Added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 1983

“Art is not a thing, but a way – a beautiful way.”

-James Oviatt, Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1928

While art deco can’t claim to be native to southern California in the way that craftsman and mission revival can, few architectural styles have taken such a hold of Los Angeles for so long. With its emphasis on monumental forms, sleek design and stylish ornamentation, art deco is extra photogenic, and long favored by Hollywood cinematographers. But I think the timeless appeal of LA’s art deco icons like Bullocks Wilshire, the Eastern Columbia Building and LA City Hall is just as much spiritual as it is aesthetic. Nearly a century after they were built, these great deco buildings still embody the energy and grandeur and hopes of LA as a metropolis.

If the Oviatt Building is humbler in scale than all of the above (and not exclusively art deco in style), it’s still an essential piece of LA’s art deco history. For straight-up luxury and modern refinement, the department store downstairs was hard to beat in its late ‘20s through ‘40s heyday, with a clientele including film stars and every US president from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon Johnson. Filled with all the appurtenances of high society, the store sold both clothing and decorative wares by France’s finest practitioners of deco design. French deco all-stars contributed to the interiors and entryway. And the sumptuous top floor penthouse was one of the first art deco residences in the city.

In both its form and function, the Oviatt Building is a reflection of the man who commissioned it and lived there for decades, James Oviatt. He was from Farmington, Utah, a small town of just over 1,000 souls when he was born, with a strong historical connection to the Mormon church. James Oviatt’s grandfather was a blacksmith and a Mormon pioneer in the area, and his dad was an ironworker too. But when Oviatt spoke of his upbringing, he preferred to point out that his father was English and his mother was French (or at least, of English/French extraction?), the source of his refined tastes. 

James Oviatt moved to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City around 1906 and got a job as a window dresser, creating streetside displays for the popular Desmond’s department store chain. Around 1911 he had built up enough capital and connections to open a luxury haberdashery called Alexander & Oviatt on west Fourth Street, in partnership with a hat salesman named Frank Alexander. Within a few years they had opened a second location on Sixth and Hill Streets. It was the beginning of the golden age of Hollywood, and stars like Rudy Valentino & Douglas Fairbanks turned to Alexander & Oviatt for fine clothes befitting celebrities who were constantly in the public eye. They published a pamphlet called “Duds,” full of advice about dressing to the nines.

Alexander & Oviatt couldn’t have found a better steward of their brand than the monied, refined and sociable James Oviatt. A bachelor until his fifties, he was well-known and well-liked in LA’s elite social circles. He was a gambler and thrower of epic ragers (it helped that he had imported boatloads of alcohol before Prohibition, and that it was still legal to consume it in the 1920s) and was often found at the country club or on the golf links with film luminaries and LA power brokers. The guy was also a total dandy, with a predilection for cravats, French berets and purple fedoras. He would have been one of his company’s most loyal clients if he didn’t already own it.

Oviatt went to great lengths to keep abreast of the latest trends in high-end fashion coming from Europe. He routinely spent a few months out of the year on buying trips in Europe, on the hunt for fine fabrics and goods to import, always with an eye for the latest fashion and design trends. He would make more than 20 of these trips throughout his career.

The man was also a relentless self promoter, and frequently found himself in the papers, offering his hot takes on the future of this or that European country after returning from an overseas trip. He wasn’t above outright fabrication, or straight-up silliness: in one 1927 piece in the LA Times, Oviatt proposes that each profession should wear a specific set of clothes out in public that “will silently proclaim their vocation to the world.”

Frank Alexander died suddenly in 1921, and at 33 years old he became sole owner of an expanding luxury clothing empire – still named “Alexander & Oviatt,” in tribute to his fallen partner. Sales in 1922 were 40% higher than 1921; by 1923, business was good enough that Oviatt expanded into women’s clothing. 

