Too Much Liquor, Not Enough Parking

Posted on December 13, 2014 by cmaddren

Hotel at the Corner of Wilcox and Selma being renovated by Mama Shelter

Last week I went down to City Hall to attend a hearing. An old hotel at Wilcox and Selma that hasn’t been occupied for years is being renovated with the intention of turning it into a new boutique hotel run by the Mama Shelter chain. I have no problem with them renovating the hotel, and Mama Shelter seems like it might be a good addition to the neighborhood, but one of the variances they were asking for concerned me. Here’s the text from the hearing notice.

Pursuant to LA Municipal Code Section 12.24-W,1, a Conditional Use to permit the sale of a full line of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption in conjunction with a proposed ground floor restaurant and a rooftop restaurant, with live entertainment.

Before I go any further, let me give you a little background. I like a having a drink as much as the next guy, and maybe even a little more than the next guy. I certainly don’t want to see Hollywood go dry. But for those of you who don’t live in the area, I can tell you that you couldn’t throw a rock down the street without hitting a bar or a club. The place is crawling with them. Some of you may be familiar with the Cahuenga club scene, which has become a major attraction for people who want to party.

This has caused some problems. In fact, the problems are so serious, that the LAPD recently sent a letter to the Chief Zoning Administrator which complained of the “oversaturation of ABC [Alcohol Beverage Control] locations in the area”. Among the problems caused by this high concentration of bars and clubs are “traffic collisons involving pedestrians, driving under the influence, assault with a deadly weapon, robberies, thefts, fights with serious injuries, shootings and rapes”.

You can see the problems are pretty serious. And while Mama Shelter’s reps at the meeting said that their focus is on serving food, not alcohol, the fact that they want a full liquor license, they want to have live entertainment, and they want to stay open til 2:00 am, seems to indicate that they’ll be drawing the party crowd.

There are other issues. A couple of senior citizens attended the meeting. They live in a building near the proposed hotel, and they both said that they’re already having trouble sleeping because of bars and clubs in the area that have live music. Live entertainment on the rooftop is only going to make it even harder for neighborhood residents to get a good night’s sleep. The noise issue was also brought up by a couple other people who attended, one of whom works for a hostel right across the street.

Then there’s the parking. Here’s another item from the hearing notice.

Pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 12.27, a zone variance to permit the five (5) required parking spaces to be provided off-site within 750 feet by lease in lieu of covenant as required pursuant to Section 12.26-E.5.

This makes it sound as though the hotel has almost enough on-site parking, and they’re only asking to have five additional spaces located off-site. But during the hearing there was an exchange between the zoning administrator and the project rep, and it sounded like the hotel has no parking at all right now. The rep said they were still looking to sign a deal, but that parking is difficult to come by in Hollywood. Yep. Sure is. And if Mama Shelter opens their hotel without adequate parking for guests and visitors, that’s going to make it way harder for those who live in the neighborhood to park their cars.

It seemed unbelievable that Mama Shelter could be as close to opening as they are and still not have the parking nailed down. So earlier this week I e-mailed the zoning administrator to ask if I’d understood the situation correctly. I still haven’t heard back from him.

One of the project reps said the renovations are almost completed. Apparently they hope to open early next year. You might ask why anybody who had invested so much money in a project would wait until they were almost ready to open before having this hearing. They’re looking for permits to allow them to sell alcohol and have live entertainment, which apparently is a key part of their business model. And whatever the situation is with the parking, right now they don’t have enough to satisfy the City’s requirements.

So why would they go this far down the road without having resolved these key issues? Why would they spend millions of dollars on renovations before they’d even secured the necessary permits? Unless maybe somebody at City Hall told them not to worry about it. That it would all be taken care of.

The comment period has been extended to Wednesday, December 17. If you live in the area and you’re concerned about any of the issues this project raises, you might want to contact May Sirinopwongsagon at the Department of City Planning. Here’s her e-mail.

may.sirinopwongsagon@lacity.org

Taking a Closer Look

Posted on November 5, 2014 by cmaddren

It’s so strange how you can pass by something a million times, and not really even notice it. Until it’s in danger of disappearing. The Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea, was built just after I was born. I’ve been driving by it or walking by it all my life. I remember thinking that it was kind of an unusual building, but I never stopped to take to take a closer look. It was always just part of the landscape.

