The issue in the unapproved windows was taken up this past Tuesday

　　“The old windows had been falling apart and had been a hazard to the community,” said Hector Cruz, who has co-owned the three-story building on 5577 N. Figueroa St. in conjunction with his mother given that the previous 5 years.
　　“They had been really costly to replace,” Cruz stated, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight with the original windows that he ended up altering. “And that’s not even providing us a cushion of what’s to come,” he mentioned.
　　In installing a great deal less costly windows, Cruz stated he took a leaf from the historic windows that were replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago in the former workplace of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also located in the Mason Building, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time workplace now houses the Superior Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.
　　But for all that, mentioned Cruz, he didn’t recognize he had committed a blunder by getting rid of the old windows. Precisely per week immediately after he place within the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector from the Los Angeles Department of Constructing and Security served him a “stop work” order, Cruz said, adding that by then all of the function around the windows had currently been completed.
　　The inspector told Cruz that because the Highland Park Masonic Building is around the National Registry of Historic Locations, he is expected to have permission from the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone before undertaking any work that modifications the building’s architectural integrity.
　　“The last point I anticipated is for the community to send an inspector rather than coming and telling me what are the initial methods I should really have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz mentioned, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings in the building-I’ve supported everybody.”
　　In accordance with Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him to the Division of Building and Security. A contact by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.
　　Cruz mentioned it’s not that he is not concerned about conservation problems surrounding his building, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We try to balance security and responsibility with our price range,” he stated.
　　His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is that “if you’re so concerned in regards to the windows, why do not you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz stated, adding that home owners which include him can “hardly make it by in these tough [economic] instances.”
　　The large query for Cruz, he said, was “do you retain the windows mainly because they look nice or do you modify them due to the fact they’re falling apart and are a security hazard?”
　　The issue in the unapproved windows was taken up this past Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz said, adding that he was notified in regards to the meeting but didn’t attend.
　　The Mason Creating could have lost its original windows, but there’s nevertheless a window of opportunity to have them back.
　　“We’ve saved each of the small pieces of glass,” said Cruz. “So if something significant would take place, I’d be most content to replace them.”