The Grove, ten years later

The Grove joined the Los Angeles scene just ten years ago today. Seems like longer, though some people still miss some of the long-standing establishments that had to move to make room for Rick Caruso's shopping center. Adrian Glick Kudler at Curbed LA gets creative and revisits ten things said about The Grove in those days. Sample:

• "It's not just a shopping center. . . . It's almost a work of art." (City Council President John Ferraro)
• "According to Aubie Goldenberg, a partner with Ernst & Young's Los Angeles office who closely follows the retail world, the Grove's street- like design could give its local competitor, the staid Beverly Center, a run for its money. 'One of the questions is whether this type of mall complex is the trend and whether people will start seeing the Bev Center as dated,' Goldenberg said."

Heh. Just as the opening of Beverly Center 20 years earlier finished off the Miracle Mile as a department store district. Speaking of that, here's a photo I came across in the LA Public Library's Valley Times Collection. It shows the building that houses the Petersen Automotive Museum at Wilshire and Fairfax when it was the home of Seibu, a Japanese-themed department store that opened in 1962, 20 years before Beverly Center, with a Japanese restaurant on the top floor. Two years later, Ohrbach's moved in.

Top photo of The Grove's fountain: Wikipedia. Seibu from the Los Angeles Public Library/Valley Times Collection.