So recently I did take a closer look, and I started to realize what a beautiful building it was. The site is no longer home to a Christian Science congregation. For the last few years it has housed Mosaic, a non-denominational Christian church. The current congregation recently renovated the building, and I’ll talk more about that later.

Actually, the first version of the church was built back in 1915, according to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database. Back then Christian Science was a growing denomination, and the original design stuck to a pretty traditional classical revival style. But in the 1950s the congregation must have decided they needed a different look, and they hired an architect named Howard G. Elwell.

Very little is known about Elwell. One source I found said that he was active in the LA area as early as 1916. I’ve searched the net, but there’s not much documentation of his work. I found a few photos of a movie theatre in Victorville. I found some images of a doctor’s office he may have designed, but the site is unknown. Apparently he also worked on some houses in Pasadena and San Marino.

But the guy definitely had talent. A walk around the church at Hollywood and La Brea shows that it was created by someone fluent in the modern style. Here are a couple photos of the building as it originally appeared.

Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist seen from Hollywood Blvd. circa 1977

Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, also from Hollywood Blvd. circa 1977

It’s too bad they’re in black and white, because the color scheme was one of the unique aspects of the design. If I remember correctly, the curved section at the corner was clad in lavender tile, and the arched windows were painted a similar pastel shade. The effect was subtle and unobtrusive, which is maybe part of the reason it didn’t attract my attention.

Here’s how the church looks today.

Mosaic, Hollywood seen from Hollywood Blvd.

The Mosaic congregation did a nice job of renovating the building. They didn’t touch the structure, but they completely rethought the textures and colors. Removing the tile cladding to reveal the brickwork gives the corner of the church a rustic look, and painting the arched windows grey creates a nice contrast. The building definitely has more of a presence than it did before.

a view of the church from La Brea Ave.

another view of the church from La Brea Ave.

But the structure still retains Elwell’s design, which is a unique and interesting adaptation of the modern style. The building has the dignity appropriate to a church, but without the rhetorical flourishes that make some other sacred structures look pompous. It occupies the site beautifully, with the curved wall at the corner giving way to symmetrical rows of arched windows on either side. And while some churches are basically a façade stuck on a box, Elwell thought about the whole structure, making sure that the rear of the building adheres to the same pattern of curved surfaces and strong verticals.

a view of the church from the parking lot

another view from the parking lot, this time facing La Brea Ave.

Now here’s the bad news. This building will probably be gone in a year or so. Developers want to build a project called Horizon Hollywood, which will consist of 400 residential units with retail and restaurants on the ground floor. Some people think the renderings look pretty nice. Honestly, to me the project looks like another set of generic mixed-use towers. But here’s a link to a write-up at Building Los Angeles. You can judge for yourself.

Hollywood and La Brea’s High-Rise Complex

Personally I’d rather have the church. But I don’t think there’s much chance of saving it. The building has not been designated as a historic landmark. And I don’t see any way it could be incorporated into the high-rise project.

But they won’t start construction on the Horizon Hollywood for a while, so if you’re interested in architecture you might want to take a trip over there. It’s a striking example of mid-century modern, and one of the few known buildings by Howard G. Elwell.

The larger concern is that it seems like historic buildings are once again being threatened by the current development boom. We’ve already lost the Morgan, Walls and Clements building on La Brea near Melrose. This one is probably a goner. And there’s talk of demolishing the Pacific Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. For a while it seemed like LA was getting better at preserving the past. But these days I get the feeling that money is more important than history.

[For an an update on the status of the Mosaic Church, click here.]

The two black and white photos above come from the Security Pacific National Bank Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library’s photo archive. No photographer is credited.

When the Well Runs Dry

Posted on October 21, 2014 by cmaddren

John Ferraro Building (LA Department of Water and Power)

Last week Mayor Garcetti asked Los Angeles residents to cut their water usage by twenty percent. Even though he was basically echoing the governor’s message to all Californians, this was an important step. Angelenos have slowly been climbing on board the conservation bandwagon, but we need to do more.

