Los Angeles's New York Bagel and Co. shuttered at the end of December. Why was its architectural significance never acknowledged?
For almost 20 years, an iconic Frank Gehry interior in Brentwood, Los Angeles, has flown completely under the radar despite having a small but mighty cult following on the Westside. Loyal customers admire New York Bagel Co. for not just its smoked salmon sandwich; in 1991, Gehry designed a chandelier that's an exact steel replica of the Chrysler building, wood parquet interspersed with cement flooring, red banquette leather booths, long raised mirrors, and a 12-foot galvanized steel plate with "New York" cut out of it, hanging on the wall of the dining room.
As the Architect's Newspaper first reported, the shop's owners, Patra Kittichanthira and her husband, Ted Cichowski, tell Dwell they were blindsided by their landlord's -- L.A.-based Anderson Real Estate -- sudden decision not to renew their lease in the summer, giving them until December to move out. They originally bought the business in 2003 from Gehry's friend David Rosen, for whom Gehry had allegedly sketched out the design for the space on a napkin.
A Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety search reveals a permit for interior demolition approved in 2021 for the entire address, with no expiration date or suite indicated. "We heard from our broker that it's going to be a Ggiata Deli," says Kittichanthira over the phone, referencing the New Jersey-based chain that's on an expansion tear in LA. "It's just rumors, but I heard they're just trying to upgrade the whole shopping center into a really nice food court." Gehry's firm in L.A. has offered to store the iconic Chrysler replica, as well as the enormous New York sign. Both Gehry and Anderson Real Estate, a family-owned group whose name also appears on the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, did not respond to requests for comment.