California Historical Building Code

Ford Factory
arts district, Los Angeles, California

Chattel prepared a Historic Resource Assessment (HRA) for environmental clearance of the 1914 Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant (Ford Factory) in downtown Los Angeles, finding it eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, California Register of Historical Resources, and designation as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument for its association with the Ford Motor Company, and as a Beaux-Arts styled daylight automobile assembly plant. Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), when a project is expected to cause substantial adverse change to a historical resource, environmental clearance for the project would require mitigation measures to reduce impacts.

Maxfield Building
garment district, Los Angeles, California

Chattel consulted on adaptive reuse of the 1924 Maxfield Building in downtown Los Angeles, applying the California Historical Building Code toward its adaptive reuse into residential lofts. The Maxfield Building is a 12-story Art Deco building notable as an early high-rise daylight garment factory and for the garment industry influence of its original main tenant, Maxfield & Co. As historic preservation consultant, Chattel’s scope of services included designation of the building as a City of Los Angeles (City) Historic-Cultural Monument in August 2015, and listing in the National Register of Historic Places in September 2017. Notably, the Maxfield Building housed a branch of Los Angeles-based Seaboard National Bank, which opened in 1934 and was a pioneer in factoring for garment industry clients, leading to its acquisition by Bank of America in 1936.