Over eighty percent of the water we use in Los Angeles comes from outside the city’s boundaries. The only way LA has been able to grow as large as it has is by siphoning water from the Owens Valley and the Colorado River. But due to the current drought, these sources are drying up. In addition, many of the wells in the San Fernando Valley are contaminated, and cleaning them up will be a long, costly endeavor. Here’s a sobering article from the American Society of Civil Engineers web site.

LA to Treat Contaminated Groundwater for City Use

Not only do we need to conserve water in the present, we need to plan for water usage in the future. The City should take a hard look at current requirements for new projects, and ask if there are ways to build structures that are more efficient. In general, we need to look at how future development will impact our water resources. The City needs to consider the cumulative impact of proposed projects on our dwindling supply.

Restaurants in particular should come under special scrutiny, since they consume a great deal of water in their day to day operations. There are a number of ways they can reduce their consumption. Replacing water cooled refrigeration units with air cooled units is a good start. They should also be required to use low volume spray nozzles for washing food. Composting waste instead of using a garbage disposal will also reduce water consumption. I know running a restaurant is difficult, and all these things cost money. Possibly the City could require new restaurants to take these steps, but allow existing restaurants to make the changes over time. And in the long term, adopting these practices will actually save restaurant owners money.

The Department of Water and Power building is a classic modern structure from the sixties, designed by Albert C. Martin & Associates. One of the key elements of the design is the reflecting pool that borders the site. It’s not just beautiful, it’s functional, having been integrated into the system that cools the offices. But it also plays an important symbolic role. Surrounding the Department of Water and Power with an expansive reflecting pool makes a statement about how an area with limited water resources was transformed into a major city, known for its lush green lawns and sparkling swimming pools.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the Los Angeles we’re living in today.

Koreatown

Posted on October 7, 2014 by cmaddren

This is the plaza above the Wilshire/Vermont Red Line station.

And here’s a wider view of the plaza.

The intersection at Vermont and Wilshire is a busy place. People live here, work here, eat here, shop here.

This is Koreatown. It’s the most densley populated neighborhood in LA County. While the exact boundaries are hard to nail down, roughly speaking the area is bordered by Beverly, Vermont, Olympic and Crenshaw.

It’s important to remember that even though it’s called Koreatown, the majority of the people who live there are Latino. About half the population is of Latin American descent, compared to about a third who are of Korean descent. The area came to be associated with Koreans because the vast majority of businesses are Korean-owned.

On the sides of the residential complex that rises above the Wilshire/Vermont plaza, you can see April Greiman’s mural “Hand Holding a Bowl of Rice”.

You can visit the artist’s web site by clicking on the link below.

April Greiman.

Directly across the street is The Vermont, a recently completed residential development comprised of two high-rise towers. This is the kind of high-end project that developers are pushing for all over LA, since they can be extremely profitable. But, not all Koreatown residents are happy about this trend. One concern is that projects like this will push rents up, making it harder for long-time residents to afford housing. Just to give you an idea, a one-bedroom apartment at The Vermont starts at $2,300 a month. In the near future, this trend will almost certainly continue, since The Vermont was recently sold for $283 million. With that kind of money being thrown around, you can be sure that developers will be knocking each other down in their rush to stake a claim in Koreatown.

There are some beautiful older buildings in Koreatown, such as the Wiltern Theatre, designed by Stiles O. Clements of Morgan, Walls and Clements. This firm was a major player in LA back in the thirties and forties, designing local landmarks like Chapman Plaza, La Fonda Restaurant, and the El Capitan Theatre. The auditorium was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, who also created interiors for the Palace and the Orpheum in downtown. I saw Tom Waits there years ago, and I can tell you that the inside is just as impressive as the outside. The Wiltern is actually part of a larger structure called the Pelissier Building, which was completed in 1931. It’s an amazing example of art deco architecture, with its blue-green tile cladding worked into elaborate zig-zag moderne designs. They don’t make ’em like this any more.