That same year, he announced his intention to finance a brand new, 12-story skyscraper to house Alexander & Oviatt for around $750,000 (not including the $2 million, 99-year lease of the land from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese). The store was set to occupy the basement and first four floors, with smaller boutiques leasing the rest. Menswear and hats would be on the first floor, suits and overcoats on the second, women’s overcoats and sport clothes on floor three and a small factory for clothes manufacturing on the fourth, to augment their imports. Oviatt talked about installing a practice golf course in the basement so his clients could test out their sports togs in more authentic environs; not sure if that ever came to be. 

Oviatt hired architects Albert Walker & Percy Eisen to carry out his vision. The pair had a big impact on the downtown skyline in the 1920s, with the Fine Arts Building, Platt Building, United Artists Theatre and Wurlitzer Building all going up within a five-year-stretch. In their initial perspective drawings published in 1923, Walker & Eisen sketched a fairly traditional renaissance revival high-rise, clad in pressed brick with terracotta ornamentation, a flat roof and cornice. But things changed between those first plans and groundbreaking in 1927. Walker adjusted the design to a more austere, Italian Romanesque style, added a red-tile roof, and stretched the first floor storefront across the entire breadth of the building. The most significant change? A penthouse on the top floor, where James Oviatt would live – his very own “castle in the sky,” as he described it. 

In 1925, Oviatt had a transformational experience on one of his annual buying trips in Europe. While in Paris, he visited the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the event that’s often credited with introducing art deco to the world. He wandered around the international pavilions, where the world’s finest interior designers, woodworkers, artisans and architects displayed their most modern creations. Oviatt was gobsmacked by one pavilion in particular, devoted to the decorative glasswork of René Lalique. Just outside Lalique had placed an illuminated fountain, covered in 128 glass caryatids that spouted water into the base.

Oviatt was so impressed with René Lalique’s work that he commissioned the artisan’s first commercial installation, a set of doors depicting two angels holding a California mission bell, each door 7½ feet tall, believed to be the largest panels of lead crystal that Lalique ever produced. Then came the glass ceiling and a massive chandelier, with arms resembling palm fronds, hanging in the main Alexander & Oviatt shopping space. The glassmaker created molded glass panels for the elevator doors, with oranges and leaves imprinted on them. Two smaller doors, adorned with the Oviatt crest and a brass-colored starburst grille, still usher guests into the building today. In all, some 30 tons of Lalique glass were shipped from France to the Oviatt Building, and Oviatt continued to sell Lalique products in his store for years. 

The glory of the Oviatt Building was the result of a large team of collaborators in different fields. In addition to Walker & Eisen and Lalique, Oviatt hired interior designers Joseph Feil & Bernard Paradise to class up the inside spaces; if it tells you anything about Feil & Paradise’s au courant-ness, the two of them worked on the masterful art deco interior of Bullocks Wilshire right after they finished with the Oviatt Building (in the 1910s, Feil had also worked on a downtown Chocolate Shop covered in Batchelder tiles). They imported brownish-grey Napoleon marble from France for the stairways, corridors, windowsills and doorways, public bathrooms and bottom floor facade. For doorknobs and lighting fixtures, they chose a newfangled silvery metal called maillechort, a durable alloy of copper, zinc and nickel. Downstairs walls were covered in dark wood, and the office doors in the upper floors were made of English oak, topped by a panel of amber glass inscribed with the tenant’s name. Oviatt had an automated sprinkler system installed, a rarity for the late 1920s. 

The PJ Walker Construction Company began their excavations for the Oviatt Building in August 1927. Nine months later, on May 15, 1928, the scaffolding panels were removed, and the public finally got its first view of the immaculate entrance. To inaugurate this new phase of Alexander & Oviatt, James Oviatt introduced a custom perfume for sale, “Le Parfum des Anges,” with a molded glass bottle designed by – you guessed it – René Lalique. 

