A. C. Martin & Associates Fetes Anniversary : 80 Years of Designing L. A.’s Skyline

If you’ve worked or lived in Los Angeles any length of time, certain familiar buildings may now seem like old acquaintances.

Several have a common link to A. C. Martin & Associates, a firm that can look back on 80 years of notable architectural contributions to the landscape and skyline of downtown Los Angeles and its environs.

Take City Hall, for instance. Many of us have been in it for one reason or another, to clarify some ordinance, attend a City Council meeting or to get a glimpse of an international celebrity, such as Queen Elizabeth II waving from its steps.

The 28-story tower was designed in 1926 by Albert C. Martin Sr., founder of the firm, in collaboration with John Parkinson and John C. Austin.

Scores of parishioners worship regularly at St. Basil’s Church (1969) in the mid-Wilshire area, another Martin landmark, designed in the early Christian architectural style, or across town at St. Vincent’s Church (1923) on Adams Boulevard at Figueroa Street, done in the Spanish baroque style of Jose Churriguera.

And, while on a night out at the Music Center, how many of us have stood mesmerized by the Department of Water and Power Building (1963) and its shimmering waterworks, dancing against a dark sky.

The Martin firm, headquartered in the Fine Arts Building at 811 West 7th St. and with branch offices in Irvine, will celebrate its 80-year milestone with a two-month historical exhibit in the building’s lobby during September and October, highlighting major accomplishments from 1906 to the present.

The company’s history, in many ways a reflection of the history of Los Angeles, has been sustained by its own deep Southland family roots and its ongoing family business.

Cousins David and Christopher Martin, leaders in this third generation of Martin architects, describe their role as that of “city caretakers.”

“We are just carrying on in the same spirit as our fathers and grandfather, helping to meet the needs of our growing city with caring concern,” Christopher Martin said.

“The city’s development can be either haphazard or intelligently planned,” added David Martin, “and we try to envision concepts that emphasize the quality of life.”

The young Martins, both graduated of the USC School of Architecture, have completely taken over the firm’s leadership from their fathers, Edward Martin and Albert C. Martin Jr., who succeeded their father, founder of the firm. There have been only five partners in the firm’s history, all Martins.

Christopher Martin, 36, started as a draftsman with the firm in 1970, became a partner in 1980, and was recently named managing partner with overall management responsibility of the firm that has 200 employees, of whom 50 are architects. David Martin, 43, has a key role as partner in charge of resources, with the chief responsibility for design and engineering.

Beginning with the senior Martin’s first project, started in 1904 as a member of the A. F. Rosenheim architectural firm, the current exhibit recalls his role as construction engineer on the Hamburger department store, which later became the May Co. at 8th Street and Broadway.

In 1906, Martin Sr. opened his own architecture and engineering office and went on to design such landmarks as the Greco-Roman-styled Ventura County Courthouse, and in downtown Los Angeles, the Grauman’s Million Dollar Theatre, which featured a 104-foot, poured-in-place concrete arch, the world’s largest, during the World War I period.

The arch was hailed as an engineering feat, following a test on the reinforced concrete cantilever balcony it sustained. To prove its strength, the balcony was weighted down with 1.75 million pounds of sand bags, the equivalent of three times its prescribed live-load capacity, showing a mere one-eighth of an inch deflection, after the experiment.

During the 1930s, Albert C. Martin & Associates developed the Art Deco landmark May Co. at Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard on the Miracle Mile, and in the 1950s entered the aerospace industry and designed about 30 buildings for the TRW Space Park in Redondo Beach.

The senior Martin pioneered in many areas of construction, patented several reinforced concrete systems and advanced the thinking on structural seismic issues.

“We are very proud that our structural engineers continue to carry on this tradition of inventiveness, pushing the edge of the envelope, so to speak,” David Martin said.

“Their accomplishments may not be quite as dramatic as in earlier years, but their knowledge of applied mathematics, aided by computer know-how, has resulted in extraordinary improvements in mechanical engineering and in energy-saving technology.

Planning for Exected Growth

“The design challenge, we feel, has also been met. We are equally concerned with the human and social responsibility of our buildings. And this means a great deal of planning ahead for what we believe will be an increase of 3 million people to our population by the year 2000.”

Using the adage “some achieve greatness, others have it thrust upon them,” Christopher Martin stated that Los Angeles has had greatness thrust upon it through a series of circumstances. “And it is essential that we should be planning now for better transportation, power generating stations, good utilities, a better sewerage system--an infrastructure that can match the inevitable growing importance of the city.”

Commenting on the firm’s firmly rooted concept of quality, Christopher Martin quoted A. C. Martin Sr.: “My grandfather used to say, ‘never mind the awards (of which the firm has closets full). Just give the client a good floor and a good roof and the consequence of that work will be ample reward.”’ The firm, he added, is proud that 80% of its commissions are on a repeat-client-basis.

In more recent years, the A. C. Martin organization has participated effectively in the renaissance of the city’s downtown area, notably with such buildings as the Arco Towers, Union Bank Square and the Security Pacific National Bank headquarters.

Other Growth Areas in Southland

A visible design presence has expanded to other areas of growth in the Southland, namely the hillside headquarters for Prudential in Thousand Oaks (now the headquarters for GTE) and several of the structures at Koll Center in Irvine.

Currently in the site work phase is the Albert C. Martin & Associates commission by the United States Postal Service to design a 75-acre complex that will be the largest mail handling facility on the West Coast.

The complex will encompass eight blocks in South-Central Los Angeles along Central Avenue between Gage and Florence avenues.

Also under construction is the Home Savings Tower at Figueroa and 7th streets and conceived in a historical garb, as were its neighboring downtown buildings--in this case in a loosely-interpreted French 16th century Renaissance “Chateau-de-la-Loire”style.

Los Angeles’ planned Metrorail, the first 4.5 miles of which will run underground along this portion of 7th Street, will have an entrance to one of its downtown stations on the ground floor of the Home Savings Tower that is scheduled for occupancy by December of 1987.

The Mitsui Building, still in the planning stages, will be located at Figueroa Street and Wilshire Boulevard. In addition, a novel design has been submitted to the city of Long Beach for a site on Ocean Boulevard between Pine and Pacific avenues that will suggest a lighthouse motif.

350-acre Airport Parcel

Latest among the firm’s commissions is from the Los Angeles Department of Airports to master plan what is regarded as the last large, undeveloped parcel of land at the Los Angeles International Airport.

The property comprises 350 acres, consisting of 13 different parcels north of the airport’s north runway. The boundaries of the property are from the community of Westchester on the East to Pershing Drive on the west.

Last, but not least, the firm views with special pride the accomplishments of its alumni, who have contributed individually to the enhancement of the quality of life in the Southland.

These include Robert Allen Reed, vice president/architecture for Welton Becket & Associates; Carl McClarand, McClarand & Perez, Santa Monica; Chuck Griggs, Griggs & Associates; Ed Abrahamian, Abrahamian, Pagliossoti & Tanaka, and Jerzy Pudjak, Associated Architects.

But in the meantime, how badly wounded is the small real estate investor going to be from the tax reform aborning? The consensus: not as much as originally feared. But the cuts inflicted will be in inverse proportion to the investor’s wealth: The more modest the income, the more superficial the wounds.