And on this stretch of Wilshire you can also find a number of bland office towers occupied by banks and financial services.

Among the oldest buildings in Koreatown are the churches.

Immanuel Presbyterian Church was constructed in 1928, and for decades was a center for the Anglo community that populated the area up through the middle of the twentieth century. In recent years, many of these older churches have become home to multi-cultural congregations, and have services conducted in multiple languages.

The media has given a lot of attention to Koreatown in recent years, but mostly the stories tend to focus on the night life. Sure, there are plenty of good restaurants, and tons of bars and clubs. But Koreatown is more than just a place where you can scarf kalbi and guzzle soju til you pass out. Like any community, it has many different sides. It’s a place where art, business, technology and politics mingle and collide on a daily basis. Aside from the Korean American population, there are Central Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Anglos. Really it’s impossible to define in terms of a single ethnicity or culture.

Koreatown is relatively young, even by LA standards. The number of Koreans in the city was pretty small until the sixties. It wasn’t until 1965, when the US rewrote its immigration policies, that Koreans started arriving in large numbers. The area we now call Koreatown didn’t really come together until the seventies. Since then it has continued to grow, in terms of both population and area.

The Korean Consulate is located on Wilshire not too far from Vermont. As I was walking by one day, I saw that community members had created a memorial to the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster.

Here in the US, the coverage of the Sewol incident was pretty limited and faded from the scene quickly. In Korea, it sparked a huge scandal, as a growing body of evidence suggested it could have been prevented. A series of protests were held in Seoul, with many people accusing the government of a cover-up and demanding that President Park Geun Hye resign. Here’s an article from the Washington Post that gives further details.

Grieving Families Want Independent Probe

Not too far off Wilshire is the Pío Pico Koreatown branch of the LA Public Library. Pico was the last Mexican governor of California before it was annexed by the United States. For many years he was one of the wealthiest and most influential people in the state, but by the time he died he was living in poverty.

I love libraries. Maybe it’s the quiet. Maybe it’s being surrounded by people reading.

Something about this billboard caught my eye. K-Pop isn’t just huge in Asia. It’s got a significant following in the US, too. EXO is built around an unusual concept. The band actually consists of two groups. EXO-K performs their songs in Korean, and EXO-M performs the same songs in Mandarin.

With groups like this, obviously the music is not the focus. Some promoter has gathered a bunch of cute guys that will look good in music videos. People have been doing this for decades, but to me it’s interesting that the Korean media have managed to turn K-Pop into such a cultural phenomenon.

Also on Sixth Street, I dropped in on Red Engine Studios. Actually, that was because of a misunderstanding. I thought the place was a gallery. Turns out it’s a school. The guy at the door seemed uncertain about letting me in, but I guess he finally decided I looked harmless enough. They do have some cool art on the walls, and you can view it by visiting their site.

Red Engine Studios

There are lots of skateboarders in Koreatown. I saw guys riding up and down the sidewalks everywhere, and there was this vacant lot on Sixth where a bunch of kids were practicing their moves.

When I think of Koreatown, I think of malls. As I said earlier, Koreatown got its name because Korean entrepreneurs have been spectacularly successful in creating a vibrant community for businesses to thrive.

There are newer malls, that were built to house dozens of small shops.

And there are older malls, where a bunch of businesses are crowded around a tiny parking lot.

This one looks like it dates back to the sixties. I’m kind of fascinated by how spaces like this change over time, evolving as the neighborhood changes around them.

Of course there are also massive indoor malls. Like Koreatown Plaza.

I went into Music Plaza looking for traditional Korean Music. They didn’t have much of a selection. But if you’re looking for the latest K-Pop releases, this is the place to be. It may not look too busy in this photo, but I had to stand in line to make my purchase. And I feel pretty certain that they make way more on the merchandise than they do on the music.

I’m not sure why this bookstore seems quintessentially Korean to me, but it has something to do with the colors.

Like every other mall, Koreatown Plaza has a sizeable food court.

Walking around the area you see that health and beauty are definitely marketable commodities. There are lots of spas and beauty parlors.

It was the stacks of firewood that made me want to take a picture of Pollo a la Brasa.

