The Anomalous Cemex Plant – A One-shot story

This post was inspired by a recent five frames post on the demise of an industrial feature – a giant concrete silo.

The Cemex plant at 1000 La Brea Ave on the western border of Los Angeles and West Hollywood was a staple of the intersection. Emphasis on was. And yes, Los Angeles did have buildings that were over a century old. W.L. Stine and J. Russell Ellis built the cement plant in 1923. It was the California’s first cement-mixing plant.  Many years later with mergers and acquisitions, Cemex, a multinational company headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, eventually acquired the plant.  

Concrete has an even longer history, used during the Roman Era and before.

The plant prepared a modern version – ready-mixed concrete, suited to being to be transported in trucks. Until last year from the plant the ubiquitous red, white and blue Cemex trucks left the plant to deposit their cargo. Cemex trucks still deliver concrete to construction sites in Los Angeles, albeit from a different location. 

The plant provided concrete for roads, subways and buildings. Originally built in an industrial area, it became an anomaly. Gentrification. It was directly across the street from a shopping centre and near Sycamore, with its upmarket shops, restaurants, stores, coffee shops and art galleries. The area resonated with history. Diagonally across the street from the former site – the Howard Hughes Headquarters at Romaine and Sycamore, an art deco building (1930-1931).

While attending an extension course at UCLA, began exploring the area for a term-long architectural photography project. Found both the cement plant and the Howard Hughes buildings engaging. Spent so much time there that eventually a security guard demanded that I leave.  Yes the sidewalks are public but there are signs posted about private ones. Strange. Shifted the focus to another site – a subject for another post.

I managed to make a few images of the plant well before its demise. Demolished to make way for, surprise, a mixed-use development, featuring an ubiquitous high-rise 34 storey tower. 

I think it’s important to document the now before it disappears.

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