LA Live | 663ft | 54 fl [Archive] - Page 12

saiholmes

February 7th, 2010, 09:11 AM

AEG's chief is a force in L.A.
Tim Leiweke has driven vast changes in the texture of downtown L.A.'s cityscape.
By Cara Mia DiMassa
The Los Angeles Times
February 7, 2010

With a hard hat perched on his head and an orange safety vest enveloping his burly figure, Tim Leiweke leaned against a window 52 stories up. He peered north, taking in a vista from downtown to the San Gabriel Mountains. "It's amazing, the view, eh?" he asked.

With the ease of an urban planner and the affection of a doting uncle, Leiweke pointed out symbols of downtown's revitalization. There, he gestured enthusiastically: a Ralphs supermarket, the refurbished Eastern Columbia building, and finally, the light-filled and logo-emblazoned L.A. Live district that his company, Anschutz Entertainment Group, has built.

But at ground level, Leiweke, the president and chief executive of AEG, was more reserved. The sleek, glass-encased tower in which he had been standing represents something dramatic for Los Angeles. The tower, which includes 1,001 hotel rooms to serve the nearby Convention Center as well as 224 luxury condos, is downtown's first new skyscraper in 18 years. But it also represents a major gamble.

"It scares the hell out of me," Leiweke said. "It's the hardest thing we've ever done, and we are going right into the eye of the storm."

At a time when City Hall is reeling from financial woes, big public works projects remain stalled and private developments have been canceled, Leiweke as much as any other individual is driving the transformation of a major part of Los Angeles.

Those who praise him see Leiweke as an exemplar of what Los Angeles has long lacked -- a smart, savvy player who can link arms with financial backers, politicians and unionized workers with equal gusto. In an era when the city can do little development on its own, he and AEG have helped fill a major civic void, doing what many would consider city-building on mostly private land.

"No one has built a center like that in the history of this city -- or many other cities for that matter, and he has clearly been the leader," said philanthropist and civic booster Eli Broad. Leiweke "didn't do it himself, but it wouldn't have happened without him." Indeed, other major projects, including the Grand Avenue development that Broad has touted, have stalled in the recession.

To critics, however, Leiweke is a classic example of an influence peddler who curries favor with lawmakers through huge financial donations and gets, in turn, handouts in the form of tax breaks and a rubber stamp on his vision. The company received approximately $246 million in tax breaks on the L.A. Live project alone -- plus a grant of $5 million from redevelopment funds.

"There is a feeling that things are out of balance in the attention the city is paying to that area, to downtown in general and in particular to that area around Staples [Center] and L.A. Live," said Dennis Hathaway, of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight, which has tangled repeatedly with AEG. "And there's a perception that AEG has kind of become the tail that is wagging the dog of the city."

Under the radar

For most of the time he has lived in Los Angeles, Leiweke has been an under-the-radar figure, someone who can hang with celebrities, politicians and sports figures but rarely gets noticed, even in his own buildings.

That began to shift last year, after singer Michael Jackson died days before beginning an AEG-backed comeback show in London. The ensuing controversy, largely over the costs of Jackson's memorial service, raised Leiweke's public profile. It will rise further with the inauguration this month of AEG's hotel skyscraper.

In the years since the last skyscraper opened downtown, in 1992, the area has become a residential hub while its fortune as a corporate center has waned.

Buildings that once served as worldwide headquarters now house branch offices. Gone are the business executives who in past generations used wealth and influence behind the scenes to guide the city.

Leiweke, 52, is among a handful of people who have stepped in to fill that void, articulating visions of what the city should look like.

For Leiweke and AEG, that has meant L.A. Live, the sports and entertainment district built around Staples Center. The zone's sea of flashing big-screen TVs and corporate logos might not be for everyone. But with bustling foot traffic, it looks a lot like the vibrant destination critics have long complained downtown lacked.

Still, Leiweke is opening the nearly $1-billion skyscraper, which includes Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels, in the midst of a recession. And he worries that Los Angeles has done little to encourage tourists and conventions to consider the area.

"We are a city that has no plan of attack about how to defend ourselves for the No. 1 generator of our economy, which is tourism," Leiweke said. "We have no plan. We spend no money; we have no infrastructure; we have no focus."

What Tim Leiweke thinks Los Angeles is -- and isn't -- doing for its future holds enormous weight. He maintains personal friendships with a number of politicians, including City Councilwoman Jan Perry, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. They make regular appearances at company events and have benefited from AEG's political machine, which has given more than $1.8 million to political candidates and causes over the last five years.

He and his company are among L.A.'s biggest boosters -- and its biggest beneficiaries.

All of which makes the tower, which Leiweke can see from the window of his office in the heart of L.A. Live, a symbol.

The meaning, however, is open to interpretation.

Arriving in L.A.

Tim Leiweke arrived in Los Angeles in 1996, hired by billionaire Philip Anschutz and real estate magnate Ed Roski Jr. (Though Leiweke is the public face of his company, he still answers to the reclusive Anschutz, who lives in Colorado.) Anschutz and Roski had recently purchased the L.A. Kings, and they wanted Leiweke to turn around the flailing organization and build an arena.

Leiweke, who had been working in professional sports since his early 20s, got on the phone and personally urged season ticket holders to renew subscriptions for the Kings' first year without star Wayne Gretzky. He offered them a full refund if they were dissatisfied. And as Roski and Anschutz narrowed down possible sites for their arena, eventually settling on a downtown parcel that included parking lots as well as the Convention Center North Hall, Leiweke lobbied City Council members, rallied the city's labor unions and pushed for public support.

Complex land deal

The result was one of the most complicated land deals that L.A. had ever seen, which gave the developer $58 million in city bonds and $12 million in redevelopment grants for what became Staples Center.

Rob Light, managing partner and head of music at Creative Artists Agency, met Leiweke when he went to look at architectural models of Staples Center, then in the planning phase. Leiweke, Light said, "struck me as the most confident man I'd ever met. He talked as if he was already putting the first hoe into the ground. It was going to get built. He was a force of nature."

Fernando Guerra, director of the Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said Leiweke and Anschutz carefully targeted their pitch to developers and people in sports and entertainment.

"They were able to capture the different sectors, not because they integrated them, but because they sliced them up," said Guerra, who consulted for the company from 1998 to 2001. "They had different talking points for different sectors. Very few people can do that."

After the center was built, AEG sold land around the arena to hand-picked developers, who began building condo and retail projects. The area, known as South Park, is now one of downtown's most successful neighborhoods.

More than four years ago, when construction crews were about to turn the first shovel for L.A. Live, Leiweke likened his project to New York's Times Square, saying that the award shows, live broadcasts and fan fests planned for the site would help establish Los Angeles as the "event capital of the world."

AEG has managed to bring some high-profile events to the Nokia Theatre, including the Emmys and the "American Idol" finale. And people are going to the zone -- and, by extension, to downtown.

On a weekday afternoon, tourists and Angelenos alike circle the property. Weekend nights bring large crowds, drawn by a confluence of sporting events, musical acts at Nokia Theatre and several clubs on the property.

But the 30,000-square-foot Grammy Museum, an integral part of L.A. Live, has struggled to find an audience. (At a premiere of "Michael Jackson's This Is It," the film of the pop star's last rehearsals, ushers handed out free tickets to the museum.) Some buyers backed out of the tower's condos as the economy foundered, and hotel bookings have lagged behind projections.

That has meant that Leiweke has been rolling up his sleeves to sell the venue, giving tours of the hotel tower to pretty much anyone with an interest and using unusual methods to lure events to L.A. Live.

He enlisted celebrities Steve Carell and Ryan Seacrest to film videos supporting his effort to bring the National Hockey League draft to L.A. It worked.

The showmanship, said Leiweke, is necessary because L.A. is losing conventions and championship games to Las Vegas and other cities that invest civic funds to sell themselves.

"Every other city that we would be in, the city would come to us and say, 'Are you guys OK? Can we help you?' " Leiweke said. "I told the mayor, 'You are damn lucky it is us. Because if it were anyone else, they would be out of business.' "

Dealing with other cities, where a solid base of businesses and families supports philanthropic causes and rallies behind political causes, said Leiweke, makes him realize how much is missing in Los Angeles.

"We are not a community," he said. "We are a series of communities that happen to be in a city. But the reality is that people in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, think very differently about downtown than people that live in and around downtown. There's a disconnect in L.A."

That's one reason, Leiweke said, his firm has been so politically active and gives money to sometimes unpopular causes, including a 2007 telephone utility tax opposed by many of AEG's partners. "At some point or another, you have to get involved and make it a better system."

Leiweke largely sidestepped questions about whether the company's donations have bought it untoward influence.

"I would think that any logical human being would sit back and say, 'This is a company that doesn't need to make political donations to get influence,' " he said.

"The more relevant question is do we have more of an impact and get more of a reaction from the politicians because of the billion dollars" the company has spent on the hotel tower, he added. "Of course we do. And by the way, I think that's OK, because . . . we are going to employ hundreds and hundreds of people."

But the criticism has not abated. After Jackson's death, Leiweke went on television to announce that his company would host a public memorial service for the pop star -- and was criticized by some of the singer's fans, who asserted that Leiweke and AEG shared culpability in Jackson's death.

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich demanded that AEG repay the city for costs associated with the memorial, and as the two men publicly quarreled over the amount, Trutanich tried to block AEG's installation of mega-signs at L.A. Live.

Trutanich, in an interview, called Leiweke "a very personable guy. . . . He does a good job for his company, and I likewise want to do a good job for my city."

AEG eventually recouped its investment in the Jackson tour, mostly by selling rights to "This Is It." But the events took an emotional toll. Leiweke said it took weeks to "finally, kind of, get back to functioning properly."

So the glass-and-steel tower soaring over L.A. Live can also be seen as AEG's hope for rehabilitation, if not redemption. That was on view during a well-choreographed series of fundraising efforts in December and January, culminating in a black-tie event benefiting the City of Hope hospital.

Like so many Leiweke-orchestrated events, the benefit had a dual purpose: to raise money for cancer research by honoring AEG's chief executive, and to inaugurate the L.A. Live hotel ballroom.

At a VIP party on the tower's pool deck, Leiweke posed side by side with Villaraigosa and Schwarzenegger, while servers passed trays of Diet Coke -- Leiweke's favorite drink and the product of an AEG partner.

Later, downstairs, he tried to deflect some of the praise the mayor and governor had heaped on him. "I just went out and gave speeches and fought the city attorney," he said.

Then he looked around the ballroom, where guests included five members of the City Council, the mayor and the city controller, and suggested that with so many politicians in attendance, AEG could work out a deal to reimburse the city for costs associated with the Jackson memorial. "We could do a quick session and agree to terms," Leiweke joked.

And he reminded another guest, Magic Johnson, of a pledge the former basketball star had made:

"He's promised me I will be working at a Starbucks if this hotel goes to hell in a handbasket."

klamedia

February 7th, 2010, 07:32 PM

Why is this article printed twice? And not even just a link, the whole friggin thing.

saiholmes

February 13th, 2010, 05:01 PM

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-02/52188069.jpg

Architecture review: the tower at L.A Live
The 54-story hotel and condominium tower, the downtown area's first new high-rise since 1992, breaks little new ground in residential design.
By Christopher Hawthorne
Times Architecture Critic
The Los Angeles Times
February 13, 2010

Given the number of proposals for bold, expressive towers in downtown Los Angeles that have been splashed across newspaper and magazine pages in recent years, it's easy to forget that the area has not actually seen any skyscrapers completed since 1992, when the second of Arthur Erickson's California Plaza high-rises opened on Bunker Hill.

That drought ends Tuesday, when a 54-story hotel and condominium tower, wrapped in a geometric pattern of glittering, blue-tinted glass, is formally unveiled at L.A. Live.

The tower, by the large corporate architecture firm Gensler, adds a significant bookend to the southern end of the downtown skyline. It signals that AEG's massive L.A. Live complex, among the biggest private developments in Los Angeles history, is finally finished. And it ranks as the tallest residential high-rise in all of Los Angeles.

As far as architectural ambition goes, though, the building makes a faint, even passive impression, despite the diverting patterns on its facade. It is more focused on operating as a glossy vertical marker for L.A. Live -- and the tower is hard to miss from any of downtown's freeways -- than on exploring a fresh or idiosyncratic path for high-rise design in L.A.

That makes it a rather deflating sign that the innovation and experimentation that have always animated residential architecture in Los Angeles -- beginning with the modest bungalow and the courtyard apartment, and extending through the Case Study houses and the tough, disjointed masterpieces of the L.A. School -- may have trouble making the leap to the high-rise, even as more condos and apartments are built in the air.

Admittedly, AEG's failure to produce a truly innovative -- or even genuinely curious -- piece of architecture comes as little surprise. It has never claimed to be the sort of client for which adventurous design is a priority.

Yet the essential conservatism of the tower, which holds a JW Marriott on its lower floors with a Ritz-Carlton hotel and Ritz-branded condos above, is no minor issue for Los Angeles. It goes to the heart of the city's cultural identity. Inventive, forward-looking residential design has always been the foundation of L.A.'s reputation as a center for cutting-edge architecture -- and, arguably, of its broader history as a place that embraces creative personalities and artistic movements of all kinds.

But so far, as the city has moved haltingly away from the stand-alone house and garden and toward new kinds of multifamily living, that spirit of design innovation has not kept pace. We're still waiting for the piece of residential architecture that produces the old sense of risk-taking while nodding toward the city's denser, apartment-heavy future.

Apartment buildings and condo towers, of course, are far more complex , as real-estate and planning ventures, than single-family houses, which continue to serve as a crucible for architectural invention not just in this country but around the world. Risk-taking clients for private houses still outnumber those for residential towers by a substantial margin, and that is unlikely to change any time soon.

Still, it's dispiriting that the boom years of the last decade wound up producing just one major addition to the downtown skyline -- and a less than thrilling one at that. It is surely significant, along these lines, that one of the most architecturally promising condo towers now under construction in an American city, a project called HL23, is designed by a talented L.A. architect, Neil Denari -- but is being built in Manhattan, on a site overlooking the High Line elevated park.

If an architect like Denari is finding New York City a more hospitable place to build such a tower than Los Angeles, then maybe Los Angeles needs to rethink its planning priorities -- and to push developers like AEG, which at L.A. Live has received a series of concessions and sweeteners from city agencies, to pursue more meaningful architecture.

