Demolition begins on 'an eyesore in the Valley'

Historic plaza was once a magnet for shoppers but then fell on hard times, prompting complaints from neighbors

- BY SUHAUNA HUSSAIN

Photographs by ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

A STRUCTURE at Valley Plaza mall, a onetime center of commerce, gets demolished in North Hollywood.

David Udoff fondly remembers how his mother would drive him and his brother to Valley Plaza in her avocado Dodge Dart.

The family would shop at the once-vibrant and bustling selection of retail businesses. They would visit the Sears, a bakery and the animatronic fortunetelling machine in front of the drugstore. Then they would lunch on Salisbury steak and Jell-O platters at Schaber's Cafeteria.

"The good old Valley days," the 67-year-old former North Hollywood and Toluca Lake resident said of his family outings in the 1960s.

Now, swaths of the historic San Fernando Valley mall are being demolished after years of complaints from neighbors that the collection of vacant buildings and parking lots had fallen into disrepair.

The Valley Plaza, which opened in 1951, was among the first and largest open-air shopping malls on the West Coast and a major center of commerce.

In its heyday, the sprawling complex of suburban buildings and modernist high-rises drew crowds and even a visit from John F. Kennedy during his 1960 presidential campaign.

The demolition, which began last week, came after a panel of Los Angeles city commissioners appointed by Mayor Karen Bass voted in August to declare much of the site a public nuisance.

The vote greenlighted the destruction of six buildings in the plaza. Some structures deemed historic, including the 12-story, 165foot tower among the first skyscrapers built in L.A. will be spared.