HCM-57 — designated 1968-07-17
Second Church of Christ Scientist of Los Angeles
930-948 West Adams Boulevard
religious institution or other excluded category; separate analytical track
outside the analytical frame — religious property, federal land, or category excluded by rubric
street view ↗ satellite ↗ big orange landmarks ↗ (bariscale, 2007) terracotta + brick (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 2 neighborhood health — median household income, distress indicators, displacement risk.
- F. alternative-use value 7 alternative-use value — parcel acres, TOC tier, TPA eligibility, zoning capacity for higher use.
overall confidence: unknown
Site
- lat / lon
- 34.03069, -118.28306
- parcel acres
- 1.1521142632545902 (inferred)
- typology
- religious
- TPA / TOC
- yes — tier 2
- 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
- recent investment over 250k in 60mo
- last permit
- 2022
- 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)
- —
- 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
- 6037224700
- CalEnviroScreen overall percentile
- 81.2 (decile 9)
- cleanups percentile
- 9.8
- groundwater threats percentile
- 0.0
- hazardous waste percentile
- 78.8
- toxic release percentile
- 82.3
- lead exposure percentile
- 25.1
- EnviroStor cleanup sites nearby
- —
- in CGS liquefaction zone
- no
- type-1 contamination probability (fused)
- 0.17 — low
- type-2 structural-risk probability
- 0.30 — moderate
Narrative
history
the second church of christ scientist of los angeles (hcm-57) is a religious assembly building constructed in the early twentieth century, consistent with the broader national wave of christian science church construction that peaked approximately between 1900 and 1930. the christian science denomination, founded by mary baker eddy in the latter nineteenth century, prioritized monumental civic-scaled sanctuaries as expressions of institutional permanence, and los angeles saw multiple such buildings erected during this period as the city's population expanded rapidly. the specific build date for hcm-57 is not confirmed in the fetched data, and the architect of record is not documented in available records (approximately early 1910s–1920s construction is probable based on comparable los angeles christian science buildings of the era). the congregation's original use was sabbath services, reading rooms, and community assembly consistent with christian science practice, which emphasizes public reading rooms as a core institutional function. no major documented events — fires, seismic damage, or changes of ownership — are reflected in the available data, though such events cannot be ruled out without field verification.
architectural significance
christian science churches of this period in los angeles characteristically drew on neoclassical and beaux-arts vocabularies, employing colonnaded facades, shallow domes or coffered ceilings, and formal symmetry intended to convey permanence and civic dignity. comparable extant examples in los angeles include the first church of christ scientist on commonwealth avenue in pasadena and the eighth church of christ scientist in hollywood, both of which share the neoclassical institutional typology. without confirmed architect attribution, it is not possible to assess whether hcm-57 represents the work of a regionally significant designer, though the denomination frequently retained architects with demonstrated experience in civic and ecclesiastical commissions. distinctive features associated with this building type typically include reading room ancillary spaces, prominent entrance porticos, and interior layouts configured for auditory projection rather than liturgical processional movement.
neighborhood context
tract-level socioeconomic data for the parcel housing hcm-57 is not available in the fetched dataset — median household income, population change, and business license churn are all null. the assigned e-axis score of 2 reflects this data absence and should not be interpreted as confirmed neighborhood distress; it signals an unresolved confidence gap rather than a measured condition. the encampment, dumping, and graffiti counts within 500 feet are all recorded at zero, which provides weak affirmative evidence that the immediate block does not exhibit acute externality pressure, though this signal alone is insufficient to characterize the broader district trajectory. transit proximity and toc/tpa designation are likewise unresolved. any substantive neighborhood-context assessment requires field validation and current acs tract pull. | metric | value | |---|---| | census tract | — | | median hhi | — | | 5yr δ population | — | | 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
the six-axis scoring exercise for hcm-57 is materially undermined by data availability. axis a (survival without protection) is scored at 5 with medium confidence, reflecting the general pattern that active religious-use buildings nationally have some degree of congregation-driven stewardship that reduces demolition risk, offset by the reality that declining christian science membership nationally creates succession risk for these properties; the medium confidence rating is the ceiling achievable without ownership and financial data. axis b (tourist and cultural currency) is scored at 0 with unknown confidence — no google review volume, wikipedia pageview data, walking tour inclusion, or nps designation is present, making any tourism-draw claim unsupported. axes c and f are scored at 0 with unknown confidence due to complete absence of mills act contract data, federal htc utilization, parcel acreage, zoning capacity, and tpa/toc designation; no subsidy efficiency or alternative use value calculation is possible. axis d (externality load) is scored at 0 with medium confidence, the one reasonably reliable score, grounded in the zero encampment, dumping, and graffiti counts — this suggests the building is not currently generating measurable negative spillover, though fire call and code complaint data remain null. axis e (neighborhood health) is scored at 2 with unknown confidence, driven entirely by data absence rather than measured distress indicators, and should be treated as a placeholder. the overall confidence level is therefore unknown, which alone would preclude a candidate determination even if axis thresholds were otherwise met.
sources
- la311: https://data.lacity.org/resource/h65r-yf5i.json?$where=within_circle(location%2c%2034.03068878557891%2c%20-118.28306421834%2c%20152)%20and%20createddate%20%3e%20'2024-05-10'&$limit=1000 --- _generated by hcm-1200 orchestrator on 2026-05-10t22:21:17.037z._