HCM-113 — designated 1973-03-07
Young's Market Building
701-709 Union Avenue and 1602-1614 West 7th Street
stone-family or non-stone masonry construction per bariscale material classification — the envelope is the artifact, architectural-significance argument unambiguous regardless of per-axis rubric signals. override layer that catches cases the per-axis classifier would otherwise leave in insufficient_data or reassess due to data sparsity (e.g. hcm-80 palm court of the alexandria hotel: marble columns + dome, but wikipedia + walking-tour signals are weak because the venue is a private-event interior).
stone-family or masonry construction per material classifier — envelope is the artifact; the architectural-significance argument is unambiguous regardless of per-axis signals.
street view ↗ satellite ↗ big orange landmarks ↗ (bariscale, 2008) stone · granite (orchestrator-captured imagery is not building-aimed — use these for HITL verification)
Six-axis scores
- A. would-survive 5 probability the structure would survive market forces without HCM designation. low = needs protection.
- B. tourist currency 0 tourist and cultural currency — Wikipedia pageviews, walking-tour inclusion, public visitation evidence.
- C. subsidy efficiency 0 subsidy efficiency — Mills Act and federal HTC value vs preservation outcome. zero means no active subsidy.
- D. externality load 0 externality load — code complaints, CSR cases, 311 encampment/dumping/graffiti, vacancy duration.
- E. neighborhood health 4 neighborhood health — median household income, distress indicators, displacement risk.
- F. alternative-use value 3 alternative-use value — parcel acres, TOC tier, TPA eligibility, zoning capacity for higher use.
overall confidence: unknown
Site
- lat / lon
- 34.05381, -118.27168
- parcel acres
- 0.4828248104990702 (inferred)
- typology
- commercial
- TPA / TOC
- yes — tier 3
- zoning capacity
- —
- nrhp listed
- no
- architect prominence
- —
Condition + subsidy
all "condition" fields below are proxies derived from LADBS permit history, 311 CSR cases, and code complaints. none of these directly measures occupancy. the vacancy line shows the proxy value and the specific rule that produced it; readers should treat "active" as "construction permits filed recently," not "people live or work here."
- vacancy proxy
- active
- vacancy proxy basis
- single permit within 5y
- last permit
- 2023
- permits last 24mo
- 0
- code complaints 24mo
- 0
- CSR open cases
- 0
- Mills Act contract
- no — not in la OHR appendix a (2019 list of Mills Act properties)
- federal HTC
- no
- Wikipedia pageviews 12mo
- —
- walking-tour inclusion
- no
- median hhi (tract)
- $31,806
- assessed value
- —
Contextual signals (GIS)
these are contextual proxies — signals derived from spatial context, not direct measurements of the property. they help infer hidden variables (contamination probability, structural risk) that public open-data does not measure directly. source: cal OEHHA CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (cumulative pollution burden by census tract).
- census tract
- 6037209403
- CalEnviroScreen overall percentile
- 90.2 (decile 10)
- cleanups percentile
- 59.7
- groundwater threats percentile
- 35.7
- hazardous waste percentile
- 60.2
- toxic release percentile
- 79.3
- lead exposure percentile
- 84.8
- EnviroStor cleanup sites nearby
- —
- in CGS liquefaction zone
- no
- type-1 contamination probability (fused)
- 0.83 — high (CalEnviroScreen tract burden + parcel-level EnviroStor proximity both signal contamination context)
- type-2 structural-risk probability
- 0.20 — low
Narrative
history
the young's market building is a commercial structure located in los angeles that served as a regional distribution and wholesale liquor warehouse operation for young's market company, one of the oldest wine and spirits distributors on the west coast. the company traces its origins to the late 19th century, and the building associated with its operations is understood to date from the early-to-mid 20th century (approximately). the structure reflects the industrial-commercial boom that accompanied los angeles's rapid growth during the interwar period, when large-format warehouse and distribution facilities were constructed throughout the central city and near rail corridors. specific construction date, original architect of record, and chain of ownership events are not confirmed in the retrieved data and would require cross-referencing with ladbs permit records and assessor archives. no major documented events — fires, alterations, or landmark controversies — are recorded in the fetched data, leaving the building's event history effectively unverified at this stage of analysis.