As large swaths of LA get gentrified and prettified, it’s cool to see an old school restaurant that isn’t too worried about its appearance. And in addition to keeping the grills going…

…the logs also serve as benches while people wait for the bus.

Yeah, LA’s sidewalks are a mess, but I have to say I have an affection for the huge, overgrown trees that are breaking up the concrete. The thick branches spreading over this stretch of Eighth Street made it seem like a small forest.

And right here on Eighth Street is the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. KIWA has worked for years to defend the rights of workers, and is currently engaged in a campaign to fight wage theft, which is rampant in LA. One of their notable victories was helping Heriberto Zamora recover wages that had been denied him by Urasawa, a posh restaurant in Beverly Hills. Even after being cited by the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for multiple violations related to wage theft, Urasawa resisted paying Zamora what he was owed until just before their final hearing before the DLSE. To find out more about KIWA’s work, click on the link below.

KIWA

Koreatown is changing rapidly, but pieces of the past still remain. I hadn’t been to Dong Il Jang for decades, and I’d been thinking about stopping by for a while.

The waitresses were friendly. The food was good. Even though I hadn’t been there for years, it felt familiar. And it was just reassuring to know that it was still there.

Boom Town

Posted on September 25, 2014 by cmaddren

Downtown is exploding. There’s so much construction going on I can’t even keep track of it. Massive new office and residential buildings are springing up all over the place. There are also efforts underway to revitalize a number of older buildings. Some of this stuff is cool, some of it is dumb, but I’m less concerned about the quality of the individual projects than I am with the cumulative impact of all this construction. More on that later.

Let’s start by sampling a few of the projects currently under construction….

This is the Blossom Plaza, which combines retail and residential, including a fair number of affordable units. It took years for this to get off the ground, and there was a recent hitch when workers uncovered remnants of the original Zanja Madre, but things are moving forward. Curbed LA has been following the story for a while, and you can read more about it by clicking here.

I had a harder time finding current info about this project. The most recent report I read said this was a 240 unit complex being developed by the Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group. Whatever it is, it looks like it’s going to be huge. The site is located at Second and San Pedro, right next to….

….the recently completed AVA Little Tokyo, another massive mixed-use structure. Apparently young people are flocking to Downtown LA these days, and developers are doing everything they can to capture that crowd. Check out this ad, seen in one of the windows on the ground floor.

The way I read this is, “If your highest priority is mindless self-indulgence, this is the place for you.”

And since we don’t have enough luxury rental units in Downtown LA already, Carmel Partners has generously agreed to build 700 more. As you can see in the photo below, it’ll be a while before the project is complete.

You may want to put a deposit down soon. Given the list of amenities, I don’t doubt that the Eighth & Grand complex will be popular. I was sold when I heard about the rooftop pool surrounded by cabanas. For more details, click here.

But let’s talk about a project that might actually benefit the people of Los Angeles. Here’s the new federal courthouse, which is finally going up after being delayed for years. The courthouse is just one component in a larger scheme to revitalize this part of the civic center. Building Los Angeles offers a rundown on some of the related efforts.

Honestly, of all the projects under construction in Downtown LA, the only one I can really get excited about is The Broad. It’s still a long way from completion, and the web site just says that it will open in 2015. But it’s something to look forward to. And they’re already doing some cool programming. Click here to find out what’s going on.

And let’s wrap it up with the New Wilshire Grand. It’s said that when the project is completed, this will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Who cares? I’m so tired of this kind of development. Does this really have anything to do with making the city a better place to live? Or is it just another monument to greed and vanity?

There’s a lot of talk right now about how LA has to embrace higher density development. Fine. There are good reasons to create a more compact city, and certainly sprawl has been a major problem throughout our history. But can anybody demonstrate a need for skyscrapers of this size? And looking at the bigger picture, do we really have the infrastructure to support development on this scale? I’m thinking especially of water, since we are in the middle of a drought. The projects I’ve highlighted here are just a few of the dozens that are either currently under construction or in the permitting process.

