Proposals for Future Use of St. Vibiana’s Unveiled

The former spiritual headquarters of Roman Catholicism in Los Angeles could be reborn as a hotel banquet hall, a music school, an ethnic museum, a senior housing complex, an international trade showroom, an office for federal immigration officials or an interfaith chapel.

Those proposals for the future of the now-closed St. Vibiana’s Cathedral were unveiled Thursday in a report and public exhibit by the Los Angeles Conservancy and USC’s School of Architecture. The sponsors hope to find a developer who will buy the 121-year-old landmark, save it from demolition and create amenities around it in what is today a depressed portion of downtown.

“What we are seeing here is a demonstration that many uses can not only be accommodated by preserving St. Vibiana’s, but can be enhanced by retaining the cathedral,” said study director Jeffrey Chusid, who also heads USC’s Historic Preservation Program at the architecture school.

All nine plans on display at USC would save the Spanish Baroque-style church and construct new buildings on the two-acre archdiocese property at 2nd and Main streets. The ideas include an 11-story glass tower for the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, a Japanese electronics exhibition hall with a dramatically swooping roof line and three different plans for hotels that would use the former church for banquets or meetings.

The study is sure to raise skepticism about the likelihood of major new investments in the neighborhood between Skid Row and Little Tokyo. But conservancy leaders insist that any of the plans could achieve economic success while saving one of the city’s most important pieces of history.

The key is finding the right corporation or nonprofit entity, a task that could take a year or two, according to the conservancy’s new president, Jack Rubens. An attorney, Rubens led the successful legal fight last year against the archdiocese and the city, which sought to quickly raze the earthquake-damaged St. Vibiana’s so a new cathedral could be built there. City and church officials still are taking steps toward possible demolition even though the new cathedral is being planned for a site elsewhere downtown.

“Our hope, frankly, is that when the city and archdiocese see the study, they will put demolition plans on hold,” Rubens said. “We can find a buyer for this site who will preserve the cathedral. We just need enough time to do it.”

For the moment, the archdiocese and the conservancy seem to have reached a partial truce. The archdiocese cooperated with the reuse study, allowing inspections and providing architectural drawings of the old church.

A spokesman for Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said archdiocese officials had not yet reviewed the proposals but many of the ideas sound promising. “Our position always has been that if the right buyer comes along and will use it in a way which is not profane, they are not going to get any opposition from us,” Father Gregory Coiro said.

Those involved in the conservancy-USC study think the cathedral and adjoining property are worth $2 million to $3 million, given the area’s weak real estate values. Mahony has said in the past that he hopes to get a much higher amount, which he would then use to help pay for the new $50-million cathedral on Temple Street.

Besides the purchase price, a buyer would have to spend $5 million to $6 million to seismically strengthen St. Vibiana’s, according to the new report. Quake damage is “far less serious than we had been led to believe,” the study said.

The cost for additional structures such as hotels and restaurants is to be detailed in a related study next month. The potential tax advantages of repairing a historic landmark also will be examined.

The conservancy provided $25,000 for the study. Some of the most prominent names in Southern California design, urban planning and real estate analysis donated time worth 10 times that amount, conservancy officials said.

Drawings and models will be on display weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Verle Annis Gallery in USC’s Harris Hall for the next week. The proposals include:

* An interfaith study and worship center. Under the plan by Johnson, Favaro Architects, a new library and conference hall would be built alongside the cathedral and social service agencies could find room in new storefronts.

* A music school and recital hall. Barton Myers & Associates proposed converting the barrel-ceiling cathedral into an 800-seat music hall. Next door would be a contemporary structure for classes, as well as a large garden.

* A new home for the Latino Cultural Museum, currently a block away in a former bank building. This plan by architects Elizabeth Moule and Stephanos Polyzoides would add low-rise wings and create courtyards that would remind visitors of the neighborhood’s origin as a Latino farming community.

* A Japanese trade mission and electronics mall, which was designed by Janek Bielski to theatrically combine old and new and extend the current boundary of Little Tokyo. Crafts would be displayed in the former church while electronics would be shown in a futuristic hall next door.

* An INS office tower to the south of the cathedral, which would be retained as a lobby and ceremonial hall for citizenship oaths. The plan by Daly Genik, Architects could fulfill the agency’s ongoing search for a new downtown quarters.

* Three different hotel projects, using the church for conferences, banquets and weddings. A 71-room hotel was designed by the Moore Ruble Yudell firm, a 250-room one by Aleks Istanbullu and John Kaliski, and a 29-story, 400-room hotel by Trautmann & Lin architects.

* Three hundred affordable housing apartments for senior citizens and a related social service center. This plan by architect Roger Sherman calls for low-rise townhouses and two 12-story buildings. Filled with plants and skylights, the church would be a meeting and recreation hall, as well as a lunch spot for downtown workers.