SHELL SHELTER

La Concha lobby roof to live on as piece of Las Vegas history

marlene Karas/ViewPart of the sign from La Concha motel also was donated to the Neon Museum?s Neon Boneyard. Although the museum structure?s construction is at least a year away, Boneyard tours can be scheduled. Parts of the roof of the La Concha motel?s lobby sit on the grounds of the Neon Boneyard. The Googie-style, clamshell-shaped building will be used as part of the structure for the future Neon Museum. Marlene Karas/View marlene Karas/ViewThe concrete and rebar pieces of the La Concha motel roof were dismantled at its former home on the Las Vegas Strip and transported to the site of the Neon Boneyard. Advertisement

Though the Neon Museum has yet to be built, fans of old Las Vegas style and culture can now picture what the lobby will look like. When the Neon Museum finally is open, visitors will enter the outdoor museum through the salvaged lobby of the La Concha motel.

The Las Vegas City Council voted to add the 1961 Googie-style structure to its Historic Property Register on Aug. 1. In 2006, the lobby -- the only part of the motel left standing -- was moved from its first home on the Las Vegas Strip to the Neon Boneyard, future site of the Neon Museum.

The move to the Boneyard was the culmination of a long struggle on the part of the Neon Museum and its supporters to protect the building. Now, with the council's decision making things official, the La Concha's future is assured.

The La Concha pool and motel were demolished in 2003 to make way for a planned condominium hotel high-rise, dubbed the Majestic. Rather than destroy the distinctive lobby, with its rippling roof evocative of a clam shell, the Doumani family, who owns the property, offered the structure to the Neon Museum in 2004. The museum accepted and was left with the problem of how to move the delicate and irregularly shaped building.

"We had all kinds of ideas, like putting it on a big helicopter," said Dorothy Wright, a Neon Museum board member who has worked on the project for some time. The structure wouldn't fit under the freeway overpass that separated it from its future home, and a viable alternate route could not be found.

By 2006, time was growing short to save the building. Local historic preservation activists from the Atomic Age Alliance had started a Web site to raise public awareness of the building's plight. Finally, a $4,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation allowed the museum to hire specialist engineer Mel Green, who donated part of his time. Green determined that the rebar and concrete building could be cut up and transported in eight pieces and then reassembled at the site. The building was braced and shored, and with the help of two cranes and one big saw, it was dismantled and ferried to safety.

But, Wright said, "When that first cut went, we were all holding our breath."

Right now, the motel sits in pieces. The Neon Museum also has saved part of the La Concha's distinctive sign.

The museum has raised more than $1 million in grants and private donations to reassemble the building and complete the museum lobby, but Wright said they will need another $1 million, and the project could take at least another year. Once finished, the planned museum will consist of an addition built onto the La Concha lobby. The building will house restrooms, offices, exhibit space, a gift shop and a box office and will serve as an entrance way to the outdoor Boneyard portion of the museum.

Originally, the museum building was to be a $7 million project of its own, but with the donation of the La Concha, repurposing the old structure instead soon became the group's choice.

The La Concha was designed by architect Paul Revere Williams. He did most of his work in Southern California and helped design Los Angeles International Airport, as well as the United Nations Building in Paris, among others.

He was called the architect to the stars because of the number of homes he designed for Hollywood actors. Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra and Zsa Zsa Gabor all owned Paul Williams homes. He designed more than 2,000 mansions in a style that took traditional elements and refined and modernized them, but he also designed low-income housing for poorer Angelenos. In 1923, he became the first black member of the American Institute of Architects and later the first black man elected to its college of fellows. Williams is known for learning to draw upside down so he would not offend white clients by standing next to them as he sketched out his ideas.

In addition to the La Concha, Williams, who died in 1980, also designed the Guardian Angel Cathedral just north of it on the Strip.

Built next to the Riviera at 2955 Las Vegas Blvd. South, the La Concha was an elegant spot in 1960s Las Vegas -- hosting the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan and Muhammad Ali.

The Googie style of the motel takes its name from Googie's, a coffee shop in Los Angeles. Designed by architect John Lautner in 1949, the coffee shop, adorned with an outsized geometric sign, typified the abstract, science fiction-inspired style that was considered kitschy even in its day. But Wright said the overlooked style is starting to be appreciated by architects and historians.

"It's really coming into its own," she said.

Courtney Mooney, historic preservation officer for the city and Neon Museum board member, said La Concha deserved its historic designation as one of the best examples of Googie architecture in Las Vegas.

She went on to explain that a historic designation may provide the museum with some leniency regarding building codes and open up new opportunities for grants -- especially if La Concha makes its way from the local onto the national historic registry.

But, apart from the motel's historical value, Wright said the building stands on its own.

Calling it, "a shell like none you would see in nature," Wright said she believes the building was worth saving if only for its beauty.