When I look at the avalanche of development that’s hitting Downtown LA, I have to ask if anybody at City Hall is thinking about the future, because I don’t see any evidence of rational planning. Instead, I see an onslaught of construction driven by developers who are falling all over themselves to get in on the gold rush. I really question whether the Mayor or the City Council have given any serious thought to how this massive growth spree is going to affect LA down the road. I wish I could believe they were really concerned about the well-being of the people of Los Angeles. It seems more likely that their chief concern is keeping their developer buddies happy.

Preserving a Palace

Posted on September 7, 2014 by cmaddren

The Warner Pacific Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. has been boarded up for a while now. The church that was using the auditorium is gone, and the small retail tenants have vanished, too. Apparently the owner, Pacific Theatres, has plans for the building, though no one is sure what they are. Rumors are circulating that the plans may involve structural changes, but at this point nothing specific has been announced.

The fear is that Pacific will make changes to the theatre that would compromise its historic status. The Warner Pacific Theatre is part of the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, No. 85000704 on the National Register of Historic Places. This stretch of the boulevard contains a number of movie palaces, and is an important cultural resource for the community. The Chinese, the El Capitan, the Egyptian and the Pantages are all found in this area.

I understand that Pacific needs to make a profit, but it would be a shame if their plans did not make the preservation of the theatre’s historic status a priority. There are numerous examples of classic theatres that have been restored over the years, and many have them are very profitable. The El Capitan has been spectacularly successful since its restoration, and still functions as a first-run theatre. The Pantages has been drawing crowds consistently since it was converted to host live stage shows. The Wiltern is an example of a classic theatre that has become a hot venue for concerts.

Pacific can even look to its own recent history to back up the argument for preservation. In the nineties they announced a plan for the Cinerama Dome that would have included gutting the theatre and putting a restaurant in the lobby. The preservation community was outraged, and to their credit, Pacific listened. They changed course, and built the Arclight, which has become a mecca for movie lovers in the Hollywood area.

For more information about the Warner Pacific Theatre, you can visit the Hollywood Heritage web site by clicking the link below. Choose Preservation Issues from the menu on the left, and then click on Endangered Buildings.

Hollywood Heritage

Don’t Destroy the Past

Posted on August 10, 2014 by cmaddren

This is pretty last minute, but I just found out about a historic building in West Hollywood that could be demolished as part of a proposed development. I hadn’t heard anything about it until I opened up my e-mail this afternoon. A friend forwarded a message to let me know that this structure, designed by Wurdeman & Becket back in the thirties, might be wiped off the map unless we take immediate action.

The building, located at 9080 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, was originally the Jones Dog and Cat Hospital. Architects Walter Wurdeman and Welton Becket created a classic example of the streamline moderne style to house the veterinarian’s practice. As a firm, Wurdeman and Becket were active in the thirties and forties, their most famous creation being the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, which burned to the ground many years ago. After Wurdeman’s death, Becket’s new firm, Welton Becket & Associates went on to design some of the city’s most striking structures and played a huge role in defining the look of mid-century Los Angeles.

For more info about the building, click on this link.

Los Angeles Conservancy

And then if you decide you want to tell the West Hollywood City Council how you feel about this, here’s another link. See the left hand column for contact info.

Save the SMB Streamline Moderne

LA has made great strides in preservation over the last several years, but we’re still losing important parts of our past. The recent demolition of a building by Morgan, Walls & Clements on La Brea was a shock, and should be reminder to those of us who care about our city’s culture that we need to be vigilant and vocal.

Reconstructing Crenshaw

Posted on August 4, 2014 by cmaddren

Last week I went down to Crenshaw and Exposition to see what was happening with the construction of the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Work is underway, though it will be years before the project is finished.

A view from the Crenshaw side of the construction site.

Another view from the Crenshaw side.

And here’s a shot taken from the entrance to the site.

While I was there I also took a look at the huge vacant lot that runs along Crenshaw just below the MTA’s construction site.

The fence surrounds a large empty parcel just across the street from the MTA site.

I was wondering if there were any plans to develop the parcel, so I got on the net and started looking around. Apparently this will be the home of the proposed District Square retail complex. For more info, follow this link to a post from earlier this year on Building Los Angeles.

