Past Yields to Present at Church Site

It came down to a choice between saving an old building or helping needy people. And the people won out.

At least that is the way some Los Angeles zoning officials depicted their decision last week to permit construction of a new headquarters for the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese that could lead to the demolition of the historic St. Athanasius and St. Paul Church in Echo Park.

The unanimous vote by the Board of Zoning Appeals leaves preservationists with only about four months to find a new home for the Craftsman-style church. Otherwise, it will be demolished to make way for the diocesan headquarters.

Church officials, including Bishop Frederick H. Borsch, praised the decision, saying construction of the new facility will help promote the church’s ministries to the homeless, to the poor and to troubled youths.

“This is an outstanding opportunity for us to serve the Echo Park community,” Borsch said after the vote. “We want to keep the center of our church closer to the center of the city. I was worried that, otherwise, we would drift away from our focus on urban problems.”

But officials from the Los Angeles Conservancy said more careful planning might have produced a plan to build the new headquarters and still preserve the church, which is next to Echo Park Lake.

“It didn’t have to be an ‘either-or’ situation,” said Barbara A. Hoff, the conservancy’s director of preservation issues. Hoff argued that the church, built in downtown Los Angeles at the turn of the century and moved to Echo Park in the 1920s, could have been incorporated into the diocesan headquarters.

Now, preservationists are racing to find a savior willing to move the wood-shingle building.

“I’m optimistic,” Hoff said. “You can’t be in historic preservation and not be optimistic.”

Planning for the new headquarters began in 1988, when the diocese, with 80,000 parishioners in six Southern California counties, sold its downtown offices on 4th Street. Borsch announced plans that year for the three-story facility, which will include offices, an assembly room, a bookstore, a conference center with 18 guest rooms and underground parking for 135 cars. Plans for the Spanish-style building also include a 210-seat sanctuary to replace St. Athanasius and St. Paul.

Church officials said the new headquarters would assure the continued success of the parish of St. Athanasius and St. Paul.

The inner-city congregation had withered to fewer than 20 members six years ago, when the Rev. Jon Bruno took over as rector. Now it has about 400 members from a variety of ethnic groups and an energetic series of programs that provide food for poor families, day care for senior citizens, counseling for gang members and programs that attempt to prevent AIDS and drug abuse.

Bruno said $1,000 a month is wasted on upkeep of the dilapidated church instead of being spent on the social programs.

“I’m concerned about old buildings too,” Bruno said. “But the fact of life is that the people are more important, and we can no longer continue to operate in this facility.”

Some neighbors said that argument may justify building a new church but not a headquarters for the entire diocese.

John Gurney, a member of the Angeleno Heights Community Organization, told the Board of Zoning Appeals that the new 40,242-square-foot building would attract too much traffic, block views of Echo Park Lake and bring down property values.

“You can go to any street corner and see a mini-mall, a bank branch or an office building for that kind of architecture,” Gurney told the zoning board. “But you can only go to Echo Park to see St. Athanasius.”

But church officials said that the Spanish style of the proposed headquarters is in keeping with the neighborhood and that the construction of a new church for Bruno’s parish is only possible because of funding from all 151 parishes in the diocese.

The issue came before the Board of Zoning Appeals last week at the request of the conservancy, which charged that the city did not abide by state environmental laws requiring a full environmental study before altering historic structures.

City officials have long questioned the church’s historic significance. The City Council last year voted against designating it a historic/cultural monument.

Board of Zoning Appeals member Nick Patsaouras was visibly angry when the issue of the building’s significance was raised again at last week’s hearing.

“You are causing such grief and pain,” Patsaouras said, interrupting Hoff’s statement to the board. “Let’s get back to reality here. If (the headquarters complex) helps one kid get off drugs or out of gangs, then that is a monument.”

Hoff and the community groups said they would not appeal the decision to the City Council. The council already demonstrated its support for the church plan a year ago, and Councilman Michael Hernandez, recently elected to serve the area, is strongly backing the diocese.

Diocese officials have said they will give up the old church free of charge and aid in the search for a new home for it. They also have agreed not to demolish the building until they have a building permit for the new structure, probably at the end of this year or in early 1992.

But moving the building even a short distance is estimated to cost at least $180,000 and renovation an unknown amount, said Kristi Wallace, the church’s director of development for the project.