To be sure, the Gensler tower meets the ground more successfully than the California Plaza buildings. On its lower 24 floors, the tower is shaped like a book propped open, with wings pointing to the south and east. Those wings shelter a sizable open plaza leading on one side to the Marriott's eye-catching three-level lobby and then to Olympic Boulevard, and on the other to the larger L.A. Live square, which opened in 2008. The new ground-level space, enlivened by landscape design by Rios Clementi Hale Studios, and for the most part free of car traffic, is significantly more open and public-minded than the existing plaza, which faces Staples Center and is ringed by a series of video screens.

The Gensler architects also deserve credit for overcoming the building's single biggest design challenge: how to squeeze two different hotels, plus 224 condominiums on two dozen floors, into the tower without sacrificing its identity as a single piece of architecture. This challenge was sharpened by the fact that each of the different components -- Marriott hotel rooms, Ritz hotel rooms, condos and penthouse units -- requires a different layout, with the condos, for example, needing a wider floor plate than the hotel rooms below.

The architects finessed that issue by wrapping the entire volume in a contiguous skin that bulges near the top, a bit like a Q-tip, to accommodate the wider condo floors. They then devised a glazing strategy that allows a range of window sizes -- single panes in the Marriott rooms, double ones in the Ritz and floor-to-ceiling glass in the condos -- without compromising the unity of the exterior design. . The building's stepped design makes it look from certain angles like a high-backed chair, an impression that's particularly strong when you look at the tower from the east.

From the start, AEG's main objective at L.A. Live has been to create a sleekly homogenous, even hermetic ensemble where architecture operates primarily as a backdrop to billboards, video screens and other signage and branding. It seems clear -- now that the complex is complete -- that it has managed to meet that goal nearly perfectly.

milquetoast

February 14th, 2010, 12:26 PM

HL23 is not what I would have in mind for Los Angeles. It's OK for New York and reminds me of something that would be done in London- but would never take an earthquake- and we have to keep that in mind here.

klamedia

February 14th, 2010, 07:12 PM

I don't have a problem with this building. It actually looks great at the southern mostly barren end of downtown. This building and the entire LA Live campus serves merely as a springboard for more development in the surrounding area.

Westsidelife

February 16th, 2010, 11:46 AM

Pics from opening day...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/banyantreeproductions/sets/72157623317430261/

Imperfect Ending

February 16th, 2010, 12:01 PM

HURAH!

milquetoast

February 16th, 2010, 12:05 PM

Killer lamps ... . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/BanyanTreeProductions466777.jpg BANYANTREEPRODUCTIONS FLICKR

milquetoast

February 16th, 2010, 12:06 PM

HURAH!

That's "hurrah!"

ryebreadraz

February 16th, 2010, 07:46 PM

It's pretty incredible that LA Live is now 100% complete.

pesto

February 16th, 2010, 08:39 PM

I'm liking it more. At first I thought it was too cold and metallic, but now that some decoration, light and color are filling-in, it's growing on me. And this has to be just the beginning, when you look around in almost any direction from there.

VZN

February 16th, 2010, 08:44 PM

CRA Approves L.A. Live’s Long-Term Plan (http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2010/02/15/news/doc4b6ca723b1675856227777.txt)

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The Community Redevelopment Agency last Thursday approved plans for the Anschutz Entertainment Group to expand its 28-acre L.A. Live entertainment district.

The proposal would allow AEG to add more than 600,000 square feet of office space and a nearly 270,000-square-foot broadcasting studio to the South Park campus, while reducing the number of hotel rooms that were part of the original L.A. Live master plan. The new structures would rise across Olympic Boulevard, north of the current campus. The expansion, which still requires the City Council’s approval, is not tied to any near-term deal and is unlikely to occur within the next five years, said AEG President Tim Leiweke. “Not in the short-term,” Leiweke said when asked when the proposal might come to fruition. “Do we have a deal in place? No.”

If the City Council approves of this (and they would be dumb not to) we're going to have to get ready for part 2 soon. :cheers:

Militant Angeleno

February 18th, 2010, 11:10 PM

Check out the Militant Angeleno's blog post on the new Ritz-Carlton!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yoc1ccNVxQM/S3u38mwNqEI/AAAAAAAACx0/_sGo2n3Fhcw/s320/P2170390.JPG

http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com/2010/02/puttin-on-ritz.html

Militant Angeleno

February 18th, 2010, 11:14 PM

Killer lamps ... . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/BanyanTreeProductions466777.jpg BANYANTREEPRODUCTIONS FLICKR

Those were the lamps used in the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia"

http://blogdowntown.com/2010/01/5014-as-construction-wraps-la-lives-spaces-become

milquetoast

February 19th, 2010, 08:36 AM

Thank God! I was upset thinking there wouldn't be a STARBUCKS . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4273975727_3550d49386_o.jpg ERIC RICHARDSON/BLOGDOWNTOWN FLICKR

milquetoast

February 19th, 2010, 08:55 AM

J W .. M A R R I O T T .. L A .. L I V E ERIC RICHARDSON . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4273797220_20c542da0d_o.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4362964571_238be6dbcd_o.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4360719682_1a0bd918ea_o.jpg . Well, Hello 'dere! Will you be staying in my room ... http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4362963985_fa04499f6f_o.jpg . This ... is my room! http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4362959189_3415bc34ea_o.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4363705724_153b740f14_o.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4273796796_c6ccf203fd_o.jpg . ERIC RICHARDSON/BLOGDOWNTOWN FLICKR

pesto

February 19th, 2010, 07:16 PM

nice place; horrible carpet; I saw the blonde first

VZN

February 19th, 2010, 08:19 PM

Look Out Omaha, L.A.'s Coming After Your Conventions (http://blogdowntown.com/2010/02/5109-look-out-omaha-las-coming-after-your-conventions)

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — For being the nation's second-largest city, Los Angeles has historically struggled when it comes to convention business. In a recent ranking of conventions booked, the city placed 27th. Omaha, Nebraska, placed 26th.

"We used to get our ass kicked by Omaha," said AEG CEO Tim Leiweke during a January event.

The words "used to" are important. If you believe the speeches, the city's fortunes are changing thanks in no small part to AEG's L.A. Live entertainment complex and the 878-room JW Marriott that opened yesterday.

"You are witnessing an industry that will experience a 300% growth with the opening of this hotel," said AEG CEO Tim Leiweke during a ribbon cutting held this morning. "This city now will act like it should, the second-largest city in the United States and the best place to bring events and conventions anywhere in North America."

The city managed to compile its poor record in spite of its renowned weather. "This is the middle of the winter," noted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "No snowstorm here, everybody!"

Los Angeles will get its chance to really sell itself this August, when the American Society of Association Executives. "This convention ... is really the Super Bowl of conventions," said Mark Lieberman, head of LA Inc, the Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We're going to bring together 16,000 meeting planners here to Los Angeles to see what has been created. These are the decision makers."

Lieberman celebrated the fact that he no longer has to tell customers that the convention center hotel is coming. "Here we are today and it really has," he said.

The hotel opened its doors on Monday at 10am, welcoming guests from the concert industry's Pollstar Live event. It also opened the doors to its restaurant, the Kerry Simon-helmed LA Market, and three bars. All were packed Monday evening, with even more of a rush expected this evening as Staples Center hosts a Lakers game.

Opening on March 15 is the Ritz Carlton hotel that sits atop the JW Marriott. Its 123 rooms are on floors 22 through 26 of the 54-story structure. The remaining floors will house the 224-unit Residences at the Ritz Carlton, which will open later this spring.

The combined product creates one large building. The tower cost roughly $1 billion to construct.

"Can you believe this?" asked KTLA's Stan Chambers, master of ceremonies for this morning's event. "When I started, you could only build 13-floor hotels." Who better than Chambers to ask about Downtown? Before starting his career with KTLA in 1947, Chambers worked Downtown at both the Desmond's and Silverwood's department stores. "I look above me and we've got plenty more than 13."

As soon as we:

1) Expand the convention center
2) Add more hotels
3) Get the DTLA Streetcar

We can start going after the big convention holders like San Diego and Las Vegas and compete for their conventions, like Comic-Con and CES. And I know we can do it, especially for Comic-Con. It can save a lot of the industry guys a trip to San Diego. We already have E3, now imagine if we can get those 2 conventions.

This is definitely a leg up, and we can finally start acting like the 2nd biggest city in the country, and the biggest city in California.

milquetoast

February 20th, 2010, 07:33 AM

Oh, you know San Diego (which, in Spanish means: A Whale's Vagina) will sell whatever soul they ever had to hang onto Comic-Con! Not that nerds really appreciate the weather (the only city weather better than ours) or that foreign territory known as "The Beach". They'll be inside- which ........ may be the best reason why we have a shot at it now that I think about it ..... I can tell you the industry here will lock up CES. Now, if we had Vegas style gaming ....

Kenni

February 20th, 2010, 08:16 AM

^^^^^^:lol: I thought it was German.

milquetoast

February 20th, 2010, 10:40 AM

You're right! . Ron Burgundy: Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina. .
Veronica Corningstone: No, there's no way that's correct. .
Ron Burgundy: I'm sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don't know what it means. I'll be honest, I don't think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago. .
Veronica Corningstone: Doesn't it mean Saint Diego? .
Ron Burgundy: No. No. .
Veronica Corningstone: No, that's - that's what it means. Really. .
Ron Burgundy: Agree to disagree.

VZN

February 23rd, 2010, 05:05 AM

Is Comic-Con really leaving San Diego? (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/21/cause-for-con-cern/)

Comic-Con International, the beloved behemoth of San Diego conventions, is in danger of leaving its birthplace for a larger home, spurring local tourism leaders to do all they can to keep the four-day show here.

The prospect of losing a bonanza worth tens of millions of dollars in local spending each year has persuaded hoteliers to double the number of rooms they commit to Comic-Con and provide free meeting space for a gathering that sells out months in advance and has a long waiting list for exhibitors.

After 2012, the event held each July at the San Diego Convention Center will be free to leave town.

If Comic-Con departs, so would its 126,000 attendees, who fill hotel rooms and boost the bottom line of restaurants, bars and local attractions. The San Diego Convention Center Corp. recently sent a proposal to Comic-Con seeking to extend its contract through 2015.

A task force, made up of some of the tourism industry’s heaviest hitters and officials from the Convention Center Corp., city and the San Diego Unified Port District, is leading an aggressive campaign to remind Comic-Con organizers just how well-loved they are. Whether such overtures are enough to stave off a competing bid from Anaheim is unclear.

Although the Orange County city does not have a bayfront convention center, it does have one that is far more spacious, offering roughly a half-million more square feet than San Diego’s, which was last expanded in 2001.

San Diego’s proposal was crafted after meetings with Comic-Con organizers to assess what issues they wanted addressed. While lesser concerns, such as the need to provide conventioneers with easier access to parking, were raised, the biggest issue is a shortage of exhibit space and hotel rooms with discounted rates exclusive to attendees.

In response, San Diego’s three waterfront hotels — the Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego Marriott and Hilton San Diego Bayfront — have committed to providing roughly 300,000 square feet of their meeting space free of charge in 2013 through 2015. In addition, the Convention Center Corp. is proposing to increase the number of dedicated convention hotel rooms from 7,000 to 14,000 and says it is working to boost the number for this year through 2012.

Although a citizens task force last year endorsed a $753 million proposal to expand the convention center by 1.27 million square feet, including 385,000 square feet of new exhibit and meeting space, there is no guarantee that will happen.

“Since expansion is a process we’re all exploring, it would be a shame for an organization that’s had so much success over the last 40 years to jump and leave,” said Sandra Moreno, the center’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “I’m hopeful the Comic-Con board will stay the course until they see how the expansion will work out. We would be very, very sad to lose Comic-Con. They are an iconic event here that brings tremendous media coverage. It’s a match made in heaven.”

Convention center officials are not blind to the appeal Anaheim might have, given its larger convention center and more affordable room rates. The city is also closer to Los Angeles, a plus for Hollywood studios and movie directors who have forged an increasingly tight bond with Comic-Con. Over the years, the event has transformed from a modest gathering of devoted comic book fans and dealers into a pop-culture extravaganza.

The Comic-Con board is expected to make a decision on its future within the next month.

Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer acknowledged San Diego’s appeal as a popular destination and the emotional draw of remaining in the show’s hometown, but ultimately, space is a driving factor in deciding whether to stay or go, he said. Four-day passes to this year’s convention sold out in September, and individual tickets for Friday and Saturday are gone, as well.

“We have to be aware of our attendees, and we don’t want it to be problematic for them to attend the show,” Glanzer said. “When you have to limit exhibit space and sell out early, those are negatives, but by San Diego trying to increase hotel-room blocks and utilize space at adjacent hotels, that may neutralize some of those things.

“It’s not a secret that Anaheim would love for us to move up there, and they have a world-class facility and a lot of hotels and have put forward a great location, but it will be up to the board to decide exactly what it is we can do. We have to look at the pluses and minuses of everything. It’s not just as easy as choosing a pin on a map and saying, ‘Let’s go here.’ ”

An Anaheim tourism official said the city is developing a formal proposal for Comic-Con but declined to reveal the specifics.

“The convention would be a big deal to anyone who would be able to bag it. Everybody gets immediately healthy with Comic-Con,” said Charles Ahlers, president of the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau. Ahlers said Anaheim’s largest convention is for NAMM (the National Association of Music Merchants), which draws 90,000 attendees.

“Candidly, we think of Comic-Con as a good fit because we have a very nice, walkable housing package and a big convention center that is the largest in California. The emotion is with San Diego because it grew up there and is at risk of leaving, but nothing lasts forever.”

Tell that to San Diego Hard Rock Hotel general manager Matt Greene, who has urged fellow hoteliers to increase the number of rooms they set aside for conventioneers at guaranteed rates.

Many hotels have been reluctant to reserve a large proportion of rooms at the discounted convention rate, recognizing that high demand for lodging during the summer gathering helps drive nightly rates much higher.

At the same time, competition for Comic-Con is growing. Other cities, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas, have come courting in recent years. Comic-Con’s internal surveys have found that attendees spend $60 million on lodging, food and transportation during the four days.

“Those of us on the Comic-Con Advisory Board reached out to our counterparts and said, ‘Listen, you may be making X amount of dollars now, but when the contract is over and they go to another city because we didn’t give them enough rooms in their block, you’ll be making nothing over the same period,’ ” Greene said. “So we have to work together as hoteliers to provide them the rooms they need.”

The Convention Center Corp., with the help of the advisory board, has been able to increase the block of rooms to 13,500 and is hoping to expand the inventory even more. This year’s rates for downtown hotels within the block range from $149 to $352, according to the Convention Center Corp.