architectural significance
without a confirmed architect of record or verified construction date, precise stylistic classification carries uncertainty. commercial warehouse structures of the type associated with young's market company in los angeles from the 1920s through 1940s typically employed utilitarian industrial variants of beaux-arts or art deco commercial vocabulary: reinforced concrete or brick load-bearing construction, punched window bays, corbelled cornices, and minimal applied ornament concentrated at the street-facing facade. comparable extant examples in los angeles include the coca-cola bottling plant (robert derrah, 1939) in central city and various warehouse structures surviving in the arts district and along san pedro street in the historic core, though direct stylistic equivalence cannot be asserted without field verification. the building's cultural distinctiveness relative to these comparables — and whether it retains sufficient integrity to support its hcm designation on architectural grounds alone — is a central question the current data cannot resolve.
neighborhood context
the tract-level data positions the young's market building within a census tract recording a median household income of $31,806, which is substantially below the los angeles county median and scores as a distressed-to-transitional district on the e axis (scored 4 of 10). the five-year population change shows a modest gain of 877 residents, suggesting low-intensity demographic stabilization rather than displacement-driven gentrification or severe depopulation. the 311 externality load within 500 feet is effectively zero across all recorded categories (encampments, dumping, graffiti), though this figure must be read cautiously given the volume of null fields in the dataset — absence of complaints may reflect genuine orderliness, data gaps, or a vacancy condition that suppresses resident-generated service calls. transit proximity, business license churn, and eviction filing data were not retrieved, limiting a full district-health synthesis. | metric | value | |---|---| | census tract | 06037209403 | | median hhi | 31806 | | 5yr δ population | 877 | | 311 within 500ft (24mo) | 0 | | encampment 311 calls | 0 | | ladbs code complaints (24mo) | — | | last permit year | — |
subsidy and condition
| field | value | |---|---| | mills act | — | | federal htc | — | | vacancy status | — |
classification reasoning
axis a (survival without protection) is scored at 5, reflecting a medium-confidence judgment that the building occupies ambiguous market territory: it is neither architecturally prominent enough to attract voluntary preservation investment nor so unremarkable as to face immediate demolition pressure. the null architect prominence and absence of nrhp listing remove two signals that typically elevate a scores; conversely, no data on recent owner investment or adaptive reuse demand in the submarket is available, preventing a confident downward revision. axis b (tourist/cultural currency) scores 0 with unknown confidence — no google reviews, no wikipedia pageviews, no walking tour inclusion, and no nps designation are recorded, meaning the building generates no measurable heritage tourism draw at present. axes c and d both score 0, but for structurally different reasons: c is 0 because no mills act contract, federal htc, or vacancy-with-subsidy condition is documented (unknown confidence, not necessarily a clean bill of health), while d scores 0 reflecting confirmed absence of encampments, dumping, and graffiti calls within 500 feet and medium confidence that negative spillover is genuinely low. axis e scores 4, capturing a low-income, modestly growing tract that qualifies as distressed-to-transitional at high confidence. axis f scores 0 because parcel acreage, zoning capacity, and tpa/toc tier are all null, making alternative-use-value unquantifiable rather than demonstrably low — this is a data gap, not a finding. the overall confidence rating is 'unknown' because axes b, c, and f all return unknown confidence, and f's nullity is particularly consequential: the candidate flag requires f ≥ 6, and without parcel and zoning data that condition cannot be tested. the candidate flag is therefore structurally unverifiable rather than affirmatively unmet. similarly, the c/d or-gate requirement (c ≥ 6 or d ≥ 6) is not satisfied on current scores, but c's 0 score reflects data absence rather than confirmed subsidy efficiency. the flag returned is reassess, which is the correct disposition given this pattern: e qualifies (4 ≤ 5), a is borderline (5, not ≤ 4), and three axes are analytically blank. the reassess designation means this hcm requires targeted field validation before any policy action. minimum required inputs are: confirmed construction date and architect from ladbs permit records; current vacancy/occupancy status; mills act contract check with the city clerk's office; parcel acreage and toc tier from the assessor and zoning portal; and a streetscape condition assessment within 500 feet. if field work reveals f ≥ 6, a ≤ 4, and either c ≥ 6 or d ≥ 6, the file should be re-evaluated for candidate status. if f remains low or the building is found to be actively occupied with owner investment, maintain is the more likely outcome.
sources
- la311: https://data.lacity.org/resource/h65r-yf5i.json?$where=within_circle(location%2c%2034.05380734600022%2c%20-118.27168117323144%2c%20152)%20and%20createddate%20%3e%20'2024-05-10'&$limit=1000 --- _generated by hcm-1200 orchestrator on 2026-05-10t22:49:02.590z._