Change Is the Only Constant at LACMA

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A view of LACMA as it was in the sixties

A view of LACMA as it was in the sixties

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is undergoing some major changes. Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has been commissioned to design a completely new campus for the museum. All of the original structures, plus the Anderson Building (now the Art of the Americas Building) will be demolished to make way for a brand new campus.

It makes sense. Over the years LACMA has become kind of a cluttered mess. I loved the original Pereira design, three unobtrusive modern structures surrounding a spacious plaza. To my mind the addition of the Anderson Building in the mid-eighties was a huge mistake. Sure, it was great to have the extra square footage for exhibitions, but the building itself was awful. The central plaza was taken away, and a blandly oppressive façade now towered over the sidewalk at the Wilshire entrance. Two years later they added the Japanese Pavilion, which I have mixed feeling about. Inside, it’s a great space for displaying art and artifacts. Outside, it’s just kind of weird and tacky, and adds to the general visual confusion.

So I totally understand why the LACMA Board wants to start over, more or less from scratch. Zumthor’s design is pretty interesting. Below is a link to a slide show on LACMA’s web site.

Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA

There are a lot of good ideas here. I love the fact that the design allows for more interaction with the surrounding park. And I’m really intrigued by the concept of storing art in areas that would allow for public viewing day or night, all year round. This could turn out to be pretty cool….

But I couldn’t find any information on LACMA’s web site about when all this is going to happen. Making Zumthor’s design a reality will be a huge undertaking. The first step will be to demolish the four buildings that make up the core of the campus. And my guess is that it would take at least a couple years to complete the new structure. Which means LACMA’s exhibitions would be confined to the BCAM and the Resnick Pavilion for quite a while, although they might also look for a temporary space.

Big ambitious projects like this often sound really exciting in the planning stages. Then, when you start trying to figure out how to actually make it happen, the excitement fades as people realize what a huge challenge it will be. But I hope they can pull it off. This could take LACMA to a new level.

Hollywood Journal – The Egyptian

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The Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood’s first movie palace, opened in nineteen twenty two with Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks. Over the years its fortunes rose and fell along with the rest of Hollywood Boulevard. I started going to the Egyptian around nineteen seventy. My friend Paul took me there to see 2001. It blew me away.

I saw many more films at the Egyptian throughout the seventies and eighties, but by the early nineties the theatre was in bad shape. It closed in ninety two. After the Northridge earthquake in ninety four, I was walking past the rear of the auditorium and saw a gaping hole in the wall. I was sure they’d tear it down and put up a mini-mall.

Fortunately, the American Cinematheque bought the Egyptian from the City of LA a few years later, and it reopened in nineteen ninety eight. Hodgetts + Fung was the firm in charge of the renovation/restoration. This journal entry was written around the time they were finishing up.

The photo below is not from the nineties. It was just taken recently.

DSC02060

December, Nineteen Ninety Eight

A cold, windy day in Hollywood. But still a lot of people out and about. The coffee house I’m sitting in seems to be doing good business.

On my way over here I went by the Egyptian. In fact, I walked into the courtyard. It’s open again. They’ve finally finished their renovation or restoration or whatever they’re calling it. My feelings were mixed. On one hand, yeah, I’m glad it’s open and I’m glad it’s being used as a theatre instead of a swap meet.

On the other hand I can’t say I’m crazy about the finished product. Even though they’ve obviously gone to a lot of trouble to restore certain features of the original design. I feel like they’ve ended up with self-conscious kitsch. But I should wait till I’ve seen the inside before I make any rash judgments.

It’s gotta be hard for an architect working on a project like this. The original Egyptian wasn’t a masterpiece of design. It was impressive, theatrical kitsch that overwhelmed you with its size. And god, it was a great place to see movies. Brian says when the Times reviewed the restored building they didn’t even mention that the auditorium is much smaller than it used to be.

Housing in Hollywood

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A while ago I was riding the bus down La Brea and I was surprised to see a number of projects under construction. There seems to be a small explosion of residential and retail going up. Here are a few photos….

La Brea & Santa Monica

La Brea 2

La Brea 1

Jerry Solomon

For a really thorough overview of this mini-building boom, check out this article by Daniel Safarik for The Faster Times. He gives an excellent breakdown of each project and talks about what all this development could mean for the community. Safarik points out that large stretches of La Brea have fallen into decline, and that it makes sense to replace vacant, decaying buildings with new structures that will contribute something to the neighborhood. And I’m certainly in favor of development, as long as it responds to an actual need.

