The Islander 7000 La Cienega Boulevard., Inglewood, CA (condominiums)

Name:The Islander
Type:condominiums
Street:7000 La Cienega Boulevard
City:Inglewood
State:CA
Zip:90045
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational

Description:
Huge Polynesian apartment complex.

[ Edited by: Bora Boris 2007-10-01 21:54 ]

There have been several posts mentioning this building but no official Locating Tiki thread about it.These pictures are not the greatest but it's a start.

Update: 10/1/2007
It turns out this complex has a name, it just doesn’t have a cool sign. It is The Islander they are no longer apartments and are now condominiums.

I went up to the front gate this time and looked inside. From where I was standing it looks like a Tropical paradise but with no visible Tiki’s. I’m going to get in eventually and take a better look around

The Koi pond moat is empty.

I think this used to be a waterfall.

There are a couple of units for sale at the moment but living right on La Cienega in a one or a two bedroom Condo with no parking doesn’t sound that great.
The real estate website’s pictures don’t offer much hope for Tiki’s inside. You should Google them up since I’d rather not post the pictures here.

The condominiums are on the corner of La Cienega and Evergreen. Next door at 604 Evergreen is this little guy below who is clearly overshadowed by his big neighbor.

Evergreen has a lot of Polynesian structures as well; about every third bldg. has some lava on the facade.

[ Edited by: Bora Boris 2007-10-01 22:18 ]

Boris,

Thanks for updating those pics. That building provides some of my earliest memories of Tiki culture from the 1960s that fueled my re-interest in the 1990s.

Under the arch of that A-frame, in that blank spot of concrete in your picture, there used to be an enormous, grotesque Tiki that was lit from below by spotlights at night. It was taller than the staircase pictured.

That whole stretch of La Cienega Blvd in the 1960s and 1970s was a playground for my imagination as a tiny kid. My family would attend Sunday evening services at a church in Ladera Heights. Driving home afterwards on La Cienega at night, you would first pass the ISLANDER restaurant with it's guttering tiki torches and huge tiki mask & shield sign. A little further and there was your Islander Apartments with that enormous flood-lit tiki in its grotto. Then there was the googie splendor of PANN'S coffee shop, all lit up with shiny 1960s cars parked outside.

Then La Cienega would dump you onto the 405 Frwy going South. If I was lucky, an airplane would fly low over our car as it crossed the freeway to land at LAX. I also remember three Drive-in Movie screens on both sides of the Freeway, their screens were clearly visible to cars travelling South on the 405 and I would always try to guess which movie they were showing. The freeway was also flanked by roving searchlights from car dealerships along both sides. I used to take in all these sights from the back seat of our little Volkswagen Bug like a happy tourist, even though I saw them every week. Besides PANN's and the jets arriving to LAX, those sights are long gone.

Sabu

BB, the next step would be to contact the home owners association and find out if they have any photos of it from the 60s... :) ?

Bumping this beauty to see if any of the Newspaper Sleuths can come up with any images of it's original appearance.