District Square

Right now it’s just a lot of dirt, but the temporary fence running around this area does offer the candidates in the school board special election a place to post their ads.

School board candidates vying for your vote.

You can see the barricades blocking off a good stretch of Crenshaw. Also the large signs letting people know that the businesses along Crenshaw are open during construction.

Looking at the barricades set up on the west side of Crenshaw during construction.

Projects like this can be really hard on business owners, since the work impacts both traffic and parking. And we’re not just talking about a few months, but years. In the long run, the transit line will probably bring more people to the area and be a boon to local merchants, but in the short term, the construction can cause real hardship.

Heavy machinery parked on Crenshaw.

If you haven’t already read about the Crenshaw/LAX Line, here’s a link to the overview at the MTA’s web site.

Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project

The Changing Face of Hollywood

Posted on July 16, 2014 by cmaddren

Rendering of the proposed Kilroy project at Vine and De Longpre

Hollywood is hot. Developers are jumping in with both feet. A number of projects have gone up in the last few years, and many more are in the works. My feelings about the building boom vary greatly, mostly depending on the quality of the individual projects. Some of them will definitely benefit the community, some I can tolerate, and others should never have gotten off the drawing board.

Just recently Kilroy Realty unveiled their plans for a project on Vine, south of Sunset. Over all, I’m inclined to support it. As many people have pointed out, almost anything would be better than what occupies the site now. It’s an underutilized parcel, and Kilroy’s idea of turning it into a media campus makes perfect sense for the area.

A recent shot of the site from the corner of Vine and De Longpre

But I do have a couple of reservations….

First, traffic.

Anyone who’s lived in Hollywood for a while can tell you that traffic is steadily getting worse. This is especially interesting when you consider that the Hollywood area lost over 10,000 residents between 2000 and 2010. So even though there are fewer people living in the community, more of them are driving. It seems probable that this is because the low-income residents who were forced out by rising rents have been replaced by more affluent residents who are more likely to own cars. The Kilroy project will be continuing this trend, since the residential units are geared toward people who have money to spend.

For those of you who don’t live in the area, here are a few photos of the northbound traffic on Vine on a Wednesday evening around 7:00 pm. These were taken at the corner of Vine and De Longpre, right across from the project site.

Traffic on Vine, heading toward Sunset.

Traffic on Vine, coming from Fountain.

Same perspective as previous shot. Note that cars are not entering the intersection even though the light is green.

This project will definitely be putting more cars on the road. What really concerns me is that it’s just one of many projects being considered for the Hollywood area. My point is that the City of LA needs to do a cumulative traffic study to plan for all this growth. The City argues they don’t have the money, which is ridiculous. They don’t have a problem throwing away millions of dollars on legal fees to defend projects that never should have seen the light of day, but they won’t spend a relatively modest sum to plan for a sustainable future. If Garcetti wants to push for big growth in Hollywood, he needs to start by springing for a cumulative traffic study that will help to lay the groundwork.

Second, the residential component of the Kilroy project is definitely catering to the crowd that makes six figure salaries. Again, it’s not so much that I have a problem with this specific project, but the vast majority of the residential units that have been built in the area over the past ten years are geared towards the rich. You can’t move into places like the W, Blvd. 6200 or the Avenue unless you have money to burn. This push to make Hollywood a playground for the wealthy is driving rents up throughout the community. It’s not just the low-income working class families that are being forced out. The artists, musicians and writers who used to live in Hollywood are having to look for less expensive places. The desperate drive for gentrification is great for bringing in the trust fund kids who want to party, but it’s pushing out a lot of the people who really enriched the local culture.

Over all, Kilroy seems to be making an effort to respect the community. This project is planned more or less within the current zoning laws, though the residential tower does go a little high. They’re including a fair amount of open space. It makes sense that they’re catering to media/entertainment companies, and, according to the LA Times story, there is a demand for office space in Hollywood.

