At about 1:30 on Monday morning, a BMW travelling east on Melrose at extremely high speed hit a westbound car near Larchmont Blvd., and crashed through the window of the Artworks Studio at the SE corner of Melrose and Larchmont. And the second car careened into the entryway of the currently-closed Le Petit Marche restaurant on the north side of Larchmont.
According to Cyndi Finkle, Artworks owner, she was awakened by a call from police shortly after the collision, notifying her of the crash and asking her to come and secure her property. Finkle said she found the car fully inside the studio/classroom space, with the building’s entryway, window, tile, AC and planters completely obliterated. Tables, chairs, car parts, easels and tennis balls (which Finkle puts on chair feet to keep them from scraping on the floor), she said, were strewn everywhere…but luckily the car stopped just sort of the pillars supporting a mezzanine space, which potentially could have collapsed if they’d been hit.
Finkle told the Buzz that the police sergeant at the scene said both the BMW’s driver and passenger were drunk, and the driver is now in jail. Luckily, no one in either car was seriously hurt or hospitalized, “which was a great, great thing,” said Finkle.
Finkle said she contacted the building’s owners, who sent someone to board up the broken windows by 10 a.m. She was told, however, not to clean up anything inside until insurance adjusters visit to examine the scene.
When we spoke to Finkle on Monday afternoon, she said it was too early to tell how long Artworks will remain closed, but that it will be at least for the remainder of this week. A special day camp she’d planned for this Friday also had to be cancelled.