And that’s the tricky part. What does this community actually need? And in a larger context, what does the city of LA actually need?

Not too long after my trip down La Brea, I was walking along Franklin and I noticed a number of apartment buildings sporting brightly colored banners to let people know they had vacant units. Here’s a selection….

El Cerrito

Banners 2

Ardmore

Lido

Grace

Vida

These are just half of the pictures I took. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the area, La Brea intersects Franklin at the foot of the Hollywood Hills. All of the signs I photographed are on buildings within a mile of that intersection. I didn’t have to look for them. All I did was walk along Franklin to Wilcox, where I made a right. I’m willing to bet there are many more buildings with vacancies on the streets between Franklin and Hollywood Boulevard.

Sure, I understand that all apartment complexes are going to have vacant units at times, and the larger ones will always have a higher turnover. But ten years ago I wasn’t seeing green and red banners shouting “NOW RENTING” at passersby. Ten years ago apartments were in demand, and landlords didn’t have to worry about luring tenants.

So I guess I’m skeptical about the necessity of building over a thousand new units on La Brea. If there’s that much demand, why are there so many empty apartments just blocks away? It’s true that vacancy rates can vary widely from one neighborhood to another. But it’s interesting that of all the buildings going up on La Brea, only one is going to provide affordable housing. The rest are all geared for the upscale crowd. I’m assuming prices will be in the same range as The Avenue, a recently completed complex near Hollywood and La Brea where rents start at $2,350 a month.

I’ve heard so much about how LA needs to accept high-density housing, that there’s no other solution for the city’s future. But LA is not growing the way it used to. Census data shows that the city’s population increased just 2.65 percent between 2000 and 2010. In the Hollywood area the population actually shrank by more than 12,000.

So are we building all these units because people can’t find housing? Or are we building them because developers stand to make a lot of money?

Hollywood Journal – Leave the Dome Alone

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Another entry from my Hollywood journal, this one very brief.

The wrangling over Pacific Theaters’ plans for the Cinerama Dome continues. There was a good deal of anger in the Hollywood community over the proposed project. The Community Redevelopment Agency had received letters of protest from over a hundred concerned citizens, including Steven Spielberg and Richard Schickel. And the people at Pacific had started paying attention.

I also mention a couple of record stores I used to frequent. Eastside was in a strip-mall on Hillhurst. It’s long gone now. Record Recycler was on Sunset near Vermont. It’s actually still around, though it hasn’t been at that location for years. The owner moved the store down to Torrance. Those of you who are into used vinyl can get more info by clicking here.

For a while I was in the habit of hitting the Roosevelt Hotel for a drink at the end of the day. I loved zoning out in the lobby and listening to the guy at the piano. Totally relaxing. I should point out that the photo below was not taken at the time I wrote this journal entry. I snapped it on a recent visit. I wanted to show a little bit of the Roosevelt lobby, but it’s important to say that it’s been remodeled since this entry was written.

And finally, in transcribing this journal I’ve decided to leave the errors in, which is why “Roosevelt” is misspelled in the last paragraph.

June, Nineteen Ninety Eight

Yesterday I called Pacific Theaters again to see if there was any change in the Cinerama Dome situation. And apparently, yeah, they’ve made some concessions. It’s still hard to say whether this so-called remodeling is gonna work out okay, but from what the woman told me, it sounds like they’re finally thinking a little bit about design. I heard they were talking to the L.A. Conservancy. Thank God for the Conservancy.

This afternoon I went and bought some records, first at Eastside, then at Record Recycler.

A little after six I walked into the lobby of the Rooseveldt. Ordered a beer. Sat down in a chair over by the piano. The guy actually played Three Coins in the Fountain. Mercy.

Rsvt Lobby

More Millennium Madness

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There’s an excellent article in the August 9 issue of the LA Weekly covering recent revelations about the fault line that may run under the Millennium Hollywood site. You can follow the link below to the on-line version, but I urge you to also read the print version, which is more coherent and gives a broader picture of the situation. Reporter Gracie Zheng does a good job of sorting out the details of this depressing story, which clearly shows that campaign cash from developers is way more important to the City Council than the safety of LA’s residents.

