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A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD BE A LEMON
Breakfast Club Honors Real Estate Legends
LA Downtown News – April 24, 2000
By Kathryn Maese

Dozens of the city’s real estate success stories, men and women who took risks to build the city into what it is today, were honored during the Downtown Breakfast Club’s 20th Annual Roses and Lemon Awards Breakfast.

To mark the two-decade anniversary of the award, the Breakfast Club presented a retrospective of Downtown architectural, socioeconomic and civic/private triumphs. This year’s awardees were culled from 20 years of previous Rose Award winners.

“We wanted to recognize these legends, these walkers, talkers and doers who have helped change the Downtown skyline over the last 20 years,” said John Whitaker, of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, a member of the club and award presenter.

Three buildings were presented with the coveted Rose Award. The recipient of the “Special 2000 Rose Award” was Staples Center, chosen as the overall, outstanding structure Downtown. Staples Center, which opened last October, recently celebrated its two millionth guest. In the category of “Structures’ Library Tower, which garnered a Rose in 1990, was the winner among winners. Other contenders in the category were the Museum of Contemporary Art (1987), the Los Angeles Convention Center (1994), and the California Science Center (1998). For “Renovations/Historic Preservation,” the 1994 Rose winner, the Los Angeles Public Library, won the award. Other buildings in the category included the Regal Biltmore Hotel (1981, 1986), Union Station (1982,1990), Grand Central Market (1993).

Others honorees in the category of “Civic/Private Commitment,” included: Public Art Program of the City of Los Angeles, the Community Redevelopment Agency and the MTA; Lillian Disney for her $50 million donation to Disney Hall; Inner-City Arts, which serves children living Downtown; Angels Flight, which, as a result of its restoration, continues to draw tourists; California Plaza Watercourt, as an example of an exquisite public assembly area; Los Angeles Marathon for positive image-building for the city; California Plaza Cultural Event Series; Chrysalis; for its highly effective employment and rehabilitation program for the homeless; the new Colburn School of Performing Arts; and the Downtown Center Business Improvement District for making the area safer and cleaner.

As a special tribute this year, four “Downtown Real Estate Legends,” including Stuart Ketchum, Robert F. Maguire, III, Albert C. Martin, Jr., and Wayne Ratkovich, were also presented with the Rose Award.

Ketchum was recognized for the role he has played in building several structures Downtown, including 400 South Hope Street, Arco Center, Music Center, Bonaventure Hotel, the $100 million Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market, and his namesake, the Ketchum Downtown YMCA. He is also chairman of the building committee of the Walt Disney Concert Hall II.

“This award is very meaningful, but it seems a little inappropriate only midway in my career,” joked Ketchum, despite a prolific career spanning several decades. “Downtown is a very important place and I’ve tried to contribute to making it more so.”

Maguire, honored for developing the 73-story library Tower, the tallest building in the West, Wells Fargo Center and The Gas Company Tower, also created numerous public spaces that “have contributed to the aesthetic civility of Downtown such as the Bunker Hill Steps, Wells Fargo Court and the Maguire Gardens at the Central Library—which he played a key role in saving. The latter effort is perhaps his crowning achievement, said Sue Laris, club member and presenter.

“He played a major role in saving the Central Library and developing the plan and the buildings that made it possible to renovate, expand and modernize the library and keep it in the heart of Downtown,” she said.

When a plan was circulated in 1980 to tear down the library, Maguire enlisted as a partner, then Arco Chairman, Robert O. Anderson. Maguire assembled a study team to create a plan to save the library that was adopted by the city and two Maguire buildings, Library Tower and The Gas Company Tower. More than $125 million was raised to finance the library.

“You can thank him for our first shopping mall’ said Nick Blackburn, of Jones Lang Wooten, about his former mentor and colleague, Albert C. Martin. “While all of the legends made great contributions, Al is my personal favorite. He is such a charming man and we owe him such a debt. He always manages to weave himself into the fabric of the community.”

One of the city’s leading architects and engineers, Martin, of Martin Partners Inc., was lauded for his firm’s design of a number of major Downtown landmarks, including the Department of Water and Power Building and renovation of City Hall, which his father helped build. He and his brother also pioneered the early version of what is now the widely used Computer Aided Design (CAD).

“If there was a major change in the city over the last few decades,” Martin said, “it was the change from a 13-story city to a high rise city”

Ratkovich, president and CEO of The Ratkovich Company, was lauded for his innovation in urban landfill and rehabilitation of landmark buildings, including the James Oviatt and Fine Art buildings Downtown, as well as the Wiltern Theater and adjoining Pellissier Building in the mid-Wilshire area.

“Wayne has really pioneered historic renovation;’ said Bill Fain, Johnson Fain Partners, who presented the award to Ratkovich. “He has done this in a city that sometimes sees history as baggage. It has been no small task.”

Said Ratkovich: “It is quite an honor to be acknowledged by the people we have attempted to serve. I am quite proud of what our firm has done in the preservation of some of the city’s historic landmarks.”

Not to be forgotten, however, is the other half of the awards ceremony – the notorious Lemon Award. This year, the Downtown Breakfast Club tossed the sourest lemon at the Los Angeles Unified School District for its Belmont Learning Center fiasco.

“There is no doubt that the actions and non-actions of the District—excluding the present School Board—have resulted not only in an educational calamity but have exacted a heavy toll on the city’s taxpayers,” said Howard Reback, who has presented the Lemon Award for almost 20 years.

A Lemon Award is bestowed on public and private organizations responsible for architectural eyesores, blight or gross inefficiency which deteriorates the quality of life Downtown, according to the Club. Often, the award results in quick action to remedy the problem. When the Board of Public Works received the award in 1997 for insensitivity to the welfare of pedestrians, they launched a comprehensive review to make streets more friendly and attractive.

Reback, also known as the “Lemon Man,” is passing the torch as Lemon Award presenter to developer Tom Gilmore, Gilmore Associates. For Reback’s years of service, he was presented with a special Rose Award.

“For making lemonade out of lemons, you get the Rose,” Gilmore said as he presented the award.

The Breakfast Club is made up of 30 leaders in the fields of real estate, public policy development, planning, finance, banking, architecture, art and communications.

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