SFCAP's new home!

In October 2006, SFCAP moved into its new home, previously known as the Atrium Building, this 11,000 square foot facility has sufficient room for all of SFCAPs personnel, wet-lab & instrumentation. SFCAP is excited about the integration enabled by the Atrium and is looking forward to accelerating the pace of scientific innovation.

Before being SFCAP's home, the Atrium has belonged to Cedars since the mid 80's. A look back at snippets from articles of the period reveals:

 

excerpted from LA Times, Apr 13 1986:

Hugh Hefner closed his private L. A. supper club, Touch, just before the Academy Awards, and last week the Playboy magazine publisher was in negotiations to sell the 8,000-square-foot building and 30,000-square-foot lot at 8750 Beverly Blvd., probably to Cedars-Sinai, the hospital across the street.

The club had about 1,000 members, including TV producers Mark Goodson and Aaron Spelling, Johnny Carson's ex-wife Joanna, Sammy Davis Jr., Gabe Kaplan, Kenny Rogers and Dionne Warwick.

Lamenting the sale, one member wrote of the club: "It was one of the most romantic places on this planet, along with Venice, Italy."

It had what she described as "museum-quality examples of Art Deco, an irreplaceable, three-dimensional mural (by New York artist Dennis Abbe) and beautiful etched glass, marble floor, live palm trees growing inside and little lights that twinkled like stars as the night sky appeared through the skylights and reflected off the mirrored walls." The interiors, which really are spectacular, were designed by Stanley Felderman.

Alas, the sale must go on, Richard Rosenzweig, an associate of Hefner's said, "because it doesn't give him a proper return on his investment." Mike McConnell, who was the manager, said, "Eighty restaurants opened within five miles of us since we opened five years ago. Also, Spago opened right after us, and that set a trend toward the informal." Touch, which promoted touch dancing, was strictly uptown.

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Jun 15, 1986:
…
Hugh Hefner's private, L. A. supper club has taken another step in becoming a medical facility.

Escrow has closed on the Playboy magazine publisher's building at 8750 Beverly Blvd. The buyer was Cedars-Sinai.

For five years, the dazzling Art Deco decor dance floor that promoted touch dancing (which is why the club was called "Touch") and fine food attracted such Hollywood luminaries as George Burns, Aaron Spelling, Sammy Davis Jr., Gabe Kaplan, Kenny Rogers, Mark Goodson and Dionne Warwick.

The club was probably ahead of its time. Now that "Tango Argentino" (playing at the Pantages in Hollywood) has revived interest in the tango, "Touch" might have become one of the hottest night spots in town, but as it was, it wasn't giving Hefner "a proper return on his investment," said Richard S. Rosenzweig, executive vice president, office of the chairman, Playboy Enterprises. The property went for "less than $25 million and more than $1.50," he added impishly.

A spokesman for Cedars said that no decision has been made about when work will start to convert the property to medical use.

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Before Belonging to Hugh Hefner, the space was known as Four-In-Hand. Prior to that, the Tally-ho.

1947 Advertisement for the Tally-Ho