Hollywood Projects

[LAMetroGuy]

The irony of a "hick" building a "cosmo" type of development... hurry and start this project! UGH!

Hollywood BLVD will be sandwhiched between Pantages Theater/W Hotel & The Chinese Theater/El Capital Theater/Hollywood-Highland projects... no doubt this will return Hollywood blvd to the status it should have been for years.

[bobcat]

Film Academy Plans Hollywood Movie Archie

23 January 2006
10:12 AM
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Film executives are moving forward with a long-planned movie museum they hope will lure more visitors into the heart of America's film industry.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is building the museum, has selected a site for the $200 million film archive about a half mile south of the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Streets, said Bruce Davis, the academy's director.

"I think it has a chance of being enormously successful in getting visitors," Davis said.

Groundbreaking is set for 2008 on the museum that will occupy 75,000 square feet next to the film academy's Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.

The academy's museum committee hasn't considered an architect yet, but Davis said committee members want the displays to be shown in pavilions spread over an outdoor space, "since the weather is what attracted the movies here in the first place."

Some of the pavilions would house exhibits on the history of film, while others would be used for changing exhibits on different subjects, he said.

The academy already owns much of the land at the planned site, but still needs to acquire some parcels along an adjacent commercial strip of chain restaurants and discount shops, Davis said.

"People come to Hollywood and look for things that teach them about the art form of movies, and it is astonishing that there are only a few things," he said.

[citywatch]

Variety, Jan 19, 2006

Museum finds a home

AMPAS finds location for movie archive

By STEVEN ROSEN

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has chosen a site in Hollywood for its long-planned movie museum and is moving forward on financing and construction. Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy, said the preference is for the space adjacent to its existing Pickford Center at 1313 Vine St. It would be in a two-block area bounded by DeLongpre Avenue on the north, Fountain Avenue on the south, Vine Street on the east and Cahuenga/Ivar streets on the west. The Pickford Center will remain as a separate entity.

The Academy already owns some of the needed land, but must acquire five parcels on the northern part of the site, some of which are now occupied by a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise and a Big Lots! store. It is envisioning a museum that would occupy 75,000 square feet of space and cost roughly $200 million to build. There is a 2008 target date to start construction.

"I think it has a chance of being enormously successful in getting visitors," Davis said. "People come to Hollywood and look for things that teach them about the art form of movies, and it is astonishing that there are only a few things. If we do this well enough, we could attract not only that audience but also the local community."

The Academy submitted its proposal on Dec. 20 to the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles. The site is within the agency's Hollywood Redevelopment Project area. The staff is reviewing it and planning to make a recommendation to the public agency's board of directors by the end of February or early March. Public hearings would then be held. "The parking issue concerns us," Davis said. "There are things they could do to help with that."

The Academy has revenue derived from its Oscarcast, Davis said. It also may issue a bond to raise money and will definitely undertake a fundraising campaign. "Our hope is to break even once we get it open, but we are prepared to absorb a yearly loss of $2 million-$3 million."

Davis said the Academy's museum committee -- chaired by past-president Robert Rehme and reporting to the board of governors -- hasn't gotten far enough to consider an architect yet. But its subcommittees have spent much time considering what they want a museum devoted to the movies to look like. "We're agreed we want a series of pavilions with open space, as at the Getty, since the weather is what attracted the movies here in the first place," he said. "Some would be on the straight history of the art of film, others on different (subjects), and we would have changing exhibits."

There would also have at least one theater; the Academy could use the existing 286-seat Linwood Dunn Theater at the Pickford Center for programming.


Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, at
1313 Vine Street, 1948

[Steve2726]

I did a search but didn't find this project, so here it is:

Artist's rendering from Laing Homes' urban group shows the proposed Madrone residential-commercial development in Hollywood.





There are a few more renders available here:
http://www.cuningham.com/portfolio/housing/LaBrea.html#

Project Description:
This high-density, mixed-use condominium project is helping to pioneer a solution to Los Angeles' housing problems.
Two seven-story buildings house 180 condominiums and offer views of city lights and the mountains. Parking is available in one above-grade and three below-grade levels below a Hollywood-style courtyard that allows residents to lounge poolside on the landscaped podium deck.

The main entry to the residential lobby will be accessed from a plaza that offers 20,000 square feet of community-oriented service retail offering residents and the public alike a place to relax with a cup of coffee and a newspaper.

The condominiums average nearly 1,100 square feet and feature large areas of glazing, clean interior lines and sleek kitchens and bathrooms.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

Citywatch, the objects of your daily scorn seem to be:

1) "deadzones", i.e., under-utilized properties and surface lots;
2) "hicksville" architecture;
3) overhead powerlines.

Here is my take, once and for all, on these subjects.

Regarding "deadzones": everybody on these forums agrees deadzones are a problem. But why are so many deadzones around? Because (1) it is too expensive to develop the lots, (2) planning/zoning makes development prohibitive, and (3) we are put an extremely high priority on having parking spaces readily available. So what to do if you don't like them? Lobby the city council, and/or do something concrete to change the real estate market.

Regarding "hicksville" architecture: this seems to mean strip malls, working-class housing and industrial buildings. These buildings were designed primarily to be inexpensive and serve their purpose. They were not designed to be critiqued by architects. Your comments suggest disdain not just for the architecture but for the people you consider low-class that inhabit and use these buildings. As for the little "scrubby" buildings in South Park, recall that until relatively recently, this industry was all the area could support, and the rest of the City was glad to have these businesses there.

Re powerlines: if you don't like them, then lobby the city council and/or the utility companies to get them underground. If you want to convince fellow forumers that this is a problem, then set up a thread about powerlines and hold your discussion there. But remember: just because someone puts powerlines as a lower priority than you do doesn't mean they think its "BFD", it just means they think there are bigger fish to fry.