“The PR recognition from Comic-Con, whether it’s the celebrities or a movie release, is so strong that it basically brings a top-of-mind recognition worldwide to the city of San Diego and what a great destination it is, whether for a meeting or a vacation,” Greene said. “You can spend all the money in the world on advertising, but the PR is exponentially better than advertising.”

The 1,600-room Manchester Grand Hyatt, down the street from the convention center, has agreed to boost its 2013-2015 block of Comic-Con rooms from 700 to 1,400, a concession it needed to make in order to hold on to Comic-Con’s business, said Mike Waddill, the hotel’s director of sales.

“We’d be hard-pressed to book a weekend in July that would even come close to the revenues that Comic-Con brings us,” Waddill said. “It would be difficult, if not improbable.”

Heavy traffic and parking shortages may be a headache for locals during the event, but it’s proved to be a huge economic boon to Gaslamp Quarter restaurants, said Ingrid Croce, owner of Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar.

“It would kill the month of July if they weren’t here,” Croce said. “It’s like having Mardi Gras, the Super Bowl and Disneyland all at the same time. They want an experience that’s memorable, and that’s what San Diego delivers. I’m not sure they’d get that in Orange County.”

I don't see Comic-Con leaving San Diego in 2012. But it is a possibility after 2015, and the city who would be doing the most courting after that is Anaheim. Yet, I think it would be absolutely terrible to hold it there for the following reasons:

- A very conservative, family friendly atmosphere that permeates that immediate area

- Lack of mass transit

- A terrible choice of adult nightlife. What, Downtown Disney? GTFOH.

So I don't think Comic-Con will immediately abandon ship to go set up shop in Anaheim, but if they did, it would be very short term. No more than 2 or 3 years.

But with that said, L.A. needs to get on the ball. The only things that would possibly take us out of the running right now would be the 2 main things that Comic-Con is seeking:

- More hotels

- More convention space

But outside of that, L.A. would be the perfect place to hold Comic-Con because the industry is in L.A.

Prime example, I went back in 2008 for this animation panel and RZA (from the Wu-Tang Clan, if you don't know) was supposed to show up. RZA lives right in the Valley but he was about 45 minutes late for the panel due to the traffic on the 5. Now what would be easier for him? To go to DTLA, and fight minutes of traffic or to fight hours of traffic all the way to San Diego?

Not to mention that a lot of the cosplayers would fit right in L.A. because... well, it's L.A. They won't have to worry about people complaining about how a woman was scantily dressed or how they say a truck going down the street with fake mutilated body parts on the hood. That would not be a good idea for Anaheim AND Comic-Con.

So as soon as we get more hotels in the area, more restaurants, more options for nightlife and the DTLA streetcar to take them to other hotels/transit hubs then we'll have a sure shot at winning over Comic-Con, but until then we have to get on the ball.

BTW... if L.A. ends up taking Comic-Con AND the Chargers from San Diego we would possibly have a city rivalry worse than L.A. vs. S.F. :lol:

ryebreadraz

February 23rd, 2010, 05:25 AM

Not sure if we really need more convention space to make it happen. We already have over 100,000 sq. ft. more space than San Diego and while we're behind Anaheim, I think our over 700,000 sq. ft. would be enough, especially when you take into account the massive ballroom/convention space offered by the Marriot/Ritz that will allow some of the more private things to be held there.

The hotels, well, we're not remotely close to having the necessary hotel rooms to host something like Comic Con and because of the credit crunch, we won't have the necessary hotel rooms by 2012 or 2015 even if we were guaranteed Comic Con. Take AEG, who want to build that second boutique hotel. They have said they won't break ground on that for five years so if they're not breaking ground, nobody else is. Best hope is that we see a hotel building boom in about five years which would allow us to host something like Comic Con in 2020 or so.

VZN

February 23rd, 2010, 08:37 AM

:lol: I don't want to sound crazy but I know we can't rush them through a recession, it was just a figure of speech.

milquetoast

February 24th, 2010, 07:50 AM

"What do nerds want?" That is the question. They don't necessarily want the weather, but the respective players have nice weather. They want media attention, they want the stars of the games and features, and they want girls. I think we have the space now, but the lodging situation is too expensive in our LA LIVE area for them, I would assume. They might also want to get drunk or high, and ogle girls, and Vegas has that going for them- but I'm sure they don't have the money to blow on gaming. Still, we have the best possible location for entertainment visibility

pesto

February 24th, 2010, 06:08 PM

aren't we better off with 5000 cardiologists spending 5000 each than 100,000 nerds spending zero each (that is, sleeping with friends, eating candy bars, dinner at home)?

ArchiTennis

February 24th, 2010, 11:02 PM

^^

At the same time, competition for Comic-Con is growing. Other cities, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas, have come courting in recent years. Comic-Con’s internal surveys have found that attendees spend $60 million on lodging, food and transportation during the four days.

dachacon

February 25th, 2010, 01:57 AM

why does the heading still say top out?
someone should change it to completed.

pesto

February 25th, 2010, 03:03 AM

Architennis: if that's accurate, I apologize to the graphic novel crowd. They're welcome any time. Let's start a Watchmen fan club.

How much does that come to per attendee?

ArchiTennis

February 25th, 2010, 04:12 AM

^^ There's various figures floating around. I found another one that said:

"With more than 160,000 attendees and industry professionals, Comic-Con is expected to generate $42 million"

Making it only $260 per attendee.

milquetoast

February 25th, 2010, 09:53 AM

These horn dogs are buying hot dogs and churros ... YAMS? What did you eat when you went to that disgusting porno-con?

pesto

February 25th, 2010, 06:28 PM

still, much better than nothing.

I'm sure someone keeps stats on which groups spend the most money and on what kinds of things. I wonder if they are publicly available.

Imperfect Ending

March 10th, 2010, 10:20 AM

The lighting at night
(Sorry it's so blurry, I wasn't expecting it. )
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4422202866_06b12e1241_o.jpg

ArchiTennis

March 10th, 2010, 08:21 PM

I saw it last night. With only the outline of the building lit up, it looks a little weird.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2720/4402461545_662ee9db9c_o.jpg
flickr stanroth

Imperfect Ending

March 10th, 2010, 10:47 PM

^^ this picture really doesn't show how bright the outline is

milquetoast

March 11th, 2010, 08:41 AM

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4422202866_06b12e1241_o.jpg . Hey, Aquamannnn .... Warn us before you lay one of these beauties on us, broheim

Imperfect Ending

March 11th, 2010, 09:07 AM

I sense greatfulness

mellowkat01

March 13th, 2010, 02:27 AM

FINALLY!!!....holiday inn is being remodeled into a luxe

Luxe City Center Hotel In Los Angeles Unveils Design Concept
PRESS RELEASE -- Hotels, 3/12/2010 6:36:30 AM

Los Angeles, CA (March 12, 2010) -- The LA interior design firm of SANDdesign has been appointed to work on the multi-million dollar re-design of the Holiday Inn Los Angeles City Center, located right across from the Staples Center and LA Live. The renovation on the hotel is expected to be completed in mid-June when it will be re-branded as the Luxe City Center Hotel, Los Angeles.

According to Efrem Harkham, CEO and Founder of Luxe Hotels, "From the very beginning, I envisioned the Luxe City Center Hotel, Los Angeles to be a very design driven hotel with an upscale boutique ambiance to complement the Luxe Rodeo Drive and Luxe Sunset Boulevard. SANDdesign, with over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry and a design aesthetic that stays true to the Southern California lifestyle, was the team to bring this vision to reality. There will be no other boutique-style hotel property like this in downtown LA."

SANDdesign's plans give the hotel an upscale urban residential atmosphere with a touch of elegant old silver screen. The overall look will feature warm walnut woods and muted tones, complemented by crystal and platinum finishes. This is then blended with subtle insertions of urban elements in artwork and contemporary high-tech features.

The Luxe City Center Hotel, Los Angeles will offer just under 200 rooms and suites, meeting space, a restaurant, fitness center, outdoor pool, and business center in the heart of the Los Angeles downtown area's thriving new entertainment district. When guests first walk into the hotel they'll be attracted to the warmth and uniqueness of the finishes in the lobby. A bar and terrace will provide an indoor/outdoor oasis above street level for front row views of the exciting daily events outside. The warm ambiance of the public spaces carry into the guestrooms.

"Elegant but with an attitude" describes the rooms which will be done in subtle tones of aqua and camel. Furnishings include platform beds with woven wood headboards of silvered walnut and dark walnut accents and oversized lounge chair and ottomans in plush chenille in a grayed camel tones, draped with supremely soft ivory fur throws. Custom decorative lighting in the room includes mercury glass and hand-carved faux onyx. Carpeting is custom as well in a cut and loop wood grain pattern to complement the muted walls. Tiled entry floors flow into the bathrooms with glass barn door separations. Bathrooms have back-lit mirrors, rain head showers, and custom glass mosaic accent tiles in soft tones. Suites will be in platinum and champagne tones with accents of muted eggplant and peacock, and finishes will include scraped Acacia wood floors and Calcutta marble master baths with soaking tubs. Croc skin patent leathers and mohairs are just some of the texture and patterns in the suites.

Artwork plays up the hip, urban "attitude" and energy of the rooms with graphic depictions of iconic music and sports figures in a nod to the Staples Center and Nokia Theater LA Live just across the street. Each room will have one of four large-scale canvas images specially commissioned for the hotel.

Many of the furnishings are made locally including furniture, wall sconces, carpets, wallcoverings, and artwork, as one of SANDdesign's goals is to use U.S. manufacturers to support the economy whenever possible.

The Holiday Inn Los Angeles City Center is owned by Emerik Hotel, LLC.

ABOUT LUXE HOTELS
Luxe Hotels is part of the global hotel organization founded by Efrem Harkham, which also includes Luxe Worldwide Hotels, a hotel marketing and reservations organization with an impressive portfolio of nearly 200 independently owned and operated, award-winning hotels in the best locations around the globe. The properties include such esteemed hotels as Canyon Ranch Tucson, Canyon Ranch Lenox, Palms Place Hotel & Spa in Las Vegas and Waterford Castle in Waterford, Ireland. Luxe Hotels has 14 offices worldwide including New York, London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Athens, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, and Mumbai.

Kenni

March 15th, 2010, 12:07 AM

They need to tear it down and build something new, talllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllller.

LAsam

March 15th, 2010, 07:55 PM

^Nah. Let's use the capacity for more hotel space to fill some of the vacant lots in South Park before we go and tear down a nicely occupied parcel.

Kenni

March 15th, 2010, 11:06 PM

It needs to go, sorry.

soup or man

March 15th, 2010, 11:34 PM

They need to tear it down and build something new, talllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllller.

No they don't. Plus with all the vacant lots in and around South Park, it's a horrible business move to destroy anything for a taller building.

ryebreadraz

March 16th, 2010, 06:06 AM

2 1/2 weeks (http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2010/03/15/news/doc4b9e7c364bf8f909324599.txt) isn't too big of a deal

Ritz-Carlton Opening Delayed

Debut, previously Scheduled for March 15, Pushed to April 2
by Richard Guzmán, City Editor

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – When the 878-room J.W. Marriott, the first part of the $1 billion Convention Center headquarters hotel, opened Feb. 15, officials said that the second component of the project, the 123-room Ritz-Carlton, would follow March 15. Now, however, people looking for a five-star hotel stay will have to wait a few more weeks.

Due to delays in receiving some furnishings, the Ritz will not open until April 2, Javier Cano, the general manager of the hotel, said this morning.

Located on floors 23-26 of the 54-story tower, the Ritz-Carlton was slated to welcome guests today. But some of the furnishings for the guest rooms and the WP24 restaurant, operated by chef Wolfgang Puck, did not arrive on schedule, said Cano.

“We had some things that were scheduled to come to us from a couple of places around the world that simply didn’t get here in time,” he said.

The April 2 opening will likely be a “quiet” event, said Cano. A grand opening celebration will take place about a month later.

The Ritz-Carlton/J.W. Marriott hotel and condominium tower is the final piece of the 27-acre L.A. Live entertainment district, which began construction in the fall of 2007. The project also includes 224 condominiums. There is no information available yet on when the condominiums will open.

LAmarODom420

March 16th, 2010, 06:35 PM

2 1/2 weeks (http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2010/03/15/news/doc4b9e7c364bf8f909324599.txt) isn't too big of a deal

What happpens to everyone who made a reservation?

LAsam

March 16th, 2010, 11:04 PM

What happpens to everyone who made a reservation?

They get a room at the Holiday Inn.

ArchiTennis

March 17th, 2010, 09:44 PM

oh gawd...couldn't help but think about this song:

YBie4C1Dy98

soup or man

March 18th, 2010, 01:35 AM

^ That's the only time the Holiday Inn will ever be popular.

milquetoast

March 18th, 2010, 07:54 AM

"Black women are very expressive—the way I tell someone off, the way I walk into a place. Especially trannies, they take what is feminine and exaggerate it. I don't just walk into a room, I sashay." - KELIS http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/Fullscreencapture3172010105032PM.jpg Get it right, Soups, or we'll revoke your membership!

klamedia

March 18th, 2010, 05:48 PM

Yeah I was wondering what "sahay" was.....thought it might of been something served on a skewer.

JRinSoCal

March 18th, 2010, 06:26 PM

Is the outside of the Holiday Inn going to be redone as well or just the inside?

LAsam

March 18th, 2010, 06:42 PM

Is the outside of the Holiday Inn going to be redone as well or just the inside?

If they're going to call it the Luxe Hotel... they damn well better renovate the exterior.

soup or man

March 19th, 2010, 02:58 AM

Is the outside of the Holiday Inn going to be redone as well or just the inside?

No. They are going to totally revamp the inside with all the latest modern amenities and change the name of the hotel but they are going to keep the outside as is.

ArchiTennis

March 19th, 2010, 06:00 AM

^^ where did you hear this?

pittsteelers247

March 19th, 2010, 10:25 AM

Maybe he's sarcastic?.....

milquetoast

March 19th, 2010, 10:42 AM

No. They are going to totally revamp the inside with all the latest modern amenities and change the name of the hotel but they are going to keep the outside as is.

Yuch! What's the point?

milquetoast

March 19th, 2010, 10:44 AM

^^ Unless he is being sarcastic. Are you sarcastic, Soups?

