Finding Nirvana

Walking down Hollywood Boulevard I turned into North Orange Drive, a little side street with a few parking garages and some houses scattered around. Nothing special until I got to the end of the street where I encountered this beauty of an apartment building. A wonderful example of early Hollywood's fascination with 'the exotic' - Asia, Egypt, you name it.  Transforming a well proportioned but ordinary and pretty boring box of a building into a chinese pagoda of some sort. If that isn't make believe I don't know what is. 

The building is aptly named The Nirvana - how perfect is that? - and was build in 1925. The architect is a gentleman by the name of E.M. Erdaly.