indonesian

Art Deco buildings by Kim Kunasek

Now home to the consulate of Indonesia, this Art Deco building was designed as the headquarters and opulent showroom for custom-built luxury Auburn-Cord automobiles.

Owner E. L. Cord demanded polished marble floors, hardwood finishes, thirty-foot ceilings, and dramatic display windows facing onto Wilshire.

Upstairs were four levels of service departments reached by inside ramps. The top floor housed radio stations KFAC and KFVD, which had their broadcast antennas on the roof.

Cord later owned Century Airlines (precursor to American Airlines) and Checker Cab, as well as extensive Wilshire Boulevard frontage in the priciest section of Beverly Hills, where he built the Cordhaven estate. He left California abruptly in the 1950s for a new life as a rancher and politician in Nevada.

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