I've been looking for more information on the school, and particularly on the building itself, but so far no luck. I'd particularly like to find the name of the architect, or architects. I have written an e-mail to Preserve L.A., asking for advice about how to go about searching for information, and about the possibility of getting the building onto one or another of the historic registers, but I've not had a reply yet. I think that the process of getting a building registered takes quite a while, so it might be getting a bit late for that. Also, the people who own a building (meaning the notorious Alhambra High School District in this case) often oppose registration, as it limits their control. Still, it might be worth the attempt.
I'd be fine with being named and quoted in your presentation, but I'm not sure just what sort of information you'd find useful. I don't have much to tell other than my personal experience with the place, and my entirely subjective feelings about it- along with my appreciation for the architecture of the period, of course, though I certainly have no recognition as an authority on it. (It would be good if an architect or architectural historian could be found who would give an evaluation of the historic value of the building. A professional's authoritative judgement would certainly carry more weight than mine.)
I'll be making posts about the issue on the message boards, and e-mailing the few alumni whose addresses I have, and I hope at least a few of them will get involved. So far, I've not been able to find anyone who is in touch with Foster (Keppel grads of my era were more likely to end up in small towns and suburbs than in the heady atmosphere of New York City as Foster did), but I'll keep working on it.
Good luck with the concert. Though I won't be in the area, I'd like to be (and sitting in one of the maroon seats- that's the original color they all were, and I'll bet that those that still are maroon have the original 1939 upholstery, since I'm surprised that the school district was willing to pay to have the rest of them reupholstered at all.)
Incidentally, I just checked the MKHS Alliance web site, and none of its page links at the bottom are opening (I was able to find some of them in Google's cache, though.)
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I'd be fine with being named and quoted in your presentation, but I'm not sure just what sort of information you'd find useful. I don't have much to tell other than my personal experience with the place, and my entirely subjective feelings about it- along with my appreciation for the architecture of the period, of course, though I certainly have no recognition as an authority on it. (It would be good if an architect or architectural historian could be found who would give an evaluation of the historic value of the building. A professional's authoritative judgement would certainly carry more weight than mine.)
I'll be making posts about the issue on the message boards, and e-mailing the few alumni whose addresses I have, and I hope at least a few of them will get involved. So far, I've not been able to find anyone who is in touch with Foster (Keppel grads of my era were more likely to end up in small towns and suburbs than in the heady atmosphere of New York City as Foster did), but I'll keep working on it.
Good luck with the concert. Though I won't be in the area, I'd like to be (and sitting in one of the maroon seats- that's the original color they all were, and I'll bet that those that still are maroon have the original 1939 upholstery, since I'm surprised that the school district was willing to pay to have the rest of them reupholstered at all.)
Incidentally, I just checked the MKHS Alliance web site, and none of its page links at the bottom are opening (I was able to find some of them in Google's cache, though.)