crossroads of the world village

Here's a surprise from my walk at lunchtime today.  I was actually going from a parking lot to the church - the Blessed Sacrament - that stands at the rear of this little street - a wet walk - to the funeral mass for my sadly missed colleague from Classics, Tom Habinek.  But this was an unlooked for, upcheering bonus.  I knew the rather dilapidated frontage to the Crossroads of the World on Sunset, but I had no idea that this was behind it.  The Crossroads of the World - here it is, with the Blessed Sacrament on the right (itself a church with an interesting history) was designed as a very early shopping mall, completed in 1936, and featuring goods from round the world (I'd love to dig out pictures and descriptions of what this meant, in practice), and conceived as a cosmopolitan shopping center featuring merchandize from around the globe. From the front, what you see, in 

Streamline Moderne style, is what's meant to look like an ocean liner, sailing down the street.

In the 1940s and 50s, it turned slowly into an office complex - the Screen Actors Guild, Standard Oil, and American Airlines were there, among other companies.  Surviving a demolition threat in the 70s, it's now protected by preservation orders: its tenants are now music producers, screenwriters, costume designers, and so on.  But what one can't guess from the facade on Sunset (which really needs a renovation push) is that there's this pretty piece of very mock Anglo architecture behind - or rather, there's a curious parallel between this version of mock Tudor and what one gets in suburban Southwest London at more or less the same date.

And yes, it was raining, which made it even more like SW London.