JRinSoCal

March 19th, 2010, 05:25 PM

Oh please let it be sarcasm!

soup or man

March 19th, 2010, 06:01 PM

I'm being totally serious.

....

I should stop because sarcasm doesn't really translate well over the internet. But at least I know that I can do it well. ;)

I can almost guarantee that there will be some sort of exterior remodeling of the Holiday Inn. I mean why would you rebrand/rename a hotel into something contemporary and modern and have the same dated budget hotel exterior remain?

milq should know about this. In Vegas for example, the Aladdin Hotel was turned into Planet Hollywood. While the hotel's design stayed pretty much the same, there is a huge and noticeable change in..well..the design of the hotel.

Aladdin (This was during the transformation into Planet Hollywood. If you look closely, they wanted to paint the hotel a really ugly shade of blue. They stopped thankfully)
http://www.lasvegas-hotel-casino-reviews.com/alladin.JPG

Planet Hollywood
http://www.vegastodayandtomorrow.com/images/planet-hollywood-glamor.jpg

Fight On Archies!

March 27th, 2010, 06:59 AM

Hey guys. Here are some pictures I took recently on my first visit inside the hotel!

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0641.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0644.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0645.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0647.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0650.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0651.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0653.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0654.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0656.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0657.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0662.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0665.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0667.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0670.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0674.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0675.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0677.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0684.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0686.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0687.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0688.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0689.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0690.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0691.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0694.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0695.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0696.jpg

http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww181/FightOnArchies/Ritz%203/DSCN0699.jpg

milquetoast

March 27th, 2010, 11:20 AM

^^ Fabulous

pesto

March 27th, 2010, 08:03 PM

very nice shots!

looks like a classy joint. With any luck, none of us will be able to afford DT in a few years.

Westsidelife

March 28th, 2010, 03:59 AM

Very swanky looking lobby. I like.

ArchiTennis

April 4th, 2010, 06:16 PM

Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles opens Friday at L.A. Live complex [Updated]

The long-awaited opening of the Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles at the giant L.A. Live entertainment complex downtown happens Friday. But don’t get too excited just yet. Only 20 of the luxury hotel’s 123 rooms will be available while the rest get finishing touches, Los Angeles Times staff writer Hugo Martin reports.
“It’s fine-tuning,” Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian Deuschl said. The entire hotel was scheduled to open April 15, but Deuschl said guests were so excited about staying at the new spot that 20 rooms were being opened early.
WP24, the hotel’s restaurant by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, will open in mid-April.
[Updated 10:14 a.m.: An earlier version of this post stated that WP24 was scheduled to open in mid-May.]

The Ritz’s sister hotel, the JW Marriott, opened earlier this year next to the Ritz, which tops a 54-story tower that includes condominiums. In a review of the building in February, Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne expressed disappointment:

“As far as architectural ambition goes, though, the building makes a faint, even passive impression, despite the diverting patterns on its facade. It is more focused on operating as a glossy vertical marker for L.A. Live — and the tower is hard to miss from any of downtown’s freeways — than on exploring a fresh or idiosyncratic path for high-rise design in L.A.”
But Hawthorne did have kinds words for the building’s ground-level features, and he added:
“The Gensler architects also deserve credit for overcoming the building’s single biggest design challenge: how to squeeze two different hotels, plus 224 condominiums on two dozen floors, into the tower without sacrificing its identity as a single piece of architecture.”
[...]
— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ritzla.jpg

Photo: A view of the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in downtown Los Angeles during a lighting ceremony in January. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

VZN

April 4th, 2010, 09:32 PM

Sports Museum Headed to Staples Center? (http://blogdowntown.com/2010/04/5232-sports-museum-headed-to-staples-center)

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Nothing has been announced, but a set of window displays hint that there may be a deal in place to bring memorabilia from Gary Cypres' Sports Museum of Los Angeles to the former Fox Sports Sky Box at Staples Center.

The space, located next to the VIP entrance on the north side of the arena, has sat empty this basketball season. Staples Center GM Lee Zeidman had told blogdowntown in October that he hoped to have a use announced within two weeks, but no deal was ever announced.

Currently in the Figueroa street windows are displays ranging from race car history to old baseball bats, a history of sports in the movies and an old coin-operated baseball game.
It's the eclectic nature of the exhibits that points to a partnership with Cypres, who in late 2008 opened his warehouse at Washington and Main to the public for a brief period. His 10,000 item collection is billed as the "largest known private collection of iconic sports artifacts, collectibles and memorabilia in the United States."

A representative from Staples Center today declined to comment on what was coming, but said more information would be available next week.

motion

April 8th, 2010, 06:51 PM

was there last nyt. what a fkn awesome building especially at night looks awesome!!!!

soup or man

April 8th, 2010, 09:07 PM

was there last nyt. what a fkn awesome building especially at night looks awesome!!!!

So which is it? Nyt or night?

VZN

April 9th, 2010, 02:13 AM

For those interested and would like to support:

http://www.facebook.com/ComicCon2013#!/ComicCon2013?v=app_6009294086

http://www.discoverlosangeles.com/images/facebook/comiccondougdavis.jpg

It seems that L.A. is making a serious push to attract Comic Con to the city. Let's see how it turns out.

OULET

April 11th, 2010, 09:53 PM

Chandeliers sway in JW Marriott lobby after 7.2 Earthquake

9UilSvU4a9Q

milquetoast

April 12th, 2010, 02:44 AM

Did you take this yourself OUTLET? If that had been local, they'd be clapping together like chalkboard erasers!

klamedia

April 12th, 2010, 10:40 AM

By the looks of the tepid business being done no one would have been killed even if it the whole place collapsed.

milquetoast

April 12th, 2010, 12:05 PM

KLAMS! You sound like YAMS! I'm beginning to wonder where I AMS!

VZN

April 17th, 2010, 01:57 AM

New plan would put NFL stadium next to Staples Center (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/new-plan-would-put-nfl-stadium-next-to-staples-center.html#more)

There is a new push to build an NFL stadium behind Staples Center, where the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center now sits.

The idea is to replace that convention space elsewhere in the general area, multiple sources have told The Times' Sam Farmer.

So far, the concept is in the preliminary stages, although the NFL is aware of it and is monitoring its progress.

The convention center site is owned by the city. It is within walking distance of the newly constructed, 1,000-room hotel that AEG, the company that owns Staples Center, built in the Staples Center/LA Live sports and entertainment complex.

This concept, which is being backed by AEG head Tim Leiweke and businessman Casey Wasserman, would be in direct competition with the $800-million project that billionaire Ed Roski hopes to develop in the City of Industry.

Since the Raiders and the Rams left the region after the 1994 season, communities across the Southland have tried to rally support for NFL stadiums within their boundaries, to little avail. Anaheim and Carson considered but ultimately abandoned the idea of building stadiums. Pasadena's Rose Bowl and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum both were ultimately rejected as potential sites.

klamedia

April 17th, 2010, 04:31 AM

Thank God for AEG!

VZN

April 17th, 2010, 04:46 PM

I know milq posted it in the other thread, but this is for context...

Latest L.A. proposal for NFL stadium has a roof (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nfl-la-20100417,0,5949677.story)

The latest concept for an NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles — a $1-billion venue next to Staples Center — has, The Times has learned, something none of its scuttled predecessors had.

A ceiling.

Although that might seem like a minor distinction, proponents of that project say that a retractable roof would greatly enhance the versatility of the building, making it ideal for major sporting events such as the Final Four, championship title fights, and all sorts of national conventions.

Influential businessmen Casey Wasserman and Tim Leiweke are investigating the possibility of developing a privately financed stadium where the convention center's West Hall sits. That would serve as the cornerstone of AEG's sprawling sports and entertainment district, a so-called campus that already includes Staples Center, LA Live, and a just-constructed 1,000-room hotel.

Wasserman approached Leiweke with the idea last October, touting the site as the most viable and interesting solution for a region that has struggled to find both.

"This is just thinking right now," said Leiweke, AEG's president and chief executive. "It's saying, ‘If we're going to invest this kind of time and money anyway — even if it doesn't cost taxpayers a dollar — shouldn't we think about the other uses if we had a roof to cover it?'"

The vision is that the complex would not only be the quintessential site for Super Bowls but also could play host to the Pro Bowl; the NFL draft (alternating years with New York); the scouting combine (alternating years with Indianapolis); and the finals of the World Cup in 2022. The NFL has made it clear that any new stadium in Southern California should be able to accommodate two teams, leaving open the possibility that the primary tenant could one day share the venue.

The backers believe L.A. would be the ideal spot for virtually every major convention, which could use the stadium along with supplemental space added to replace the West Hall (roughly 14 acres). That's sufficient space to fit the structure of any current NFL stadium.

"This is the final piece to the downtown puzzle," said Wasserman, founder and chief executive of Wasserman Media Group. "It's the only chance for the city to benefit from the economic power of a stadium of this caliber."

Backers say a stadium of this magnitude would have unparalleled revenue streams from a variety of sources, among them naming rights, suites, Super Bowls and seat licenses that would pay for the facility in similar fashion to its neighboring Staples Center.

Buying a team would cost about $1 billion more, but that wouldn't necessarily be required if a franchise relocated with the same owner.

The city owns the convention center, and the support of the mayor and City Council would be essential to the downtown project. There is precedent for such a transaction, however, as Staples Center was built on the site of the convention center's North Hall.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who counts Leiweke and Wasserman among his longtime political supporters, was unavailable to comment on the proposal. A spokeswoman for the mayor also declined to comment. Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes Staples Center and LA Live, said she was unaware of any new proposal to build a new football stadium in downtown Los Angeles.

Calling the pursuit of a stadium daunting is an understatement. A long list of business leaders — some of them billionaires — have tried and failed to bring the NFL back to the nation's second-largest market.

What's more, the downtown bid would put Wasserman and Leiweke in direct competition with developer Ed Roski, who already has an entitled and shovel-ready piece of land in City of Industry to build a football stadium. There is only room for one such project in the L.A. area, and the Industry group is at least a year ahead of any other because it has clearance to build.

However, no one is going to build a stadium without team, and the league is not going to entertain the possibility of a team relocating before the labor dispute is resolved. The current collective bargaining agreement expires in March 2011, and owners want players to participate in paying off the enormous cost of stadiums.

All signs point to it being at least a year before any project gets the kind of traction needed to move forward, which gives the downtown concept time to catch up.

This isn't the first downtown proposal by Wasserman and Leiweke. Eight years ago, they touted building a stadium in South Park, also near Staples Center. They pulled out of that plan, however, when the Coliseum Commission vowed to make its own bid to land an NFL team.

Times have changed, though. The Coliseum has a long-term deal with USC, and the commission is no longer pursuing pro football.

"We're married to USC," Coliseum General Manager Pat Lynch said. "They have a seat at the table if we ever talk NFL, so we're not talking about the NFL. I haven't been approached by the NFL.

"We're not active, so therefore the door's open for these other sites."

Imperfect Ending

April 18th, 2010, 05:07 AM

Though I had nothing to do with the success of this building, somehow I feel like I was part of making it happen ;)

Imperfect Ending

April 18th, 2010, 05:17 AM

Looking down on the concrete construction sites. I prefer steel buildings. Much faster.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/3014256843_21078df03f.jpg?v=0

I am looking back at old posts and no one would ever guess this is L.A.

soup or man

May 7th, 2010, 02:14 AM

From Curbed

Hollywood may be down a supergraphic, but now downtown is up one. This Coke graphic was spotted going up on the new Gensler-designed Ritz/Carlton and Marriott in downtown today. It's not clear if the graphic is covering any hotel room windows, but back on our great January tour of the project, we learned that the area underneath that advertisement is at least partially designed for meeting rooms or other non-hotel room use. Nevertheless, good time to start making some popcorn--if we're lucky another nasty catfight between City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Councilwoman Jan Perry will break out. UPDATE*: As a commenter points out, that thing on the bottom left looks like a Verizon advertisement.

http://cdn0.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4010/4582463524_0f9e63e308_o.jpg
http://cdn0.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4070/4582470528_019feaa512_o.jpg

VZN

May 10th, 2010, 05:57 PM

This technically doesn't belong here, but...

L.A. to host Microsoft conference, still wooing Comic-Con (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-travel-briefcase-20100510,0,6820381.story)

Even if Los Angeles fails to woo one of the nation's biggest gatherings of comic book fanatics, the city at least has netted a major conference of computer techies.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to announce Monday that the city will host Microsoft Corp.'s Worldwide Partner Conference 2011, a gathering of the company's staffers and business partners July 10 to 14 next year.

The conference is expected to bring about 15,000 attendees, who would spend an estimated $45 million, officials say. It would be one of the biggest gatherings at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles is still fishing for an even bigger catch: Comic-Con International.

The celebration of comics and pop culture typically draws about 125,000 visitors, who spend nearly $60 million on food, lodging and other expenses during the annual conference that has been held in San Diego for four decades.

Comic-Con organizers say the event has outgrown its longtime host, the San Diego Convention Center. The event is under contract to stay put through 2012; after that, it's free to relocate.

Now, Comic-Con has three suitors: San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles. Organizers say they expect to make a final decision in a week or two.

Meanwhile, Villaraigosa is touting Microsoft's decision to hold the conference in the city as evidence that downtown Los Angeles is much safer, cleaner and more exciting than it was years ago.

"We look forward to welcoming Microsoft and its partners to L.A. next summer," he said, "and showing them the best of what this world-class city has to offer."

pesto

May 10th, 2010, 06:51 PM

So the s/w types spend about 5 times more per head than the comic books types. Makes sense since these are mostly key guys with development companies and resellers. I imagine that the quality restaurant and meeting/banquet facilities are going to be booming. Could help the Dodgers if they are in town.

I can't think of much more of interest to conventioneers that's going to be done by next year but some street work and clean up would be nice. Presumably a few more restaurant choices.

slipperydog

June 3rd, 2010, 06:52 AM

Anyone know if they are going to be showing the World Cup games on any of the big screens down there? Seems like it would be a chill place to gather and watch the games with a bunch of people.

ArchiTennis

June 3rd, 2010, 07:27 AM

^^ I've only seen this:

http://www.powerhouselive.net/userfiles/WorldCup2010.jpg

Korea will be televised free inside Staples.

I wish all matches would be televised in the NOKIA plaza.