If you want to discuss these topics in a meaningful way, I am all for it, particularly if you have solutions or strategies to offer. But it is rude and arrogant for you to co-opt every other discussion so that you can go off on a tangent about these topics. You have pissed away the goodwill of many here on the forums who initially gave you the benefit of the doubt. I hope this isn't the way you participate in conversations in the real world, it is not a very good way to "win friends and influence people".

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

i like that project. where is the location and whats the timeline? thanks for digging it up.

[citywatch]

^ Madrone apparently is somewhere at or near the intersection of Hollywood and La Brea.

Based on this shot at local.live.com, I can't tell whether the proj would rise on a site where the existing bldgs have been torn down or perhaps the triangle shaped parking lot near the SW corner of that intersection.


And, again, I'll just allow the comments on a blogger's site to say it all for me:

That's partly why we can't look to Hollywood to make our buildings prettier. The other is Angelenos themselves, who think aesthetics rank below making money, eating and maintaining sanity in our inert traffic.

[cookiejarvis]

I'm going to take a guess that the development will be taking place on the parcel of land on the westside of La Brea with all the moving vans in the parking lot. There's a theater there that recently closed due to plans to redevelop the property. I think I read about it in the L.A. Weekly about a month or two ago.

In that local.live shot, you can also see the old Pacific Electric Red Car right-of-way that sliced diagonally off of the La Brea & Hollywood intersection.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

I only hope the final product is this dramatic! Cookiejarvis, what theater closed near La Brea and Hollywood Blvd?

[WesTheAngelino]

^ that would be the Galaxy theatre

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by cookiejarvis

I'm going to take a guess that the development will be taking place on the parcel of land on the westside of La Brea with all the moving vans in the parking lot.

Based on this PDF file, I think you're right. Although the removal of one more deadzone is always good news, the site, because it doesn't sit directly on Hollywood Blvd, won't be as noticeable or visible with new devlpt on it as it could have been.

[Wright Concept]

Originally Posted by LongBeachUrbanist

I only hope the final product is this dramatic! Cookiejarvis, what theater closed near La Brea and Hollywood Blvd?

Are their any color photos of this project? The reason why I ask is because this b&W is nice and has a simple texture to it, that shows off the lighting cues but I'm afraid depending on what color and materials they use, this might look kinda of tacky.

But that's just an aesthetic sensibility, I just like that they have street front retail/commercial space.

[cookiejarvis]

LBU, it was a long running equity theater establishment. I don't know the name offhand.

Wes might be right. That rendering does look suspiciously like the frontside of the Galaxy. That would be great news. But does that mean that the Knitting Factory would have to move?

[citywatch]

This diagram makes the location & siting of the Madrone proj more obvious:

[LongBeachUrbanist]

Thanks all. That's on the west side of La Brea between Marshfield and Hawthorn. Definitely not the Galaxy Theater (which is on Hollywood Blvd) but rather a triangular lot consisting mostly of parking lot, with a building in the middle and another building in the upper corner. CJ, I'll take your word for it that it's a small theater stage, I've never noticed what was there.

[cookiejarvis]

Yeah. The Open Fist Theater was located there. From April 2005 L.A. Weekly:

On La Brea Avenue between Sunset and Hollywood boulevards, after 15 years of theatrical productions and countless awards, Open Fist Theater was stunned to receive a 30-day notice to quit from landlords Steven “Corky” Ullman Jr. and his brother, George Ullman. The Ullman brothers sold the property, valued at $16 million, to developer John Laing Homes, which intends to raze the theater for construction of a 180-unit condominium complex plus 14,000 square feet of restaurant and other retail space. (The theater was built by Troopers in the early 1940s and used as a vaudeville house.)

[dktshb]

The Madrone was being held up because of protests from many residents in the Hollywood Versailles building on Hollywood Blvd (I used to live there). The residents were objecting to the height of the project, which they claim will block their unobstructed views of the LA basin. I think they were looking at possible litigation. I know many of the residents complained at a city council meeting too. I am not sure if that's what's keeping the project from going forward but I would sure like to see some dirt moved soon on this project.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by dksthb

The Madrone was being held up because of protests from many residents in the Hollywood Versailles building on Hollywood Blvd

Originally Posted by ronson

It's good thin to highlight the ugly parts. make people aware of what needs to be fxed.

After seeing this shot at local.live.com, it's hard to believe all the gaps that existed in the hood before the devlpt of Hollywood & Highland----or the revival of the El Capitan theater across the street not too many yrs before that, or the Roosevelt hotel more recently-----& how nothing but a major deadzone parking lot existed right next to Grauman's until as recently as the late 1990s---& there's still one sitting directly west of that theater.

I wonder if all the NIMBYites north of the blvd, up in the hills, who during the planning process complained that H&H's signs would be too big & bright & that the new devlpt would do nothing but add to traffic were ever as bothered by their hood's ugly parts as they should have been? I know their tactics delayed the proj, which didn't help matters when H&H finally opened right after 9-11, causing an even bigger loss for the original owners.

[citywatch]

From la.curbed.com:

Nary a day goes by that a building in Los Angeles isn't converted
from empty office space to hip lofts. So goes today, with news from
the Mayor's Office that the building permits have been issued for
conversion of the Hollywood Professional Building at Sycamore and
Hollywood. The building will be adaptively reused into 42 loft units,
courtesy of the workaholics at CIM Group. While Ronald Reagan was
president of the Screen Actor's Guild, he had an office on the building's
8th floor. We expect that penthouse suite to fetch a pretty, pretty
penny.

[citywatch]

From blogging.la:

A large banner was recently hung outside The Broad-
way building on the southwest corner of Hollywood and
Vine in Hollywood.