The world has enough strip malls and obnoxious new apartment buildings. Any American living in a big urban area has witnessed the loss of historic landmarks to bland, big-box development.

Los Angeles has been hit especially hard with much of its historic “Google” architecture demolished long ago and replaced by “infill” development that leverages a dreaded tenant of real estate, “The highest use of the land.”  The local Department of Planning and Development is historically tone-deaf to historical landmarks and favors developers and the job creation and tax revenue they create.

The kustom car world is about to feel the brunt of the ever-changing times we live in. George Barris’ Kustom Shop in North Hollywood is for sale.

We all knew it was coming.  We went to the Barris “garage sale” back in 2018 and figured it was just a matter of time. The 10,000-square-foot commercial property, on an 18,000-square-foot corner lot, is offered by Douglas Elliman Real Estate at $3.995 million and is almost certainly destined for redevelopment.

Barris Mail Truck. Dig the unicycle on the running board.

King Barris

Built in 1966. the parcel includes the showroom that still houses a Batmobile; the garages where brothers George and Sam Barris did custom bodywork for celebrities including Elvis Presley, Elton John, and Cassandra Peterson, (Elvira, Mistress of the Dark). Even the spray booth where “Kustom kolors” concocted by George were applied to cars driven by James Dean, and John Wayne is included.

Elvira

It is the last family-owned, hand-made automobile shop still standing from the golden era of the Los Angeles kustom scene. Others like Blair’s Speed Shop in Pasadena and Moon Speed Shop in Santa Fe Springs live on but have new owners.

If only the walls could talk. According to the LA Times, “Barris would become the self-proclaimed “King of the Kustomizers,” employing the best of the best of California automotive artisans to turn Detroit dross into Hollywood gold. Many of his most important projects would be for movies and TV shows.

George and his family at height of his fame

“On a rushed three-week build, he and the team turned a Ford Futura concept car — bought by George for $1 — into the Batmobile. (Barris sold the car decades later at auction for $4.2 million.)

Futura becomes Batmobile

“Later he forged three Model T bodies into the Munster Koach, turned a gold-plated coffin into the Munsters’ Drag-U-La, and built starring-role vehicles for ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘My Mother the Car.’

Munster Koach

“Fame had already found Barris. He and his contemporary car nut colleague Ed “Big Daddy” Roth were the subjects of journalist Tom Wolfe’s landmark Esquire story “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.”

What will become this hallowed building and plot of land?  Barris family members have long since moved all the artifacts from the building and plan to open up a museum.

Something like this will most likely be built.

The aforementioned term keeps echoing through my mind “The highest use of the land…”  Sadly that means building as many stories and units as the county will permit. A one-story body shop just doesn’t pencil out. Fifty, $500K condos with ground-floor retail space make more sense.

There are two scenarios where the Barris’ building survives. A patron saint grabs the property and turns it into a restaurant or museum, or the property is deemed a historical landmark.

Both are longshots.

For now, if you’re in the LA area, stop by and pay your last respects.  There won’t be anything like Barris Kustoms again.

RIP George Barris