The eye-popping grandeur of the Oviatt Building began before you walked inside. The outdoor lobby was pockmarked with display cases stocked full of coats, hats and glassware, stretching across the entire width of the building. Overhead was a bumpy, faceted ceiling of hundreds of sand-etched, painted glass panes, conceived and manufactured by the French glass wizard Gaëtan Jeannin (along with Feil) in what may have been the only American commission of his career. A slowly-rotating light scheme illuminated the ceiling with a red, blue and green glow from within. Even the sidewalk was unique! Alexander & Oviatt was the first Los Angeles business to install specialized rubber paving as a floor covering, manufactured by the Wrights Rubber Products Company. 

Step inside the elevator, marvel at the double angel insignia carved into the ornate woodwork, and you’re whisked up to the most luxurious part of the Oviatt Building: the ten-room penthouse where Oviatt himself laid his head most nights. He hired the French firm of Saddier et Fils to design the thoroughly modern furniture, wallpaper and built-in cabinetry. The stylish, geometric penthouse bar was purchased straight from the Paris salon where Oviatt discovered the firm. 

Walls were lined in silk; windows featured orange and leaf patterns sand-etched by Jeannin. Practically every flat surface was covered in marble, and the tables and cabinets were built with fluted edges, looking like wooden versions of the pilasters of an art deco high-rise. Even the parquet floor got in on the action, with planks meeting at acute angles, creating a dynamic art deco rhythm beneath your feet.

There are so many details to fawn over in the Oviatt penthouse. A perennial favorite is the hidden cocaine mirror that slid out of a small table in the ladies’ powder room, an aid to the all-night-and-the-next-day parties that Oviatt was known for. But I’m most taken by the bathroom, with its maroon glazed plaster walls, carved with stylized jungle tableaux. Behind one door is a bidet (supposedly installed to impress Oviatt’s French girlfriend), surrounded by gorgeous teal tiles; behind another a Turkish steam room, tiled in mustard yellow. Above the middle section of the bathroom you’ll find skylights fronted by glass panels sand-etched by Jeannin, bathing the room in a soft glow.

Outside is a multi-level terrace, complete with a three-sided neon clock tower (the clock itself was made in France, natch) that used to chime traditional airs and Christmas carols. On the patio, the Green Man spits a stream of water into a tiled fountain on one wall. Some articles have claimed that Oviatt put a tennis court, practice golf links and a small pool with sand imported from France up here, but the I have it on good authority that this was poppycock – or at least, an exaggeration. There’s no arguing with the view though. Even now, with skyscrapers surrounding the Oviatt on all sides, it’s pretty breathtaking to look out on the city from this height, knowing that you can see the paeans walking around 12 floors below, but they can’t see you.

Oviatt was proud of the new permanent home for his empire, calling the building a “suitable background for beautiful merchandise.” And the office spaces were a big hit with the professional class. If you opened a newspaper in the 1930s, you might find an ad for an architecture firm, employment agency, plastic surgeon, attorney, security salesmen, a petroleum company and a “Studio of Youth Art,” advertising massages and “electric baths” to women – all with the Oviatt Building address. According to the Oviatt’s resident historian Marc Chevalier, tenants also included Dog Owners Inc., the National Association of Veteran Safe Driving Motorists, and at least one illegal horse-betting operation. Former LA County District Attorney Asa Keyes had his offices there when he was convicted of accepting bribes from a petroleum company.

Just a year and a half after opening day, the stock market crashed, and the country plunged into the Great Depression. The luxury goods market was hit hard, and between the sudden lack of demand for high-end clothing and a very expensive building that he was still paying for, Oviatt lost financial control of his company and the building. Alexander & Oviatt ads from 1930 and 1931 feature a succession of deep discount offers. They were couched as “Oviatt’s Great Stock Reducing Clearance,” or “Oviatt’s Co-operative Christmas Purchase Plan,” but behind the marketing, the company was just trying to hold on. Despite it all, Oviatt made a point of keeping his entire sales staff on the payroll during the depths of the Depression. He adopted the slogan “We’ll see it through” – more world-weary than his old motto, “the best is none too good,” but admirable.