ArchiTennis

June 3rd, 2010, 07:41 AM

you can always e-mail:

info@lalive.com

for general comments. I've just sent them an e-mail. This is, after all, the second largest viewing market (spanish and english) of World Cup matches in the U.S. Let's make it happen!

ryebreadraz

June 5th, 2010, 09:16 AM

In '06 they showed Korea's matches.

future_trance011

June 8th, 2010, 09:47 AM

^^ I've only seen this:

http://www.powerhouselive.net/userfiles/WorldCup2010.jpg

Korea will be televised free inside Staples.

I wish all matches would be televised in the NOKIA plaza.

Do we have to be a South Korea or Greece soccer fan to attend? Sounds like fun though...

2010 WORLD CUP
VIEWING PARTY

Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010
Time: 4:30 AM
Venue: Staples Center
1111 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90015
Ticket Price: FREE
** Tickets will be distributed to the public by Sports Seoul (213-487-9787) and Korea Times (323-692-2068). Please call for details.

EVENT INFORMATION

The 2010 FIFA World Cup, one of the largest sporting events, is scheduled to be held in South Africa from June 11 to July 12. This year included, the Korean National Team will be participating in the World Cup for the 7th time in a row. The team will be competing against fellow Group B participants Greece, Argentina, and Nigeria in order to advance to the 2nd round.
SBS, the 2010 Official FIFA World Cup Broadcasting Company in Korea, and Powerhouse are proud to present the 2010 World Cup Viewing Party (Korea vs. Greece) taking place on Saturday, June 12 at 4:30 AM at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

The past two viewing parties in 2002 and 2006 were also held at the Staples Center, bringing in a tremendous amount of media attention. More than 20,000 Koreans participated in the previous World Cup viewing parties, which led this particular event to represent the biggest cheering festivity within the Los Angeles Korean community.

This year in particular, SBS will be doing an exclusively live broadcast of the World Cup in South Africa via satellite, which will create a livelier, more enthusiastic viewing experience. Being the most highly anticipated event of the year, the 2010 World Cup Viewing Party will allow the Korean community to come together for the excitement of cheering on our team to victory!

VZN

June 15th, 2010, 06:17 AM

Downtown suits L.A. Film Festival's vision (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-0615-lafilmfestival-20100615,0,4200088.story)

It wasn't until the programs came back from the printer that the L.A. Film Festival's leaders saw how tricky the move from Westwood to downtown L.A. might be.

Last year's programs were etched in a shade similar to UCLA blue.This year the festival inadvertently picked USC Trojan colors, cardinal and gold.

"It was brought to our attention from some of our friends in Westwood that they felt we had shifted allegiances, and I was like, 'Oh my God, no!'" said Rebecca Yeldham, the festival's ever-diplomatic, Australian-born director during an interview last week. "None of that was intentional."

But there was nothing unintentional about the move itself for the festival, which opens with Thursday night's screening of Lisa Cholodenko's dramedy "The Kids Are All Right" and runs through June 27.

After four years on the Westside, the festival's relocation is part of the rebooting and re-branding of a cultural institution that, since its founding in the 1970s in a very different, much smaller format, has sometimes struggled to distinguish itself from rivals that are bigger (Toronto), trendier (Tribeca) and more conspicuously swathed in celebrity plumage and power (Cannes, Sundance).

At last, L.A. festival organizers believe, they've found the perfect environment to nurture their next-stage growth.

"It's been the long-held dream of the festival, and this pre-dates my being part of the festival team, to evolve the festival into a destination festival," said Yeldham, a movie producer ("The Motorcycle Diaries") who took up the event's reins last year. "And it really does feel that that's the energy around downtown, and it's got this forward momentum and thrust."

"And also because of the expandability of the footprint down there, in terms of venue opportunities, in terms of resources available to travelers down there and visitors, it really feels that suddenly our location is aligned with our vision."

It remains to be seen whether that alignment will pay off in greater global visibility and increased attendance, which in recent years has plateaued at around 75,000.

But already a number of observers have praised the festival's new downtown digs, part of a three-year commitment, as a bold decision filled with potential dividends. These include larger, more modern screening venues, a glut of determinedly hip restaurants, a built-in neighborhood audience of culturally frisky loft and apartment dwellers and, crucially, a cheaper and more abundant parking supply.

Hoteliers, restaurateurs, nightclub owners and civic officials hope to realize economists' predictions that the festival could pump millions of dollars into downtown's economy.

A critical factor in the festival's relocation was its newly formed partnership with sports and entertainment giant Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns and operates the Staples Center and the adjacent L.A. Live campus. The relationship was forged when festival organizers, scouting new venues, attended this year's Independent Spirit Awards, which are presented by LAFF producer Film Independent, at L.A. Live.

The festival will use L.A. Live as its hub. Screenings will be held at the 7,100-seat Nokia Theatre and the new Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14, as well as at the REDCAT theater at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the historic Orpheum and Million Dollar movie palaces on Broadway, among other locations.

"For us the L.A. Live campus is absolutely perfect for the festival," said Scott Hanley, vice president of events for AEG/L.A. Live. "Although it is a global event, it's also a great community event as well."

As a homage to its new home, the festival will screen two vintage, noir-ish movies that pay visual tribute to inner-city L.A., "The Driver" (1978), written and directed by Walter Hill, and "Hickey & Boggs" (1972), scripted by Hill and directed by Robert Culp.

Auxiliary events will draw on the talent that resides in the festival's own backyard. The Grammy Museum will host a discussion of Roger Corman's wayward oeuvre and a conversation with Ben Affleck. John Lithgow and Sylvester Stallone will be featured in evening chats and screenings at Regal Cinemas.

At REDCAT, Quincy Jones will present Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" (1985) and Paul Reubens will host a showing of Frank Capra's 1938 classic "You Can't Take It With You."

And at the Downtown Independent movie house, on the edge of Little Tokyo, Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold will present "Udon" (2006), Motohiro Katsuyuki's comic paean to the humble noodle that's a Japanese dietary staple.

The relocation also contains some possible pitfalls, starting with the presumed reluctance of certain Hollywood potentates and other Westside denizens to brave rush-hour traffic and come downtown. Organizers hope to mitigate transportation problems by running shuttle buses among the various venues and by starting screenings a bit later than in the past to allow for more commuting time.

A bigger challenge may be the perception, justified or not, that downtown is dicey.

pesto

June 17th, 2010, 07:00 PM

Should be an interesting night at LA Live between the Lakers victory (or defeat) riot, the Film Festival and E3. I guess there's no such thing as bad publicity but this could get close.

btw, I saw an article that LAPD is rounding up known taggers and vandals before tonight's festivities. I was just imagining what China might do with these people to encourage them to change their ways. I suspect they would find themselves building subways or mining coal for a couple of decades.

klamedia

June 17th, 2010, 07:01 PM

I want to go down there and riot.

Nacho87

June 21st, 2010, 10:08 PM

google finally updated its maps, you can now see LA Live completed! Along with the Hollywood W Hotel!

soup or man

June 21st, 2010, 11:45 PM

google finally updated its maps, you can now see LA Live completed! Along with the Hollywood W Hotel!

Another interesting fact is they updated the maps the same day the Gold Line Eastside Connection.

pTaMo

June 24th, 2010, 10:01 AM

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ritzla.jpg

Photo: A view of the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in downtown Los Angeles during a lighting ceremony in January. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times Modern and luxurious!:banana:

Mr.Hollywood

June 24th, 2010, 06:46 PM

^^ if DOwntown and Hollywood had more neon lights like that it would be FrEaKiN AmAziNg!

Imperfect Ending

June 24th, 2010, 11:09 PM

^^ We don't need to prove anything ;)

ArchiTennis

August 27th, 2010, 03:16 AM

^^ if DOwntown and Hollywood had more neon lights like that it would be FrEaKiN AmAziNg!

Well, L.A. Live is getting a giant screen!!!

Giant Screen for the JW Marriott L.A. Live

By Eric Richardson
Published: Thursday, August 26, 2010, at 01:34PM

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Crews last week began installing an 8,000-square-foot LED video display on the side of the JW Marriott at L.A. Live. The screen, which will face toward Nokia Plaza, is one of the largest in the country.

Constructed out of horizontal LED strips with gaps between them, the sign allows hotel guests to still see out of their rooms. A similar installation surrounds Nokia Plaza’s main video board, though the screen on the hotel tower will have a much higher resolution.

The screen will be approximately 160 feet tall and 50 feet wide, the same size as static advertisements that are installed on the north and west faces of the building. It was announced in January of 2009 as part of a partnership between L.A. Live and Panasonic.

All signage for the entertainment complex was vetted as part of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District specific plan, a document that governs many aspects of development around the L.A. Live site. The ads became a source of controversy last year, when City Attorney Carmen Trutanich challenged AEG’s right to install signs on the sides of the Regal Cinemas. The City Council eventually stepped in and overruled its counsel on the issue.

http://photos.blogdowntown.com/4910327509_ab62708e14.jpg

courtesy of BlogDowntown (http://networkedblogs.com/7eLgA)

Imperfect Ending

August 27th, 2010, 03:50 AM

Yay!

Someone better record and show that shit

milquetoast

August 27th, 2010, 10:02 AM

Watch the language, tsk!

milquetoast

August 27th, 2010, 10:20 AM

Imperfect Ending

August 28th, 2010, 01:34 AM

I haven't been there in about....a week.
A week ago I saw the new LED screen thing wrapped around the theater's round thing thing

And I don't think this should count as "one of the country's largest" because it's all filled with gaps.
If you compressed it down together it's probably as big as my computer screen.

slipperydog

October 25th, 2010, 09:42 AM

Cherry street renamed:
http://blogdowntown.com/2010/10/5781-downtown-loses-its-cherry-street-becomes

ryebreadraz

October 25th, 2010, 10:41 PM

Cherry street renamed:
http://blogdowntown.com/2010/10/5781-downtown-loses-its-cherry-street-becomes

It definitely doesn't sound very good, but it really will helps visitors who don't know where the hell they are figure out some basic sense of direction. For us locals, it's unfortunate, but the area will be tourist heavy.

raymond3000

October 26th, 2010, 11:20 AM

BLEEECh :puke: Corporate monopolization take over once again! I cant stand it, now it makes the place seem MORE cheesy and MORE less organic, I wonder how LA Live's growth pattern will start in the future of course after LA Central, Figueroa South, Olympic North plots, Holiday Inn lot(s) are fully developed. Which way will it expand? North-South along Figueroa, East-West down Olympic (crossing 110), 11th, 12th, or Pico? up the Harbor Fwy encompassing the Metropolis? where?

My biggest vision for the future of the complex is that all the restos except Yardhouse and maybe Traders Vic get swapped out for more extensive locally LA based non chain even destination restos, extensive "LA theming" added throughout the complex/area, a reclad of the building exteriors with something more edgy less generic, Lastly, that some or all of the static ads get replaced with video/L.E.D screens, I really want a huge one in place of that Target ad @ Fig/Olympic. To me, that one would be LA Live's "grand marquee" a Downtown "Community Board" our own version of "1 Times Square"!

raymond3000

October 26th, 2010, 11:25 AM

edit

pesto

October 26th, 2010, 05:56 PM

AEG is corporate, franchise and brand oriented because that's who they deal with every day. LA is far from their only development and they want to make them as similar and standardized as possible for economic reasons. They are anti-organic in the extreme.

The irony is that a lot of desperate people want AEG to take a larger role in DT, which means more of the same cookie-cutter architecture, corporate logos and soulless neighborhoods.

LA Live is successful during games, and fortunately there are a lot of them. Otherwise, even with the hotels, it's a concrete wasteland. It could have been so much better if it had tried to look more urban and less slick. It would be a shame to expand it into areas that could have organic growth and become real neighborhoods.

croyboy

October 27th, 2010, 06:41 AM

well, there's a lot of parking lots to go before the real neighborhoods are in true danger

Calsonic

October 27th, 2010, 09:37 AM

It's missing a shopping plaza.

pesto

October 27th, 2010, 06:27 PM

soup or man

October 27th, 2010, 07:46 PM

That whole swath of land north of LA Live will be developed. With or without the stadium.

I don't know how many of you follow other developments from other cities but Dallas has a project very similar to LA Live called Victory Park. It's an area of condos, shops, and other forms of entertainment centered around the American Airlines Center (where the Maverick's play). They have a W Hotel (compared to our Ritz) and like LA Live, Victory Park is located in a up and coming residential neighborhood (Uptown Dallas compared to South Park). On the downside, the recession kicked this project's ass. It was supposed to get a Mandarin Oriental Hotel but it was cancelled. Plus it's cut off from downtown Dallas via the Woodall Rogers Freeway.

Some pics.

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/VP8-032309.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/VP4-032309.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/VP6-032309.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/VP2-032309.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/VP1-032309.jpg

This was the original plan.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010824133648/dallasmetropolis.com/photos/dalctm-uc012.JPG
http://web.archive.org/web/20020305102148/dallasmetropolis.com/photos/dalctm-uc020.JPG

ArchiTennis

October 28th, 2010, 12:30 AM

^^ That would have been a huge development. Though I much prefer L.A. Live's futuristic look.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1145/5109482508_c18866e550_b.jpg
Flickr CosmoPhotography

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/5078699209_021c05fb93_b.jpg
flickr by Solar Power International 2010

LosAngelesSportsFan

October 28th, 2010, 07:58 AM

There certainly is room for development DT but what is it you want? Football and slick bars, sitting empty most of the time? What happened to 24/7 activity?

The "true neighborhoods" that are in danger are the ones that are not there yet. So far, if you look at DT proper, the chances for real neighborhoods are pretty much gone from the Union Station area (courts and jails); Bunker Hill; Civic Center; Fig down to Olympic; Staples Center/LA Live. For the time being, east of Los Angeles St. is doubtful because of the homeless in the north and the Fashion District in the South.

Spring and Main and a few other areas are developing, but South Park is the one that has the most potential for modern buildings and ease of development without historical issues. This would plunk a football stadium and more bars in their neighborhood.

South park is much more than LA Live. in fact, LA Live is on the fringe of the south park residential area and the stadium would be even further than anything in south park. The biggest factor in determining how south park will evolve are the empty lots between staples and the condos. Those developments need to be handled with care and can be an awesome asset to South Park. right now, the parking lots are a big buffer, but they need to be developed and should be large developments.

