Gerry Building

One of very few Late Moderne buildings in downtown Los Angeles, the Gerry Building stands in the heart of Fashion District. Built in 1947 for Gerry Realty Corporation (one of the first buildings built downtown after World War II) the historic structure has housed garment manufacturers and fashion showrooms since its establishment. Today, the building is home to fashion showrooms displaying more than seventy fashion lines.

Designed by Maurice Fleishman and Herbert Aldon, garment manufacturing and showrooms have continuously occupied the upper floors. The building sits in the heart of the city's Fashion District, once known as the Garment District, which supported 2,000 garment manufacturers. Indeed, manufacturing garments served as the district's primary purpose for decades. 

The Gerry Building arose in 1947 as one of the first buildings to be constructed downtown after World War II. The building enjoys Moderne Style architecture, a popular choice of architects of commercial and public buildings during the Great Depression and the 1940s. The Moderne style, short for Art Moderne, evolved from the more lavish Art Deco and Streamline Moderne movements popular before the Great Depression. It first supported an array of clothing manufacturers.

By the early 1980s, the twenty-block district supported 500 retail outlets and became a favorite destination for locals to seek affordable fashions. The Gerry Building supported fashion manufacturing, retail services, and showrooms. In 1996, the Garment District formally began changing the area's name and image to the Los Angeles Fashion District through one of the City's first BIDs (Business Improvement Districts). Initially comprised of fifty-six city blocks, the Fashion District has expanded to more than 100 city blocks. The Gerry Building is home to more than sixty showrooms, seventy different garment lines, offices, and design suites. 

"1940-1950: The Modern Commercial City in War and Peace." Los Angeles Conservancy. Accessed October 10, 2022. https://www.laconservancy.org/explore-la/curating-city/modern-architecture-la/history-la-modernism/1940-1950-modern-commercial.

"Gerry Building."  Los Angeles Conservancy. Accessed October 10, 2022. https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/gerry-building.

"History." The Gerry Building. Accessed October 10, 2022. https://www.gerrybuilding.com/history/.

Grimes, Teresa. "Registration Form: Gerry Building." National Register of Historic Places. nps.gov. 2003. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/e63bdbc7-8416-46b7-963b-2419e82076ff/.

LA Fashion District. Accessed October 10, 2022. https://fashiondistrict.org.

Yoshihara, Nancy. "Garment District Goes Boom." Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles), March 7, 1982. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58145253/garment-district-goes-boom/.