Was Fault Hushed Up?

The Devil Is in the Details

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Aerial view of Regional Connector station at First and Alameda.

Aerial view of Regional Connector station at First and Alameda.

To show you how clueless I am, I hadn’t heard anything about the MTA’s proposed Regional Connector project until a few days ago. This is a major undertaking, and it has major implications, not just for the downtown area but for all of LA. Briefly, the purpose of the project is to link together the Gold Line’s Little Tokyo Station with the Red Line’s 7th & Metro Station, which could make things a lot easier for transit riders. For a more complete explanation, here’s a link to the Regional Connector page on the MTA’s web site.

MTA Regional Connector

And if you’d like to see what the completed project would look like, click the link below to see proposed designs, as well as maps laying out the location of the stops. I thought some of the comments were interesting, too. A lot of people are less than thrilled with the way the stations are laid out.

LA.StreetsBlog

As with any project of this size, there are pros and cons. Overall, I think the Regional Connector could be tremendously beneficial. But there are also potential problems, and three different groups are suing the MTA over the project. One issue is that a number of local businesses will be displaced. Even businesses that don’t have to worry about being demolished are very concerned about being able to function during construction. Many of these are family-run enterprises, and a significant loss of customers over a period of years could kill them.

I spent some time this morning checking out a number of articles on the Regional Connector, and often the comments were the most interesting part of the story. A lot of downtown residents are totally gung ho on this project. Many of them dismiss the concerns of the local businesses as though the owners are worrying over nothing. A few of the commenters are so angry about the lawsuits that they suggested a boycott of the businesses involved. I wonder how these commenters would feel if an enterprise they’d worked for years to establish was threatened with extinction.

I also wonder if the people who are so enthusiastic about this project remember the last time the city built an underground rail line. I’m referring to the construction of the Red Line, which ran way behind schedule and way over budget, and caused massive problems when they were tunnelling under Hollywood Boulevard. The street actually sank six inches during this period, and the digging also affected water lines. There was also evidence of massive corruption and sub-standard work by the contractors. Here’s a link to some of the comments posted at the LA Times during this period.

LA Times – Red Line Comments

I do think the Regional Connector could be really good for LA, but we have to show a healthy skepticism about any project of this size. The picture the MTA paints makes it all sound great, but there’s a big difference between creating digital renderings and actually getting it done. Don’t forget, they’ve burned us before.

Furious

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I can’t describe how angry I am over the LA City Council’s vote to approve the Millennium Hollywood project. After Caltrans contacted the city to ask why none of its concerns over traffic were addressed in the Final EIR. After the California Geological Survey wrote to say they believe an active fault line runs beneath the project area. After months of pleas from angry residents who do not want these towers. The City Council and the Mayor choose to ignore all of that and forge ahead.

It’s obvious they don’t care about the safety of Hollywood’s residents. It’s obvious they don’t care how much time LA’s citizens spend sitting in traffic. And it’s obvious they don’t care that state agencies have expressed serious reservations about this project. But their lack of concern shouldn’t surprise us, since they’ve demonstrated over and over again that their primary concern is representing the interests of developers and unions.

I think it’s time we asked the state to step in. Caltrans has said the project will seriously impact the Hollywood Freeway, making a bad situation even worse. The California Geological Survey has expressed concern about an active fault line. I think we need to contact our representatives on the State Legislature and ask them to get involved. The city has shown a total disregard for the state’s input on this project. We need to ask the State of California to take action.

A Faster Future

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fiber 3

I am not a techie. When I started this blog what I had in mind was writing about the built environment, but more and more our cities are defined by technology. I had heard about Google possibly installing a fiber optic network in LA. This could allow area residents to download data with amazing speed, but at the moment it seems to be just speculation. Then I came across this article about Google making a deal with Austin, Texas to bring fiber optic to them.

PandoDaily – Google’s Fiber Takeover

The article makes some pretty broad claims about Google’s intentions. I was skeptical. So I sent the link to my nephew, Morgan, in Santa Cruz, who is a techie. Here’s an excerpt of what he had to say:

I’m not so sure Google is planning to takeover. They might, but only if they think they can significantly improve service. I think for them the ideal case is that the existing ISPs just upgrade their service, currently the problem is that all the ISPs have more or less realized it’s easier to just make incremental upgrades as opposed to laying new infrastructure. There’s been severe stagnation because ISPs have a lot of power. Because of that, US internet is way behind.

