Salvage

My friend John Douglas is somehow the guy in charge of a 30,000 sq ft warehouse in South Central LA. Last night he invited a handful of friends over to share what the heck he’s been up to in there. The sheer size of the place is really overwhelming. The warehouse was mostly taken up by an abandoned architectural salvage business. He made a deal with the owner to sell off everything inside and convert it into studios and workshops. The new studios are in addition to the 3 craftsmen who were already working in the building.

It’s right off the 110 on Slauson. The building was used as a salvage materials business for about a week, then closed down.

John is a designer / builder that knows a lot about restoring classic Spanish and Craftsman homes. He even keeps it real by doing all his construction drawings by hand on a drafting table. If you woke up from a coma in his office you would have no idea what year it was.

The door to the studio.

 

John (right) and Pete Deeble (left).

 

Luc Peltier (right) and Joel Lueb (left)

Upstairs is one of the gnarliest wood shops i’ve ever seen. This picture is just a fraction of what is up there. It also looks like it hasn’t been swept in 10 years. Either way it was incredible.

Down the hall from the woodshop is a ceramics studio that specializes in custom Spanish tile.

Other studios in the building include a foundry, a welding shop, a fashion designer, and a production designer. The place is amazing.

John took us next door to an abandoned (for now) warehouse where we did a little conveyor belt surfing.

and found a trap door that went down to a small pump room covered in 30 years of dust. Also known as where the horror movie starts.