Also, you are generalizing way to much when you say all opportunity is lost for a real neighborhood "here" or "there". great neighborhoods can develop or continue to develop. For example, i think Bunker Hill and the Civic Center have tremendous potential.

pesto

October 29th, 2010, 06:35 PM

raymond3000

October 29th, 2010, 07:00 PM

^^ I live in Dallas, that place (Victory Park) has struggled and at the same time I understand it still is trying to find identity, it still is kinda considered a "white elephant" and many restaurants and retail that have gone in there during the last 3 years have almost appear to vanish overnight due to inconsistent pedestrian volumes which seem to only peak during mostly Mavericks/Stars games, concerts, or NYE celebrations. Its been soo bad for retail and restaurants there that one of the "redeeming" quality was seen when Chilis set up shop among a few other spots. Other than that there are still many areas of the area that have little to any sidewalk space and retail activity. LA Live is in a better position in that scale as it has space to the North, East, South & maybe West for expansion into a "destination"

LosAngelesSportsFan

October 29th, 2010, 07:11 PM

LASF: agreed. Proper development along Fig and Flower could mitigate the damage of the football stadium. But it still limits South Park's potential. Sundays are ruined.

But, did you notice that Dallas looks fantastically good: urban (not busy space-age slick); moderate density; minimal advertising; walkable sidewalks and plazas. And where is the football stadium? Can't even see it on the horizon.

I know that Texas is beating LA on lower prices and friendliness to business. But do they have to blow us away on urban planning and common sense also?

am i missing something? those Dallas pics dont show any of the stuff you are talking about. all i see are parking garages, podiums and 4 story buildings that we all agree dont belong in the heart of downtown.

Also, i dont think Sundays are ruined. Why would they be ruined? You are looking at it from a drivers prospective. Living down here means we can walk everywhere.

pesto

October 29th, 2010, 07:51 PM

raymond: thanks for the insight. That is what I would fear for a football stadim in DT LA only magnified since the Mavs and Stars play 100 games or so. The Staples/LA Live area is booming before games but a concrete wasteland with empty restaurants otherwise. It is a nice addition economically, but it is hardly "24/7" or "urban neighborhood" in the usual sense of the word (walkable communities with markets, shopping, strollers, children's facilities, light to moderate traffic). When you step out of the Marriott or Ritz you are basically in concrete. People get a sort of shocked look, like where are the people? On a weekend you have to go several blocks to find any.

Again, look where NY put its convention center (not in SoHo or Greenwich Village or the Upper East Side). And their football stadium; it's in a different state so as to draw tens of thousands of cars AWAY from the urban neighborhoods. Leave the Convention Center as is (or develop it as needed within its existing space) and let the urban neighborhoods grow.

slipperydog

October 29th, 2010, 09:23 PM

1) A football stadium in that location would be no different from what we currently have: Convention center space. Is the West Hall solely responsible for South Park's current lack of an urban neighborhood? No. Sundays would not be ruined. Football on Sundays would be no different than if a massive convention took place in the West Hall each Sunday. Further to my point, the idea of having the stadium double as convention center space is to bring MORE conferences to LA, not less. If that means more cars, that's something we'll have to live with, because that's where they chose to locate the convention center all those years back. However, I will add, most cities do locate their convention centers downtown, because it helps for better identification and integration for people coming from out of town. The potential for a 24/7 neighborhood doesn't take a hit by replacing the West Hall with football, because...

2) This stadium will be distinctly separated from South Park (rather than smack dab in the middle of an area with potential for a true urban neighborhood). The stadium will be nestled up against the freeway, and by virtue will keep it on the outer fringes of any future South Park growth. Because it's right next to the freeway, keeping the West Hall as is, or building mixed use housing on that site wouldn't add much, if anything to a future South Park neighborhood. Being that it would be completely surrounded by Staples, LA Live, the South Hall, and the 110, it would essentially be choked off from the rest of South Park. So I am of the opinion that the West Hall site has very limited potential for organic growth and would be best used to improve the identity of an already thriving sports district. If you really look at it, that area would frankly be pretty useless otherwise.

3) The Giants had no problem playing in one of the New York boroughs, East Rutherford just gave them the best deal. Had little to do with NYC's urban planning department or trying to keep cars away from Manhattan. Keep in mind, further to my second point above, the Jets proposed West side stadium in Manhattan was located in a very similar position to the AEG stadium, as it was nestled up against the Hudson River: on the fringes of downtown, directly adjacent to NYC's convention center, and adjacent to (but not in the middle of) Chelsea. So this whole thing about world class facilities not being located downtown is a fallacy. NYC was ready to do it. If you want to focus on anything to help spur development and potential for a true urban neighborhood, start by focusing on getting more people to use public transit to access that area.

4) What I would hope is for USC students to, instead of walking a couple blocks across the street for some bowel-destructive stuff like Chano's (then go back to the dorms and watch youtube all night), that they would start using the train to access the LA Live area for entertainment. Especially with the movie theater there. When you have been studying in the library your entire Friday afternoon, the train makes it easy to get with your friends on a spur of the moment to hop on and go find some fun. Right now they have to drive and find expensive parking to eat and go see a movie: a real hassle that currently keeps many in their apartments. Further on up there are nicer restaurants like Morton's, and soon with the Regional Connector and streetcar system, USC and the AEG area will be connected to Bunker Hill, Walt Disney, Central Library, Civic Park, and Broadway.

5) Finally, remember that Southern California is not urban. At it's core, its identity has always been distinctly suburban. When LA was founded, it was started with ranches covering vast amounts of space, from Valencia to Pasadena to Santa Ana to Santa Monica. Upon reaching LA, people simply spread out. It's why we developed the way we did. This isn't NYC, Madrid, London, Tokyo, or Amsterdam with well-developed city centers. It's a complete reversal of the dynamic. Suburbs in NYC and New Jersey developed by city-dwellers moving OUT, whereas now in the late 2000's in LA, we have just started seeing suburban-dwellers moving IN. I am all for continued development of pocket neighborhoods in downtown LA such as South Park, but we can't realistically expect it to mirror what you see in most other massive metro areas around the world. It's not who we are.

A downtown stadium is neither inherently better or worse for the development of downtown Los Angeles. It's simply one more piece of the puzzle.

croyboy

October 30th, 2010, 09:55 AM

^^ well actually we can say our city developed in a way that makes it similar to london, madrid, paris, tokyo, etc, without all developments clustered into a centralized downtown, but rather several and in any part of the cities (downtown, mid-wilshire, westwood, century city,...).

it's actually cities like chicago and new york that detered from the "norm" or old ways of world-class cities

klamedia

October 30th, 2010, 07:15 PM

"Slipdog" got it right. Although the last piece about suburban this and that could be debated a bit. LA developed along its interurban rail system creating not so much a suburban metropolis but a poly-centric one. The LA of the future will continue to have urban pockets some even hyper urban w/ an urban lilt separating them. This is the DNA of LA it seems. Even our modern transit rail system continues to follow this pattern. Long lines connecting far flung urban nodes like DTLA and Long Beach. While in the interim of that trip you have somewhat calm and potentially prosperous residential enclaves.

pesto

October 30th, 2010, 08:41 PM

agree 100 percent with Klam and croyboy; I have problems theoretically and factually with most of slipdog, but nothing I haven't already said.

slipperydog

October 30th, 2010, 09:07 PM

We will always disagree theoretically about the downtown stadium, you've made that clear. Not sure what I got wrong factually though, if they exist you're welcome to point them out; I love being educated about stuff like this. My last comment about urban vs. suburban was obviously a bit of an oversimplification, but frankly the post was getting too damn long.

LA is DEFINITELY polycentric, I thought my comment about the different cities in the LA area alluded to that. With regards to NYC, London and Madrid, I merely stated that they all have well-developed city centers, not that they all originally developed the same way. Because while London and Tokyo didn't develop the same way as NYC, they definitely did not develop the same way as LA. As you pointed out, there are indeed some theoretical similarities between the development of world class international cities and LA, but the differences are far more stark. For example, most of those international cities do have a population-dense and well-defined city center, whereas LA really doesn't.

pesto

November 1st, 2010, 07:58 PM

slipdog: I said my previous post was my last but this one is mostly not football so I only partly lied.

For sure LA is not urban like those cities, but I think that is just a matter of time. I always assume we are dealing with largely urban areas from DT to SM/LAX since the clear trend is in that direction. That zone strikes me as off-limits for manufacturing, surface rail, new freeways or arterials, football stadiums, new sfh's except within sfh areas or low-rise construction at all (minimum of, say, 5 stories except in sfh areas).

Leaving the rest of SoCal suburban and channeling growth around nodes and transit hubs, is fine, at least for the next 20 years.

Factually, I found your analogies to NY very thin. Westside Stadium was absolutely hated by residents of Chelsea and the West Side generally. The pro-arguments, which were put forth by huge money interests and billionaire politicians was that it would hlep the convention business and attract major sports events. It was defeated by local residents with support from the other buroughs, who argued that it would bring traffic and congestion to neighborhoods on weekends, spend public money on rarely used facilities, and that it made a lot more sense to pull cars OUT of Manhattan on weekends. Same as my LA arguments.

btw, proposals for that area are now for mixed use residential, creative, office, retail and park/recreational. What a novel idea for an urban area! And put the football where there is plenty of room, parking for tail-gating and no likelihood of urban residential development.

slipperydog

November 1st, 2010, 10:56 PM

For sure LA is not urban like those cities, but I think that is just a matter of time. I always assume we are dealing with largely urban areas from DT to SM/LAX since the clear trend is in that direction. That zone strikes me as off-limits for manufacturing, surface rail, new freeways or arterials, football stadiums, new sfh's except within sfh areas or low-rise construction at all (minimum of, say, 5 stories except in sfh areas).

The reason London and Madrid are 'urban' is because there are virtually no single family homes in those areas. Everything is built upwards and mixed in with retail and business. It happened in those cities because most of the medieval industry was IN the city center. So everyone was forced to congregate in multi-story structures. The area you are referring to in LA is NOT urban. Even though it's part of LA, it's suburban because no business structures are inter-mingled with SFH's or apartments. If you are expecting people in the Crenshaw district to tear down their SFH's with front and back yards, in favor of narrow, side-by-side homes in Brooklyn or Washington Square, that's a pipe dream.

Factually, I found your analogies to NY very thin. Westside Stadium was absolutely hated by residents of Chelsea and the West Side generally. The pro-arguments, which were put forth by huge money interests and billionaire politicians was that it would hlep the convention business and attract major sports events. It was defeated by local residents with support from the other buroughs, who argued that it would bring traffic and congestion to neighborhoods on weekends, spend public money on rarely used facilities, and that it made a lot more sense to pull cars OUT of Manhattan on weekends. Same as my LA arguments.

btw, proposals for that area are now for mixed use residential, creative, office, retail and park/recreational. What a novel idea for an urban area! And put the football where there is plenty of room, parking for tail-gating and no likelihood of urban residential development.

You make good points. I didn't realize the urban plan in Chelsea called for something different. But if you are saying the relationships are thin between the failed West Side Stadium and the downtown LA site, the real differences are that 1) This is not opposed by local residents 2) The rail yard site in Chelsea could be integrated into the urban community much more easily. The West Hall is completely surrounded, so it has no potential for integration with the rest of South Park.

You mention the need for tailgating, but this is not a football stadium. It's an extension of the convention center. If it were a football stadium only, your argument about having plenty of room for tailgating would have more merit. But it's only going to be a football stadium 9 Sundays a year.

Besides, this is LA and traffic and congestion is a major problem. Having a limited amount of parking will encourage people to take light rail into downtown, and thus get people out of their cars, which we need. The events center can be the first step in getting people comfortable with the idea of taking public transportation, and hopefully will spur a paradigm-shift (even if it's slight) in our culture. I know that for myself, if I knew traffic and parking would be tight, I would absolutely drive to my local train station and take light rail to the game. More often than not, those that CAN take public transportation probably would. So lack of parking is actually a good thing in my book.

klamedia

November 2nd, 2010, 04:01 PM

The reason London and Madrid are 'urban' is because there are virtually no single family homes in those areas. Everything is built upwards and mixed in with retail and business. It happened in those cities because most of the medieval industry was IN the city center. So everyone was forced to congregate in multi-story structures. The area you are referring to in LA is NOT urban. Even though it's part of LA, it's suburban because no business structures are inter-mingled with SFH's or apartments. If you are expecting people in the Crenshaw district to tear down their SFH's with front and back yards, in favor of narrow, side-by-side homes in Brooklyn or Washington Square, that's a pipe dream.
.

Let's not get too swift here. The area that "pest" is speaking of is not suburban. Suburban is not defined by sfh solely, if that were the case it wouldn't matter how close those homes in Brooklyn are squeezed together they would be suburban by your standards. Not to mention in Brooklyn and throughout the East Coast you can find rows and rows and block after block of single use brownstones with.......(gasp)! BACKYARDS!!!!! Eventhough the housing stock looks different the same general plan was set for at least heading west from DTLA til you get to around La Cienega. Rows and rows of residential with business fronting the major boulevards just like in .....Queens. In fact there is a quote somewhere where when Eli Broad (LA's Godfather) was flying over LA for the first time in the 50's he exclaimed " look! they've built a Queens on the Pacific."
After you cross La Cienega heading west and heading south especially below the 10 that's when you tend to start running into cul de sacs and all sort of mid century design. But remember the avg age of a home in LA is about 70 years old now, since the avg home was built and the neighborhoods in the late 20's early 30's when the city was growing wildly. LA isn't Phoenix nor Houston which are in many respects the best example of cities that were built en masse after WWII with modern design standards. Most of LA neighborhoods started out as streetcar suburbs or tiny entact cities that later became incorporated. That's why it's so lovely in regards to LA to visit a neighborhood and each one has its own tiny CBD area.

pesto

November 2nd, 2010, 06:32 PM

As a side note, there isn't much of "medieval" Madrid around, even in street lay-out. It's a renaissance city, which is what makes it so reminiscent of LA: an attitude of openness and looking outward toward nature, not inward for protection from people and nature.
Compare it to Barcelona, which did retain a medieval lay-out in its center although the buildings themselves are much later.

As Klam notes, it's hard to classify the DT to SM to LAX area as either purely urban or suburban. It varies by neighborhood. But it is OK for sfh's to stay there for 50 or 100 years since there is no way that demand for mid-rise and high-rise will be sufficient to build-up the whole area (about 3-4 times the size of Manhattan). Focus density around MTA stations and around neighborhoods that are already mixed (usually older sfh, older 2-3 story apartments, light industry) like much of Hollywood, West Lake, much of Crenshaw and adjacent, Culver City, WLA, south SM. Main streets will get low or medium rise, but well established, thriving sfh areas will be protected from "blockbuster" projects.

klamedia

November 3rd, 2010, 05:09 AM

I agree with all of the above but I actually did proper specs on the area running from DTLA west to SM, north from the Hollywood Hills south to the 10. What you have there is the closest thing to Manhattan that LA could get. That area is only 15 miles long and 5 or so miles wide at its widest. Manhattan is famously 13 miles long by 3 1/2 miles wide. Not only does that area have the highest densities within incorporated Los Angeles but holds practically all of our cultural, education and entertainment institutions and our 2 largest business districts. We could lasso USC in to this area since it sits right beneath the 10.
So the area that I speak of is not 2-3 times larger than Manhattan but is similar to Manhattan as the center of NYC in many respects. If LA has a center then Metro LA or whatever we could name it would be its center.

pesto

November 3rd, 2010, 07:20 PM

Isn't it great that we can find something to disagree about even when we agree?