Oviatt was able to renegotiate his debt, and shake down customers who had amassed large, unpaid tabs. Miraculously, he paid off all his creditors by the middle of 1933, and celebrated the rebirth of the company with a grand reopening that August – plus a new name, “Oviatt’s.” By year’s end, things had improved enough that Oviatt opened another store in the posh Beverly Wilshire Hotel, designed by his old pals Walker & Eisen.

The back half of the 1930s were a golden age for business at Oviatt’s. The store employed 70 in-house tailors making bespoke suits, pants and vests for a celebrity clientele including Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn & Walt Disney. In fact Gable’s clothing in Gone with the Wind was custom-made by Oviatt tailors, at least until producer David O. Selznick complained to the wardrobe department. And of course many of these film luminaries counted Oviatt as a personal friend. He frequently popped up at swanky parties, horse races and golf tournaments in the late ‘30s and ‘40s. 

Profits from the 1930s helped Oviatt’s survive WWII, when war restrictions prevented it from importing luxury fabrics from Europe. Then in 1945 came a big milestone in James Oviatt’s personal life that would impact the building’s history, too. On one of his regular inspections of the store, Oviatt became smitten with Mary Louise Richards, a pretty young sales girl, 35 years his junior, who worked downstairs. James invited her up to the penthouse and asked her to have his children and get married, in that order. As the story goes, while she was riding back down in the elevator, she thought about all the Oviatt’s items she had on layaway. James knew the answer was “yes” when, the next day, Mary had all those items sent upstairs to the penthouse, along with the bill. They were married later that year in Reno.

By the 1960s, Oviatt’s was losing its luster. The fashion market was changing, and the popularity of mass-produced, ready-to-wear clothes was eating into the bespoke clothing market. At the same time, downtown itself was changing rapidly, as wealthy folks moved to the suburbs and Bunker Hill was razed. Oviatt’s wasn’t as much of a destination. 

James Oviatt himself didn’t help matters much. He got in trouble with the CIO Amalgamated Clothing Workers in 1953, when he refused to operate Oviatt’s as a closed shop. He was a card-carrying member of the John Birch Society, a mostly wealthy and white group of anti-communists, and penned a string of op-eds in local papers espousing some of his outmoded conservative views. He got into a legal tiff with the Anti-Defamation League in 1964, after allegedly publishing a pamphlet that called the ADL a “Gestapo organization;” when they called him out in the press, he sued them for libel (the suit failed). Then in 1965, he was caught up in a nasty scandal when a government report accused him of providing financial backing and office space to the Christian Defense League, an anti-Semitic and anti-Black extremist group aimed at uniting “white Christians.” 

In 1969, with retail sales dwindling and tenants jumping ship, Oviatt’s closed forever. James Oviatt tried his best to lease entire floors at deep discounts, but nobody wanted to watch downtown deteriorate as they worked. With the 11 stories below them mostly empty, Mary Oviatt sold off a bunch of the store’s finest accoutrements. Many of the Lalique sconces, chandeliers and ironwork were sold to Bullocks Wilshire in the early ‘70s, then traveled to a Macy’s in San Francisco, after Macy’s acquired Bullocks Wilshire in 1988. The actress Jane Withers bought a bunch of the display cases for her massive doll collection. The Lalique “two angels” doors were purchased by a Salt Lake City philanthropist, who then donated them to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Most bewilderingly, the Jeannin glass ceiling from the entryway was divided up between multiple collectors in the LA area. One of them bought half of the glass for just $50. As far as I know, they’ve never been reinstalled anywhere.

James Oviatt died on March 26, 1974, and his wife Mary passed in 1975. That year the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, who still owned the land, took over the building. They spent three years trying to sell it, with the assumption that a buyer would simply demolish and rebuild. Finally in 1978, a broker sent over some specs to Wayne Ratkovich & Dan Bowers, two developers whose firm was building a reputation for rehabilitating older buildings and selling them off. Ratkovich & Bowers picked up the Oviatt Building for about half a million, and spent $2 million renovating and restoring it. By the end of the decade, some 90% of the floors had been leased, even before renovations were complete. 

