Viewing page 104 of 110

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[left page]]

306     The Los Angeles Woman's Building

these other spaces, for we have become accustomed to the variety of events that can take place in the open space.

The third floor was left completely open, with no interruptions in the 6,000 square feet of skylit space. This level houses a cafe and a performance area. An inviting space for seated conversation and nourishment was created in the far corner, and by adding a windowed wall and glazed front doors, the space will become more like a restaurant in a public piazza, and will be separated from the sounds and activities coming from the adjacent large public space where theatrical performances are often scheduled.

The names of the spaces in the Woman's Building have been intentionally chosen to affect the way in which they are seen and used. Calling the circulation spaces on the second floor "Street Gallery" helped users to see this space as an indoor street, as well as encouraging performance and art work to be placed here. Naming the enlarged circulation space "Environmental Gallery" evoked inventive walk-through installations.
During our two years at the Grandview site the building had overlapped many of the activities of other women's centers. Providing services and a meeting place meant that we needed to make our specific orientation clearer, so we enlarged our self-definition and stressed our desire for inclusive participation.
 Knowing that people coming to the Woman's Building were unsure of what it was they were visiting, we made an explicit welcoming area, in which each visitor would be warmly greeted. Behind her the wall opens out and in large clear letters we state "The Woman's Building, a public center for woman's culture, welcomes you."

Future Fantasies: Expansion of the Woman's Building

A painful and productive tension exists between space built with ideal goals and the actual human processes and needs expressed by the users of the place. As the creators of the space are also included among the users, there is perhaps more potential for a synthesis between the material aspects of the Woman's Building and the organization within it.

The involvement of new people and audiences in the work 



[[right page]]

Sheila Levrant de Bretteville     307

of the Woman's Building is itself expressive of the vitality of the Woman's Building and enough to encourage me to share some future fantasies. Just as the institution needs to keep reaching out and extending itself, so the physical space of the Woman's Building requires some extension.
With the growth of the Woman's Building it may become possible to build a roof garden that might extend the potential of the cafe to open-air eating and enjoyment of the view of Elysian Park, the trains, and Los Angeles— the city in which we work. Behind the Woman's Building on Spring Street, between it and the railroad tracks, is a plot of land at present used for junked cars: perhaps we could acquire it and cultivate a garden of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Given our proximity to the railway we could bring a caboose from the track alongside the building to act as a place for children to play and work while their friends and parents were at the Woman's Building. Since this would exhaust our limited parking area, and because we need more parking space during large openings and performances, we might obtain the parking lot next door on a permanent basis.
We may bring more electricity into the building and up to the roof to light the building up at night, and also light the parking areas. We could fly balloons, kites, and in many inventive, non-energy-wasting ways reach out into the physical environment around our building and make our existence known. At present, our physical environment ends at the exterior walls, while the women within have created numerous outreach programs in other institutions around the country. We have not yet put a large sign on the Woman's Building exterior— perhaps an expression of our self-confidence in affecting interior space, but not the external dominant culture. This internalized emphasis is contradictory to our purpose, and some of these fantasies are important steps in institutional self-actualization.

In 1980 our lease on the Spring Street site is up and we will have the choice of renewing the lease, getting a new building, or having a crisis similar to that of spring 1974. If we are in a similar economic position as at present, renewing the lease would be advantageous, saving the institution from the trauma