Manhattan is rarely more than 2 miles wide and often much less. 13 in length includes a long narrow tip that is not "Manhattan-like" (in the sense of dense height), but even with it, it's 23 sq. miles in all.

I would extend your area down to Exposition and on the westside would include the area south to LAX. These are already dense commercial and residential areas in parts (Sepulveda, Venice, Marina del Rey) and demand is huge. The Exposition area should get pressure for density and higher rise due to the Expo Line and (hopefully) the Crenshaw Line.

I would say about 70-90 sq. miles depending on where you draw the edges. Maybe 50-60 sq. miles if you cut off at the 5.

milquetoast

November 6th, 2010, 11:03 AM

This is the best illustration of what we may be talking about here, I think. It basically covers what I refer to as The Golden Triangle; the area triangulated from Downtown to Hollywood to Century and beyond to Santa Monica and including the complex around L A X. . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/Fullscreencapture116201014417AM.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/Fullscreencapture116201014340AM.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/Fullscreencapture116201014315AM.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/Fullscreencapture116201014406AM.jpg EXTRANOMICAL

pesto

November 6th, 2010, 08:37 PM

LA's urban areas are hard to define: do they end at Wilshire, Pico, Exposition? Is LAX a separate node? Are north SM, BH, Brentwood, etc., urban at all?

Your maps raise a couple of issues. Do you want ot cut out 3rd, Beverly, Farmer's Mkt, Musuem Row, Park La Brea? I would say any part of Wilshire is in, even if you have to pick up Hancock Park to do so. I would also look east of the Hollywood Fwy.

If investment really does go into Ktown, USC and along the Expo Line, could Crenshaw become seriously urban? Could be. I don't see it as likely to become medium-rise (5-20 stories) as Hollywood or many other points north of Wilshire, but some greater density seems likely.

But the main point was that sfh's are going to be around a long time because there isn't enough demand for housing to fill that area for many years.

milquetoast

November 7th, 2010, 09:03 AM

Oh, is that what we're talking about on LA LIVE? We have single family's because we have the climate to support that life. It will always be the desired style of this area, but that doesn't mean we should discontinue our drive for a more compact, urban economy.

klamedia

November 7th, 2010, 05:28 PM

But the main point was that sfh's are going to be around a long time because there isn't enough demand for housing to fill that area for many years.
Wrong! Weekly you can find proposals for massive affordable housing, low cost to workforce type housing proposed for different neighborhoods around the city. NIMBY's come out to fight the project everytime. There may not be an overwhelming demand for housing starting in the upper 500,000's in this city but the demand for affordable housing could easily replace block after block of sfh's. What you're missing is that much of the city has protective sfh zones. So because you don't see entire blocks being replaced with multifamily dwellings you assume that there isn't a demand. That's not true. The zoning in this city artificially protects the sfh eventhough the market would easily get rid of them in a 10 year span if left unabated. Remember places like Maywood and Cudahy are some of the densest areas in the nation with 2 and 3 families living in one sfh. If neighborhoods within the city were upzoned to absorb the pressing housing shortage and demand for affordable housing in this city we'd have 2-3 story apt building covering most of Los Angeles.

DaveLA_CA

November 13th, 2010, 01:10 AM

..Oh yeah! It's installed in panels.. Aqua? Ride your bike down there and take pics :) IMAGE HOSTED ON FLICKR (http://www.flickr.com) http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/4910327509_f1796ecde7_o.jpg . BANYANTREEPRODUCTIONS

Landing at LAX earlier this week the screen on the front of the Marriott / Ritz is now on and boy is it visible. I'm not sure if they are meant to be seen by passengers on airplanes (especially those heading east to make the turn into the landing pattern) but boy are they!

XLucky4LifeX

November 13th, 2010, 10:12 AM

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac277/kelvincheng/CIMG6696.jpg
Excuse my camera quality. The screen is pretty visible though.

Thundergod

November 13th, 2010, 03:44 PM

^^
Awesome

miccorel

December 19th, 2010, 04:29 PM

It's amazing design. Ok, as said by Jason, there's a sticky thread for all the project listings, and threads for individual projects.

LA Live could be said to be the 'granddaddy' of the projects downtown. AEG is the developer of this 2.5 billion project at the heart of thriving South Park, downtown's newest neighborhood. The project has all kinds of venues, and facilities, including a 15 screen movieplex, a 7100 seat theatre, a GRAMMY museum, and an ESPN broadcasting facility.

All the discussion and articles about the project should be posted here.

The Webcams:
http://lalive.clarkconstruction.com/

http://clarkconstruction.oxblue.com/lalive/

Overview:
Phase 1: 7100 seat Nokia Theatre, 2007
Phase 2: Shops/reustaurants/cafes/clubs/ESPN Zone, 2008 or 2009
Phase 3: Ritz Carlton Hotel, 54 floors, 2010

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g189/FROMLOSANGELES/RITZCARLTON.gif

Hope it's like this :)
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g189/FROMLOSANGELES/LALIVEatnight.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g189/FROMLOSANGELES/GRAMMYMUSEUM.jpg

Here's the link to the official page: http://www.aegworldwide.com/04_future/losangeles.html

Here are some other pics:

http://static.flickr.com/80/250137437_799881d300.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/83/250136733_4d5407188d.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/96/250136732_ed3665a59e.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/92/250135128_a9a3ab7752.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/86/250132435_815c07a0b0.jpg?v=0

Calsonic

December 30th, 2010, 05:01 AM

Has anyone ever been here for NYE. If so, how is it? I want to check it out this year.

saiholmes

December 31st, 2010, 04:02 AM

2011 NBA All-Star Game
STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES
http://www.nba.com/allstar/2011/

Kenni

December 31st, 2010, 10:32 PM

2011 NBA All-Star Game
STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES
http://www.nba.com/allstar/2011/

I'm very glad it's back in our town, but I hate the logo. :ohno:

Johnvb

January 2nd, 2011, 04:25 AM

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac277/kelvincheng/CIMG6696.jpg
Excuse my camera quality. The screen is pretty visible though.

Looks great!

slipperydog

January 12th, 2011, 11:29 AM

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/01/09/us/STADIUM-4/STADIUM-4-popup.jpg

LA has come a long way...

iAndy-JaKaRtA

January 20th, 2011, 06:01 AM

Wow... I amazed!

grubianin

March 3rd, 2011, 10:54 PM

it realy looks like on photo. Great job :cheers:

milquetoast

March 15th, 2011, 01:43 PM

"THE PROJECT COULD BE THE FIRST OF SEVERAL TO GET ANNOUNCED FOR SOUTH PARK" -TED TANNER/LAC&E AUTHORITY . AEG SET TO ANNOUNCE NEW HOTEL NEXT TO L A LIVE http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%203/Fullscreencapture315201142511AM.jpg .
Officials with AEG have been consistent in saying that their proposed $1.4 billion NFL stadium and events center would stimulate new developments in Downtown's hotel industry.

The company appears set to back that talk up by kicking off development of an entitled hotel site it owns just north of L.A. Live.

On Wednesday morning, Ted Tanner told the members of the Los Angeles Convention and Exhibition Authority that the company is under contract with a hotel developer and plans to announce the development deal within the next two weeks.

Tanner, who heads up real estate development for the company, said the 375-room development would include "two brands," but did not specify what they would be.

The project could be the first of several to get announced for South Park.

"Every major brand is interested in being Downtown right now." .
While much of that interest is being driven by the stadium project and the promise of a renewed Convention Center, the first year performance of the 1,001 rooms in the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hasn't exactly hurt. AEG projected first year occupancy rates in the two hotels to be 56%, but hit 64% instead. Room rates are similarly 10% higher than the company had projected.

The soon-to-be-announced hotel could get company on AEG's Olympic North parcel, which sits north of Olympic between Francisco and Georgia. The site is currently entitled for 600,000 square feet of office and broadcast studio space, but Tanner said that AEG may look to change some of that to hotel rooms. Since AEG first applied for the broadcast entitlement in 2009, Comcast purchased NBC Universal, giving the Comcast Entertainment Group a more natural home in the Universal City development. . ERIC RICHARDSON BLOGDOWNTOWN

milquetoast

April 19th, 2011, 02:53 PM

L A LIVE GETS COMPANION HOTEL http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%203/60995775.jpg . THE 22 STORY HOTEL WOULD BE RUN BY MARRIOT UNDER THE BRANDS COURTYARD AND RESIDENCE INN - THE 120 MILLION PROJECT IS SLATED TO BEGIN IN A YEAR . An Oregon developer plans to build a 22-story hotel near the L.A. Live entertainment center to serve a growing number of visitors to downtown Los Angeles.

Marriott International Inc. would operate the proposed 377-room hotel on Olympic Boulevard under two of the company's brands: Residence Inn by Marriott and Courtyard by Marriott. Construction on the nearly $120-million project is set to begin next March and be completed by 2014.

It would be built and owned by a consortium led by Williams/Dame & Associates, the Portland, Ore., developer that built the condominium towers Evo, Luma and Elleven near Staples Center in the South Park district of downtown.

Maryland-based Marriott already operates a JW Marriott and a Ritz-Carlton in a skyscraper across Olympic on the campus of L.A. Live as well as a Marriott Hotel about seven blocks north on Figueroa Street.

It is not unusual to have multiple Marriott products so close together, company executives said.

"We have a portfolio of brands that cater to different demands and price points," said Tony Capuano, executive vice president of development for Marriott. "This gives us the opportunity to serve a variety of guests who come for a variety of reasons."

The hotel plan is not contingent on the construction of Farmers Field, a proposed professional football stadium and convention facility that L.A. Live owner AEG is seeking approval for to build nearby, Capuano said.

"We feel very good about the bet we have made with our brands," he said, in large part because there are already about 300 events a year at Staples Center and L.A. Live venues including the Nokia Theater.

"We think Farmers Field would continue to grow the appeal and profile" of downtown, he said.

Downtown already is experiencing a burst in hotel visits. With the opening of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton last year, the supply of rooms went up 16% and demand grew 24% in 2010, said Bruce Baltin, a hospitality industry consultant at PKF Consulting USA.

"This is obviously very healthy in a down economy," he said. Downtown hotel occupancy has averaged almost 70% this year, compared with 61% in 2009 and nearly 65% last year.

Baltin attributed the uptick in downtown hotel occupancy to an increase in the number of people who come downtown and stay overnight after attending events. Downtown also is capturing business travelers who might have opted for hotels in Pasadena or the Westside in the past.

"Downtown has kind of reached a critical mass as a destination, and the more you add to it the more it will grow, to a reasonable extent," Baltin said. Marriott's no-frills Courtyard and extended-stay Residence Inn, with its larger units and kitchens, would add types of rooms that don't exist downtown, he said.

Williams/Dame & Associates would develop the hotel at the northwest corner of Olympic and Francisco Street with American Life Inc., a Seattle investment firm. Financing would be through the federal EB-5 program, which provides green cards to immigrant investors who put up a minimum investment of $500,000 for development in targeted areas.

The immigrants would be considered limited partners and thus co-owners of the project. If the project produces enough jobs to meet standards for the program, as expected, they would qualify for green cards granting residency. Marriott said the hotels would create about 100 jobs.

Building a high-rise hotel is less difficult than building a condominium tower because the units are more uniform, said Homer Williams, chairman of Williams/Dame. Williams has developed thousands of condos in Oregon and Los Angeles.

L.A. Live's effect on South Park has been more significant than he expected, and he predicts development in the area will continue to grow.

"We are going to ride some shirttails, hopefully," Williams said. His team acquired the hotel site, which is now a parking lot, from AEG.

The planned project is "another crucial milestone in Los Angeles' thriving downtown renaissance," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement. "This project will create countless local construction and permanent jobs and will expand Los Angeles' infrastructure to support large-scale conventions that generate significant revenue for the city."
roger.vincent@latimes.com
. ROGER VINCENT LOSANGELESTIMES

ElDudarinodotcom

April 19th, 2011, 07:47 PM

The design is not particularly inspired, which is not unexpected considering it is a hotel. It is still great to see continued development in the area; especially one that has the potential to bring a wider variety of people to the downtown area.

milquetoast

April 20th, 2011, 07:08 AM

Yeah, and it probably looks better in the render than it would in real life, but .. whatareya gonna do?

croyboy

April 20th, 2011, 07:56 PM

just PLEASE let there be something to do on the ground. otherwise it's bunkerhill all over again.

soup or man

April 22nd, 2011, 09:15 PM

Not really the correct comparison.

croyboy

April 22nd, 2011, 09:57 PM

two hotels built across from each other withh nothing on their sidewalks... big gap between the theatre and yard house. it's like a block long driveway

pesto

April 23rd, 2011, 02:29 AM

DaveLA_CA

April 23rd, 2011, 03:54 AM

I don't want to come off as sounding difficult, but this area doesn't need "off-ramp" hotels or glass and metal. It needs something like a block off of Bway, something with potential for more life, visual and social complexity and 24 hour living. (Conversely, putting some breathing space, greenery or glass and metal touches into Bway would do good for it as well. How about moving the Courtyard to Bway or Hill?)

NYC often gets it's mid-range hotels in updates of historic buildings. An "off-ramp" Marriott wouldn't even get proposed there. LA Live will become a down-market albatross if the city allows it.

Really? And this assessment is based upon what exactly. A quick check of Marriott's website, filtering for both Courtyard and Residence Inn in NYC, shows a number of locations all in newer constructed buildings. Their locations range from Times Square, Bryant Park, Midtown, SoHo, Fifth Avenue, and others. This seems a far cry from the out of the way historic restorations that would never even be proposed there mentioned above. I haven't even tried searching the Hilton, Starwood, Hyatt, and Intercontinental websites for locations of their mid-range and extended stay brands yet.

pesto

April 23rd, 2011, 05:50 PM

I'm not sure what is controversial here. Mid-range hotels in NY are typically not "neo-stucco" buildings, but are renovations of older buildings. Of course, there are also new buildings and an occasional dog gets approved, but this is not the rule. I don't want to go one by one through NY, but attached is the website for the Courtyard near Times Sq. which casts a very organic shadow on the 'hood, not a block of stucco and glass. Mid-town if full of deco's and other buildings that are hotel conversions.