So my problem isn’t with this project itself, but the trend that it’s a part of. Hollywood is becoming more expensive and more congested. The mayor doesn’t care. He’s got a mansion in Hancock Park and a driver that takes him wherever he wants to go, both of which are paid for by the taxpayers. So naturally Garcetti wouldn’t be concerned about housing prices and traffic, since he doesn’t have to deal with those problems.

Unfortunately, the rest of us do.

If you want to take a look at the LA Times article on the Kilroy project, the link is below.

Kilroy Unveil Plans for Complex in Hollywood

Hollywood Journal – Preservation Prevails

Posted on July 2, 2014 by cmaddren

The Cinerama Dome under construction in 1963.

I spent a good part of 1998 freaking out over Pacific Theaters’ plans for “renovating” the Cinerama Dome. The initial proposal involved gutting the auditorium, removing the curved screen and putting a fast food restaurant in the lobby. The film and preservation communities protested loudly. To their credit, the people at Pacific met with the opposition and made a number of important concessions.

If you’re not into film, and if you don’t care about Hollywood history, you might be mystified by the uproar. So let me offer a little background….

Cinerama was a process that revolutionized the production and exhibition of films back in the early fifties. Three strips of film were projected in perfect synchronization to create the illusion of a continuous widescreen image, accompanied by stereophonic sound playback. The image was shown on a huge curved screen to produce an early version of what we now call immersive entertainment.

In the early sixties, Cinerama, Inc. unveiled an ambitious plan to create hundreds of Cinerama theatres based on a radical new model. They would construct geodesic domes using prefabricated panels, which would supposedly allow them to build a theatre in half the time and for half the cost of using conventional methods. They purchased a site on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood and hired the firm of Welton Becket and Associates to design what would become the Cinerama Dome.

The premiere of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at the Dome in 1963.

Becket’s company was one of the major architectural firms in the city at that time, and played a large part in setting the look and tone of mid-century Los Angeles. To my mind the Dome is something of a companion piece to one of their earlier signature creations, the Capitol Records Building, which is just a few blocks away on Vine. Together these two icons helped to define space age architecture.

Of the theatres that were constructed to show films in the Cinerama process, only a handful are left today. The Dome is a unique creation designed by one of the most important architectural firms in the city’s history. That’s why so many of us got so crazy when we saw the initial plans to renovate it. I will always be grateful to Pacific for listening to the community and preserving the Dome.

The two pictures above are from the Los Angeles Public Library photo archive. The first shows the dome under construction. It was taken by Howard D. Kelly in 1963. The second shows the premiere of the film that the Dome opened with, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It was also taken in 1963, but no photographer is credited. Below are some photos I took of the Dome and the area surrounding it back in 1998. Sorry that the quality isn’t better. They were taken with a disposable camera, and have faded over the years. A couple of photos were taken from Morningside Court, which used to go through to De Longpre, but was closed off with the construction of the Arclight parking structure.

February, Nineteen Ninety Nine

For weeks I’ve been meaning to write abut the latest on the Cinerama Dome. Here it is.

Apparently the people from Pacific Theaters sat down and talked with the preservation people, and the end result was Pacific gave up a lot of the changes they were going to make. As I recall, these are some of the things pacific agreed to.

The entrance will remain at the front of the theatre.

The layout of the seating will stay basically the same, though they will be putting new seats in.

They won’t alter the ceiling of the auditorium.

And —

They’ll keep the curved screen.

I’m actually really grateful to Pacific for giving in on all this stuff. I doubt they understand why the Dome is such a great piece of architecture, so from their point of view the preservationists are going crazy over nothing.

Of course, we still don’t know what the Dome is gonna look like when they’re through. But at this point I’m cautiously optimistic.

The front of the Cinerama Dome in 1998.

Screen walls and landscaping on the periphery of the Dome.

A shot from the parking lot, looking north to Sunset.

A shot of Morningside Court, looking toward Sunset.

Another shot of Morningside Court, this time looking in the opposite direction towards De Longpre.

This was taken from the parking lot behind the Dome, facing west. The site just across the street is where Amoeba now stands.

This shot was taken facing the opposite direction, now looking across the parking lot towards Morningside Court.

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The Horizon and the Skyline

A blog about Los Angeles

Category Archives: Development