilton & Hyland Real Estate, and father of Paris Hilton, Nicky Hilton, Barron Hilton, and Conrad , a Valley Glen resident and local historian.

"If (the library) were a museum or a cultural center of some sort, then the public could go in and see the history of Van Nuys interpreted," he said.

Councilman Tony Cardenas Tony Cardenas served in the California State Assembly. In the Assembly, he had the powerful position of chair of the Budget Committee. He is now a Los Angeles City Councilman, representing the 6th district, which includes parts of the San Fernando Valley. , who represents the area and supports the library sale, said the public hasn't had access to the building since 1964, when the library moved to a more modern home in the civic center complex.

The Fire Department used the building for an office until 2005.

"It's a nice idea," Cardenas said of preserving the building as a museum. But he said he'd rather see the site restored by a private entity and generate new money for the local library.

"For us to take an underutilized asset and be able to turn it into books and computers and assets for the library, I see it as a win-win," he said.

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

(213) 978-0390

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) This stately 1926 Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, Van Nuys' original library, can be yours for a starting bid of $950,000.

(2) The 1926 Spanish Colonial Revival-style Van Nuys branch library, on the National List of Historic Places, will be sold as surplus property to raise funds to develop new libraries.

Carla Acevedo/Special to the Daily News
COPYRIGHT 2007 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights reserved.

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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Aug 15, 2007
Words:639
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