Google wants everyone to have high speed internet because that increases their ad revenue, but it probably doesn’t make much of a difference to them whose internet service it is. From what I’ve read, these services are likely breaking even at best, since it’s a lot more expensive for them to lay new infrastructure. Therefore, Google’s probably hoping that by threatening ISPs with this service, they’ll push them to lay new infrastructure so that Google won’t have to. If the ISPs don’t get with it, they might just end up taking over, but I doubt that’s really what they want to do.

He also sent me this link from Wired. The premise of the article is that government needs to get out of the way and let ISPs build what they want.

Wired – Don’t Blame Big Cable

I don’t buy all of the author’s arguments. The idea that government should just step back and let business take over is called into question by recent history. You can look at the Enron debacle in California, where the state’s Democratic legislature let the energy giant write its own ticket. Enron proceeded to steal billions of dollars from California consumers, and there are numerous other examples of this kind of abuse. But he gives an interesting breakdown of the challenges that companies have to face when dealing with city government.

Lastly, a brief article from Maximum PC about a small town that did install its own fiber optic network and is doing quite well.

Maximum PC – Small Town Triumphs

I have no idea where all this is going. My grasp of this stuff is pretty tenuous. But it seems clear that cities, especially major cities that want to attract business, will need to create this kind of tech infrastructure if they want to be competitive. The future is here.

Lots of Hype, But No Jobs

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I was checking the headlines at the LA Wave this morning, and came across an interesting story. There’s been a lot of hype about how great the Crenshaw Light Rail Line will be for the surrounding community, but I guess that doesn’t extend to providing jobs for local contractors. You can read the story by clicking here.

One aspect of the story that caught my attention is that the Young Black Contractors Association (YCBA) is planning a protest against the Los Angeles Urban League. The word is that the League has been chosen as the outreach coordinator for general contractor Walsh/Shea Corridor Constructors. The YCBA suspects that the League is going to take a few million from Walsh/Shea without making any real effort to bring local black contractors and construction workers onto the project. This is a fairly common ploy. In recent years non-profits have been starved for cash. Developers and contractors know this, so they offer a bunch of money to these groups to get their support. That way, Walsh/Shea can say, “Hey, the LA Urban League is backing us up!” Unfortunately, non-profits are sometimes willing to go along with this if they need the money badly enough. It’ll be interesting to see if the YCBA can make enough noise to bring jobs to a community where they are really needed.

Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line

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A musician in Leimert Park.

A musician in Leimert Park.

Transit politics can be tricky. I’ve started following the discussion over the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line, and I have to say the whole thing is pretty complicated. I think everyone agrees it’s a worthwhile project, but the devil is in the details. A heated debate has been going on, apparently for years, about how many stops would be on the line, where they would be located, and whether the line would run below grade in certain areas. The trains would run south on Crenshaw to Inglewood, turn west at Florence, and then follow Aviation south to LAX. Here’s a link to a map on the MTA web site.

Click to access Crenshaw-LAX_transit_corridor_map_eng.pdf

The project could give a much needed boost to the area, which the City of LA has neglected for years. Running between the Expo Line and the Green Line, it would provide an important transit link for people in the Crenshaw district and Inglewood. It could also create lots of jobs in neighborhoods where unemployment is high.

One of the key issues is safety. Most LA residents are probably aware of the problems with the Blue Line. There have been over nine hundred accidents at crossings where the trains run at street level, resulting in more than a hundred deaths. This is why many in the community are fighting to make sure this new train runs below grade in some segments. But digging tunnels would increase the cost significantly, and as far as I can tell the city hasn’t actually committed to do this for any segment of the line. The Crenshaw Subway Coalition has posted this document, which outlines their argument against grade level crossings.

The link below offers an interview with MTA Chief Art Leahy and gives a general update on the progress of the Crenshaw-LAX Line.

http://wavenewspapers.com/news/local/west_edition/article_a4586a8c-ce22-11e2-aeb8-0019bb30f31a.html

I’ve ridden public transit all my life, and I have to say that getting around LA is much easier now than it was twenty years ago. The MTA has made a lot of progress in recent years, and following a project like this you realize how difficult it can be to make things happen.