Thankfully many of the defining features were preserved, including Lalique’s front doors, and the elevator doors. The marble and oak in the hallways was kept intact or restored. The penthouse was refurbished with new wall coverings and upholstery, and the clock tower was turned on for the first time in years. 

Where original fabric wasn’t available, Ratkovich and his team tried to echo the 1928 vibe without full-scale mimicry. So for example, in the 2008 documentary The Oviatt Building, restoration architect Brenda Levin explains how they reinterpreted the glass ceiling from the entryway, using sandblasted plastic panels in a simplified version of Jeannin’s design. The wrought-iron gates you see today in the entrance have a distinctive art deco feel, but were only added during the renovation. 

For 15 years beginning in 1981, the bottom floor housed Rex, a much beloved, very high-end Italian restaurant. If you could afford it, you could eat exquisitely cooked pastas and roasted meats where once you might peruse the silk ties and hats counter (you can see Julia Roberts and Richard Gere eating at Rex in Pretty Woman, though it’s done up as a stuffy French restaurant). After Rex’s owner Mauro Vincenti died in 1997, the ceiling was painted gold, and atmospheric lighting was installed as part of its transformation into the Cicada Club. The spot offers a hip dinner and dance band situation, with singers and showgirls dressed in vintage garb. 

The renovated Oviatt Building has changed hands a couple times over the last few decades. Currently it’s owned by the Robhana Group, a real estate investment firm that regularly leases out the penthouse for film shoots; weddings & events are handled by a separate firm. Robhana is based out of a modern office building right across the street from the Oviatt. If you’re lucky enough to score a trip up that vintage elevator, you can see their headquarters from the outdoor terrace. So get married, throw a corporate event, pretend to be a location scout – whatever you have to do to get access to that penthouse. A century after James Oviatt moved in, it’s still one of the most remarkable spaces in Los Angeles.

Thanks to the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles for throwing the Art Deco Centennial Celebration that got me inside the Oviatt penthouse, and to Marc Chevalier for sharing so many juicy stories about the place.  

Sources & Recommended Reading/Watching

+ “12 Floor…James Oviatt Building” (Daily News, March 5, 1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Addition to Busy Section” (Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1923 – via ProQuest)

+ “A.D.L. Files $600,000 Libel Suit Against Los Angeles Merchant” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 25, 1964)

+ “Architectural charm is within reach of everyone who builds…” (AD – Los Angeles Evening Express, June 15, 1929 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Art Deco 101” (Art Deco Society of Los Angeles)

+ “Art Moderne in Store Fronts” (PDF – American Builder, June, 1929 – via USModernist.org)

+ Bariscale, Floyd: “No. 195 – Oviatt Building” (Big Orange Landmarks, November 1, 2008)

+ “Beauty Shops: Elsie E. Greene Studio of Youth Art” (Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, September 5, 1929 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Crook, Lizzie: “Ten art deco structures that encapsulate the 1925 Paris Exposition” (Dezeen.com, March 31, 2025)

+ De Wolfe, Evelyn: “They Rehab Buildings for Profit and, Incidentally, Also for Love” (Los Angeles Times, October 9, 1983 – via ProQuest)

+ “Dr. Benjamin Belove” (AD – Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, January 1, 1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Ex-Klan Leader Linked to California Rangers (Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1965 – via ProQuest)

+ “Firm Plans Fine Structure” (Los Angeles Times, January 14, 1923 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Garb to Index Profession if Clothier Has His Way” (Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1927 – via ProQuest)

+ “Gifts at 20% Discount from Oviatt’s Christmas Treasure Chest” (AD – Los Angeles Evening Express, December 11, 1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Goldstein, Barbara: “Opulence on Olive” (PDF – Progressive Architecture, November 1982 – via USModernist.org)

+ Gordon, Larry: “Closed-Down Landmark Gets Fixtures Back” (Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1994)

