“The old windows have been falling apart and have been a hazard to the community,” stated Hector Cruz, who has co-owned the three-story constructing on 5577 N. Figueroa St. together with his mother given that the past five years.
“They were quite high-priced to replace,” Cruz mentioned, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight of the original windows that he ended up changing. “And that is not even providing us a cushion of what’s to come,” he said.
In installing much cheaper windows, Cruz mentioned he took a leaf from the historic windows that had been replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago in the former office of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also positioned within the Mason Building, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time workplace now houses the Good Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.
But for all that, stated Cruz, he didn’t recognize he had committed a blunder by eliminating the old windows. Precisely a week just after he put in the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector in the Los Angeles Department of Building and Security served him a “stop work” order, Cruz stated, adding that by then all the function on the windows had already been done.
The inspector told Cruz that since the Highland Park Masonic Constructing is around the National Registry of Historic Locations, he is required to obtain permission from the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone prior to doing any work that modifications the building’s architectural integrity.
“The last thing I anticipated is for the neighborhood to send an inspector instead of coming and telling me what would be the initial measures I should really have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz stated, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings at the building-I’ve supported everyone.”
According to Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him towards the Division of Building and Safety. A contact by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.
Cruz said it’s not that he isn’t concerned about conservation concerns surrounding his building, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We attempt to balance safety and responsibility with our spending budget,” he said.
His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is that “if you are so concerned about the windows, why don’t you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz mentioned, adding that property owners for example him can “hardly make it by in these really hard [economic] instances.”
The major question for Cruz, he stated, was “do you maintain the windows because they appear good or do you change them mainly because they’re falling apart and are a security hazard?”
The situation with the unapproved windows was taken up this past Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz stated, adding that he was notified in regards to the meeting but didn’t attend.
The Mason Constructing might have lost its original windows, but there’s nevertheless a window of chance to obtain them back.
“We’ve saved all of the small pieces of glass,” said Cruz. “So if anything really serious would occur, I’d be most delighted to replace them.”