No landmark status for LA’s Tower Records building

Los Angeles music fans are singing the blues after the West Hollywood City Council voted to deny landmark status for the Sunset Strip building that formerly housed the flagship Tower Records store.

The unanimous vote Monday let a decision by the historic preservation commission stand, not allowing the building to be deemed a cultural resource, KNX Radio reported (http://cbsloc.al/1aBuld9 ).

An online petition gathered 1,800 signatures calling on the city’s urban planner Stephanie Reich to consider appealing the commission’s decision.

Mayor Abbe Land said that even though many people had fond memories of Tower, once one of the largest retail record chains, “it didn’t meet the criteria” for preservation. The brick-and-mortar chain collapsed amid competition from online music shop iTunes.

Opponents of the landmark status argued the mid-century building itself is nondescript without Tower’s signature coat of yellow paint and would best be honored with a plaque, or a music-themed square. The building, which most recently housed a clothing store, is now boarded up.

Musician and disc jockey Chris Carter told KNX that shoppers never knew who they might run into while thumbing through the record stacks.

“One of the great things about it was you could go there you know, just to shop, and you might run into Brian Wilson shopping, or Ringo,” said Carter, who hosts “Breakfast with the Beatles” on KLOS-FM.

The mayor said the city will consider other ways to commemorate the store, which was a Sunset Strip fixture for about 40 years.

Source: KNX-AM, http://www.knx1070.com/