+ Gray, Olive: “Alexander and Oviatt Goal Won” (Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1931 – via ProQuest)

+ Gray, Olive: “Doors Open at New Men’s Shop” (Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1928 – via ProQuest)

+ Gray, Olive: “Genius Honors Local Builder” (Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1927 – via Los Angeles Times)

+ Harnisch, Larry: “Forgotten by time, but not out of style” (Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2012)

+ Hebert, Ray: “There’s Lots of Room at the Top of This Building” (Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1988)

+ Hemmerlein, Sandi: “Photo Essay: Oviatt Penthouse, Continuing to Return to Its Original Art Deco Glory” (Avoiding Regret, November 7, 2022)

+ “Home on Roof Has Many Luxurious Features” (Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1930 – via ProQuest)

+ “If You Jitter at the Sight of a Gift-List” (AD – Los Angeles Evening Express, December 4, 1931 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Importer Paints Drab Picture of Europe’s Plight” (Los Angeles Times, September 14, 1925 – via ProQuest)

+ “The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris in 1925” (madparis.fr)

+ Kinchen, David M.: “Marketer Knows His Three R’s” (Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1978 – via ProQuest)

+ Kinchen, David M.: “Restaurant Planned for Oviatt” (Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1979 – via ProQuest)

+ Mallory, Mary: “Hollywood Heights – Oviatt’s” (The Daily Mirror, May 11, 2020 – originally posted 2012)

+ Marsak, Nathan: “A Haunted History of the Oviatt Penthouse!” (BunkerHillLosAngeles.com, October 4, 2022)

+ Martino, Alison: “Alison Martino’s report from the historic Cicada Club for Spectrum News 1” (VIDEO – @dantanasgirl on YouTube, July 8, 2024)

+ Meares, Hadley: “The James Oviatt Building: The Bespoke Brilliance and Pretension Behind an Art Deco Masterpiece” (PBSSocal.org, September 6, 2013)

+ “New Oviatt Department Announced” (Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1935 – via ProQuest)

+ “New Spirit Pervading at Oviatt’s” (Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1933 – via ProQuest)

+ “New Store Building to Start Soon” (Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1927 – via ProQuest)

+ “New Store Is Opened to Public” (Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1923 – via ProQuest)

+ “Noted Store Begins Anew” (Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1933 – via ProQuest)

+ “Oil Companies: The Apex Petroleum Corporation” (Los Angeles Evening Express, March 5, 1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Oviatt Return Cited as Proof of Uptrend” (Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1933 – via ProQuest)

+ “Oviatt’s: Presenting Oviatt Model Pure East India Cashmere Sweaters” (AD – Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, December 1, 1933 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Rasmussen, Cecilia: “An Art Deco Jewel With a Glittery History” (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 10, 2000)

+ “Rubber Pavement Is Laid for L.A. Firm by Broadway Store” (Los Angeles Evening Express, May 8, 1928 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Salesmen: With or Without Cars” (AD – Los Angeles Evening Express, February 12, 1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ Shulman, Seth & Marc Chevalier: The Oviatt Building (MOVIE – Puzzled Pictures, 2008)

+ “Skyline Buildings Rise” (Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1928 – via ProQuest.com)

+ “Sweepstakes Cancelled by Golfers” (The Pasadena Post, March 17,1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “The Trends by Thayer” (Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, January 24, 1935 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “Transcript Shows Keyes Maintains Getzoff Shop Visits Were Just Social Calls” (Los Angeles Times, January 24,1929 – via ProQuest)

+ Turpin, Dick: “Oviatt Building Ready to Make a Comeback” (Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1977 – via ProQuest)

+ “Until Saturday Only —” (AD – Daily News, February 12, 1930 – via Newspapers.com)

+ “The Venue” (TheOviatt.com)

+ Vincent, Roger: “L.A.’s Oviatt Building Sells for $9 Million” (Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2004)

+ White, R.P.: “What! Penthouses Here? First One Was Built Twenty Years Ago to Perpetuate Real Living” (Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1933 – via ProQuest)