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/nycmd-courtyard-new-york-manhattan-times-square-south/

In any event, if you think Bunker Hill is an architectural success, by all means support less residence, less small retail, more cold concrete, steel and glass. What you get is busy for part of the day, but never in a neighborhood sort of way for a very specific reason: it is built to move large numbers of people in and out of the area quickly. You get Bunker Hill, not what Spring, Main or Jtown have become.

My view is that putting the organic in some neighborhoods and the neo-plastic in others is not as effective as mixing the new with organic. If that is not practical, then at least put something new that has some style and will put our best foot forward.

croyboy

April 24th, 2011, 04:34 AM

pesto

April 26th, 2011, 06:53 AM

no place downtown should have been built to get large groups of people out of the area. it should be built to keep the area flowing in and out, as people please, 24/7, and smoothly (the "smooth" is where rail transit and comes in).

Agreed that multiple transit modalities is very important for reaching full utilization. But having good transit alone just makes it easy to get there and out again. There has to be a reason that people want to live there or (at a minimum) stay there for a while.

Bunker Hill was intended to do this but the residential didn't work out and it is deserted at night. Retail on Bway made this a lively area, but again, no desirable residential left it deserted at night. LA Live and a football stadium will bring people rushing in and rushing out on game days, but residential, retail, parks, leisurely dining, galleries, etc., would complement LA Live much more than the stadium (and the over-priced LA Live restaurants). They attract people weekdays and evenings, not just mid-day Sunday.

And office demand generally follows demand of where people want to live.

klamedia

April 26th, 2011, 04:42 PM

I think you're coming off far too critical and misleading. NYC does lots of rehabs because of the dirth of abandoned or neglected space in Lower and Mid Manhattan. If a Marriot is built in Queens I guarantee you it will be in a new construct. This section of Downtown LA is more akin to a Queens than to a Midtown, I mean let's get real, they're building on a parking lot. If this area was already saturated with old buildings then it would be a rehab as we see happening in the center core of downtown but this area is literally just being born.....I mean there has never been much in that area to begin with. This is a practical and welcomed addition to the never ending growth and proposals of LA Live. This is a different price point for a different type of patron who can't afford all of the snazzines next door. IMO this is the right product at the right time.

pesto

April 26th, 2011, 05:12 PM

klam: I agree that I made the same mistake that I sometimes complain about and used "NY" when I mean Manhattan. I agree that most of NYC and its suburbs tend to have the same non-descript architecture when new hotels are going up at off-ramps.

I don't agree that this area is more like Queens than mid-town. It's just that we are building our mid-town, not rehabing it. And even the buildings that are now being rehabed into Marriotts were of some quality when first built. They are recognizably deco or some othere "legitimate" style, not flat stucco.

saiholmes

May 18th, 2011, 05:30 AM

Join the supporters of Farmers Field
http://www.farmersfield.com/

Magic calls on fans to sign petition for L.A. football stadium
NFL.com Wire Reports
Published: May 17, 2011 at 04:24 p.m.

Sports and entertainment company AEG is reaching for star power in its quest to bring a football team to downtown Los Angeles.

In an email sent to Staples Center ticket purchasers and supporters, former Laker legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson made a plea for fans to sign a petition in support of Farmers Field stadium, which would be constructed over half the existing Los Angeles Convention Center in a rapidly-rejuvenated part of downtown that includes LA Live, an AEG-owned entertainment complex with concert venues, restaurants, a bowling alley, movie theaters and the Staples Center, which has housed the Lakers, the Clippers and hockey's Kings since 1999.

"For sports fans, Farmers Field makes L.A. one of the top sports cities in the world, giving us the stadium we need not only to host a football team, but the Super Bowl, Olympics, NCAA Final Fours and other major events," the statement reads. "And for business folks like me, Farmers Field brings more than 18,000 permanent, good paying jobs to the city -- building our urban communities and bringing pride back to our neighborhoods.

"It's about time that we finally give our city a football team -- and bring "Showtime" back to Los Angeles, not just on the basketball court, but on the football field."

AEG often touts LA Live's role in helping rejuvenate downtown Los Angeles as a preview of the impact its stadium proposal could have when promoting its plan to city residents and officials.

The AEG stadium plan is one of two competing proposals that aim to bring football back to Los Angeles some 15 years after the Rams and Raiders left the nation's second-largest market within months of one another.

AEG has said it would pick up the entire $1 billion construction tab for its stadium. The venue would be constructed over half the existing convention center, which would be rebuilt to attract more conventions. The company's plan calls for the city to issue some $350 million in bonds to finance the demolition and relocation of the contention center hall displaced by the stadium.

AEG officials have said they would ask the city to let AEG use stadium ticket taxes and new venue-related revenue from city-owned parking lots to service the debt on the bonds but would make up an estimated $6-million-to-$8-million shortfall.

Warehouse magnate Ed Roski has permits in place to build a separate 75,000-seat stadium about 15 miles east of Los Angeles, in the city of Industry.

Both camps have said they hope to recruit a team -- and possibly two -- from among those that need a new stadium to maximize revenue but are unable to get one built in their current locations.

The San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars are among the teams often mentioned as possible candidates to play in the proposed venues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read More: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81fe108e/article/magic-calls-on-fans-to-sign-petition-for-la-football-stadium

Mojeda101

October 18th, 2011, 08:19 AM

Status of the Hotel and Farmers Field?

LosAngelesSportsFan

October 19th, 2011, 08:43 AM

The new hotels could break ground by early next year, and Farmers field could potentially break ground by June

Mojeda101

October 20th, 2011, 07:01 AM

Ah, thanks. LA needs this, decent towers and a stadium to bring 60,000+ to downtown for an event monthly, this would be great. With the creation of the stadium comes a few new hotels, and off goes the train. I wish by 2020 LA would be looking a lot bigger. I someday dream that Downtown will link with Hollywood and Century City.

soup or man

October 20th, 2011, 06:10 PM

Downtown already links with Hollywood via the Red Line.

Mojeda101

October 20th, 2011, 09:19 PM

I meant in terms of skyline.

soup or man

October 21st, 2011, 08:52 PM

I don't really think it's possible to link downtown and Hollywood as the most direct route is Sunset Blvd which runs through Silverlake which is a very hilly area. Plus Silverlake is awesome.

milquetoast

October 22nd, 2011, 07:09 AM

Way too residential in their thinking. That linking may be the last possible link you'll ever see. I see it running west and south and east.

pesto

October 22nd, 2011, 06:23 PM

I think we're being too tough on mojeda. I think he is looking for DT, Hollywood and CC to be linked by a general urban structure, not literally by highrises in a continuous line.

But I'm not sure how a DT football stadium helps that. What would be needed is more density along Wilshire and parallel streets, and along the 101. This strikes me as possible since the area south of Silver Lake is in need of some changes.

Mojeda101

October 22nd, 2011, 08:37 PM

I don't really think it's possible to link downtown and Hollywood as the most direct route is Sunset Blvd which runs through Silverlake which is a very hilly area. Plus Silverlake is awesome.Very Hill? Bunk Hill was hilly(Note: Was), as well as San Francisco, they managed to get by now didn't they?

klamedia

October 24th, 2011, 05:15 PM

I don't understand the SF reference. "Pest" you continue to deliberately leave out the fact that the stadium won't just be a "stadium", it will be an events center. The demolition of the West Hall of the LACC is an integral piece of this project/stadium. More conventions if successful could very well spur a moderate building boom in hotel construction.
I would hate to see 20-30 towers marching up Sunset through Echo Park, Silver Lake and the quaint Los Feliz area. Spoiling gorgeous views of the Hollywood Hills, the Hollywood sign and Griffith Park.

soup or man

October 24th, 2011, 08:14 PM

^ I agree. Leave Silverlake alone. It doesn't need skyscrapers at all. Plus it would block a lot of views.

Mojeda101

December 2nd, 2011, 08:13 AM

Status of the hotel next to LA Live? I've heard nothing from it lately.

soup or man

December 6th, 2011, 05:28 PM

Status of the hotel next to LA Live? I've heard nothing from it lately.

Neither have we. So in other words, when there is news about it, it will be posted.

Cardamomun

December 24th, 2011, 10:37 PM

excellent

vidgms

December 27th, 2011, 04:50 AM

Neither have we. So in other words, when there is news about it, it will be posted.

Dude, go ahead, give him those articles that we have been holding back from everybody. Since he asked, now we can let everyone know whats going on!!!

redspork02

January 6th, 2012, 07:00 AM

No new years countdown vids?????? anyone??

soup or man

January 6th, 2012, 04:58 PM

^ You could always Google them if you want to see them so bad.

redspork02

January 7th, 2012, 02:41 AM

MAlo! ^^^^^^^ lol

DaveLA_CA

January 7th, 2012, 02:46 AM

Neither have we. So in other words, when there is news about it, it will be posted.

An update on this project came today from Brigham Yen

http://brighamyen.com/2012/01/06/new-marriott-courtyard-and-residence-inn-will-add-393-hotel-rooms-to-south-park-in-downtown-la/

soup or man

January 7th, 2012, 04:36 AM

http://brighamyen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Untitled21.jpg
http://brighamyen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Untitled.jpg
http://brighamyen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Untitled31.jpg
http://brighamyen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Untitled4.jpg

ErnCas

January 7th, 2012, 07:41 AM

The podium looks very inviting. They gladly kept the cars off Olympic Blvd, which can possibly host a very nice, pedestrian-friendly corridor from George St. to Figueroa. The west side of the facade is reminiscent of "suburbanized" hotel architecture i.e. Holiday Inn.

milquetoast

January 7th, 2012, 09:15 AM

60s bones, split in the middle by the elevator bank
and given 21st century dressing.

Mojeda101

January 8th, 2012, 09:00 AM

23 story building adding to the skyline. Beautiful.
This, whilshire, the grand, civic park...LA is looking up.

soup or man

January 8th, 2012, 05:28 PM

60s bones, split in the middle by the elevator bank
and given 21st century dressing.

On the plus side, the people who designed this building also designed The South Group (Elleven, Luma, Evo) as well as 717 Olympic. All of which are very well designed and good infill projects. I have faith that this building will be better than the renderings.

pesto

January 9th, 2012, 05:36 PM

On the plus side, the people who designed this building also designed The South Group (Elleven, Luma, Evo) as well as 717 Olympic. All of which are very well designed and good infill projects. I have faith that this building will be better than the renderings.

Agree. It isn't cutting edge, but it's a friggin' Courtyard by Marriott: beats most Marriott's by a mile.

milquetoast

January 12th, 2012, 08:38 AM

OSCAR MAY LEAVE HOLLYWOOD
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%203/worldarchitecturenewscom.jpg
WORLDARCHITECTURENEWS.COM
TALKS UNDERWAY TO MOVE AWARDS FROM KODAK TO NOKIA

After a decade of holding Hollywood's biggest night of the year at the Kodak Theatre, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is considering moving its annual Academy Awards ceremony to the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

Preliminary discussions about the potential relocation are underway between the academy and AEG, owner of the Nokia Theatre, according to a person familiar with AEG's operations who was not authorized to speak publicly. Officials at both the academy and AEG declined to comment.

The move downtown would be a big blow for the 3,500-seat Kodak Theatre, which was built specifically to the academy's requirements ahead of the 2002 Oscar broadcast and has served as the cornerstone to the Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex.

This year's ABC telecast Feb. 26 will mark the 10th annual show to be held at the theater. It also marks a point in the academy's long-term contract with the CIM Group, the landlord of the Kodak Theatre, that allows the organization to explore cheaper lease options for the 2014 show. CIM also declined to comment. The Hollywood Reporter, an industry trade publication, first reported the discussions Wednesday.

There is a chance that the academy could renegotiate its lease with CIM and keep the Oscars rolling at the Kodak.

A move to the Nokia would enable the academy to more than double the occupancy of its annual broadcast. The cavernous, 7,100-seat theater also hosts the annual Emmy Awards and the American Music Awards shows. The Grammy Awards have been handed out at the adjacent Staples Center 11 times in the last 12 years.

Proponents of the Nokia say the venue, which is part of AEG's larger L.A. Live complex, would also offer the academy more room for outdoor activities. The X Games sports competition and "American Idol" television show have incorporated Nokia's plaza into their events. The space also offers three ballroom options with the J.W. Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotel complex next to the theater. A tunnel connecting the theater to Staples Center would enable the academy to make use of the locker rooms and other facilities in the arena.

From a logistical standpoint, the Kodak Theatre has consistently served the needs of the academy and it's changing cadre of producers. Bill Condon, producer of the 81st Academy Awards in 2009, says the Kodak was built to do the show and it's only gotten better since Cirque du Soleil's "Iris" show came into the theater and excavated 40 feet under the stage for its elaborate sets.

"It has a very intimate feel. Technically there is nothing wrong with it," Condon said. "The camera can go almost anywhere. And the backstage space is massive enough to hold everything needed to put on a television show. Plus there are endless dressing rooms."

Leron Gubler, the president/CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said that should the Oscars move out of Hollywood, it would be a big blow to the community.

"Obviously, we'd be very disappointed. The Kodak Theatre was designed for the academy but more than that, historically the academy is tied to Hollywood with the first Academy Awards held in Hollywood," Gubler said. "This, on top of the academy's decision to move their museum out of Hollywood an onto Wilshire Boulevard would send a very negative message to the community."

A representative for City Councilman Eric Garcetti spoke up for the Kodak. " The Academy Awards belong in Hollywood," chief of staff Yusef Robb said.

Criticism of the Kodak has often centered on the theater's tinny acoustics; its steep 37-step grand staircase that leads into the lobby that has often proved treacherous to many female guests in long ball gowns, and the complex's mass-market shopping galleria that stands in stark contrast to the elegant tenor of the Oscars.

Should the academy move downtown, it can still expect its after-ceremony celebration to be served by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. He's the official caterer for both L.A. Live and Hollywood and Highland.

nicole.sperling@latimes.com
roger.vincent@latimes.comNICOLE SPERLINGROGER VINCENTLOSANGELESTIMES