WEST LOS ANGELES | Development News

[saiholmes]

March 9, 2007
Billionaire's buying has the town talking
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's purchases may help remake a piece of Malibu. So far he's submitted plans for two new restaurants.

By Martha Groves, Times Staff Writer

For years now, software magnate Larry Ellison has been on a spending spree in Malibu that has caused even his fellow billionaires' tongues to wag.

By some accounts, he has shelled out as much as $200 million for more than a dozen properties, including five adjacent residential parcels on Carbon Beach, two nearby restaurants, the Casa Malibu Inn and a vacant gas station or two that he apparently intends to use for customer parking.

Carbon Beach, which runs east from the Malibu Pier for about 1 1/2 miles, is also known as Billionaires Beach thanks to its lineup of denizens including philanthropist Eli Broad, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, television financier Haim Saban, producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, the music magnate who famously battled the state over public beach access.

So far, Ellison, 62, has submitted plans to the city of Malibu for two new restaurants, including one expected to feature ultra-high-end Japanese cuisine. That would be in keeping with his affinity for the finer things in life and for all things Japanese.

The Oracle Corp. chief executive — who, according to Forbes magazine, is worth nearly $20 billion — spent 10 years and a reported $200 million re-creating a Japanese village on his 23-acre estate in Woodside, south of San Francisco. And Rising Sun was the name he chose for his 454-foot yacht, said to be the world's longest privately owned boat.

Jefferson Wagner, owner of Zuma Jay surf shop on Pacific Coast Highway, speculates that Ellison wants to "control this end of town" because of his restaurant plans.

"He's buying what he needs to create his little world," said Wagner, whose store is across the street from some of Ellison's commercial parcels. "I'm not knockin' it. It's an upgrade as far as local merchants are concerned."

Ellison's representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Meanwhile, Geffen is renovating the nearby Malibu Beach Inn, which is taking online room reservations for June.

"Geffen will raise the bar on what has been a dated hotel but a great location," said Tony Dorn, a longtime Malibu resident and commercial real estate broker.

Geffen and Ellison are changing what has been, commercially speaking, a rather forlorn stretch of the highway, an odd state of affairs considering the immense collective wealth of the locals.

Dorn said Geffen and Ellison were drawn to the properties because there are so few commercial parcels on the beach side of PCH. "The Malibu commercial environment is so tight, and there are no [new] permits available right now," Dorn said. "That's what makes it attractive to these people."

Residents and real estate agents say houses on Carbon Beach, even the few remaining "shacks," would start at $20 million. Courteney Cox and David Arquette recently put their four-bedroom, five-bathroom showcase house, with 80 feet of frontage, on the market for $33.5 million.

Ellison's buying binge started in 2003, when he paid $65 million for five adjacent residential properties on Carbon Beach. Next, a couple of restaurants at the beach's western end near the pier caught his eye. According to local scuttlebutt, in early 2004 he paid nearly $30 million for the Pier View Cafe and Cantina and the Windsail. Both have been shuttered since. City officials say Ellison recently bought the Casa Malibu Inn, a beachfront getaway that opened in 1949 and is near the restaurants. In addition, he reportedly purchased a $20-million home in a gated hillside community just west of Malibu Pier.

The situation is once again turning a spotlight on Malibu's rich and famous and their hunger for land. One resident who socializes with Carbon Beach's well-heeled residents and asked to remain anonymous said of them: "They're sort of in this club. They walk on the beach and schmooze. What they all talked about was how to get more property on Carbon Beach. They're asking each other if they'll sell their place for any amount of money."

Since Ellison began popping into town to conduct business and relax, Malibu residents have engaged in the game of Larry-spotting. Wagner ran into him at the local Ralphs and jokingly asked, "On that real estate thing, have you left anything for me?" He said Ellison replied, "I hear your building's for sale." Wagner promptly found a partner, who helped him buy the building that houses his surf shop for $4.2 million. "I could just see the glint in his eye," Wagner said of Ellison.

Last week, the City Council, on a first reading, narrowly approved a zoning change that would allow Ellison to proceed with plans for a commercial enterprise on one of his restaurant sites. That change, known as a local coastal program amendment, faces a second vote by the council and then would need to be approved by the California Coastal Commission. The other restaurant has already been approved by the city planning commission.

Mayor Ken Kearsley, who voted against the amendment, said he fears that the restaurants will cause a traffic backup on the highway. He also said Ellison should honor a development agreement between the city and the previous owner, who had promised to donate $400,000 to local schools and include a community room in his proposed beach club and spa.

"At this point, he hasn't brought anything to the table," Kearsley said of Ellison, adding that, for the billionaire, $400,000 would be "couch change."

For a time, rumor had it that Ellison would try to lure Nobu, a celebrity hangout in the Malibu Country Mart, to Carbon Beach. Whether it's that or another upscale eatery, some business owners are cheering him on.

"Put the restaurant back, whatever it is," Wagner said. "I'll never be able to afford to go there, but at least sushi will smell better than the septic."

[saiholmes]

One-way streets may get Westside on the fast track
By Jean Guccione and David Pierson, Times Staff Writers
March 29, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/media/graphic/2007-03/28674304.gif

There are a lot of ideas for fixing traffic in L.A., but almost all would cost a fortune.

Subway to the sea: $5 billion. Extending the Expo Line: $800 million. Widening the 405: $1 billion.

Then there is an idea that would cost comparatively little and is generating growing buzz around City Hall and the Westside: turning Olympic and Pico boulevards into one-way streets from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

A traffic consultant is completing a study of the concept, which was proposed in January by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and has been the subject of much discussion since.

It remains to be seen exactly how much the conversion would improve traffic. The study marks the beginning of what would probably be a more than yearlong process to reconfigure the streets. The change would require approval of the L.A. City Council as well as leaders in Beverly Hills, home of a small stretch of Olympic.

As the plan moves forward, officials will have to balance the potential inconveniences from rerouting two of L.A.'s busiest streets with the potential for traffic relief.

Some officials said the city needs to embrace ideas, even ones that might rankle neighborhood groups. In a sign of how severe traffic problems have become, two councilmen in the affected areas are backing Yaroslavsky's push for one-way routes.

"As the frustration level of our constituents becomes palpable, anything is better than the current situation," Councilman Bill Rosendahl said.

Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents another section of the route, said he hopes a design can be crafted that addresses community concerns while finally doing something about the gridlock that roils his district.

"I know my constituents want help," he said.

Backers say it could be done quickly, simply by adding new signage, reconfiguring traffic signals and perhaps doing some relatively minor street improvements along the 15-mile stretch.

The idea isn't new. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which closed the Santa Monica Freeway for months, then-Mayor Richard Riordan proposed making Pico and Olympic one way to improve east-west traffic. The proposal died amid concerns from some residents that the boulevards would turn into dangerous speedways.

As traffic has worsened, fears of a "one-way racetrack" have largely dissolved.

Still, Pico and Olympic are unusual candidates for one-way conversion. Most one-way streets are one block apart, making it easy for drivers to switch directions.

By contrast, the distance between Pico and Olympic varies. Through large swaths of West L.A., Mid-City and Beverly Hills, the streets are only two or three blocks apart. But in Century City and neighborhoods south of Hancock Park, the gap widens to up to three-quarters of a mile.

Yaroslavsky said his plan calls for making Olympic westbound and Pico eastbound. Two lanes of each street — one in each direction — could be dedicated to bus traffic. The traffic consultant is completing a preliminary study to determine if the idea would work.

Yaroslavsky came up with the idea after years of hearing residents in the Westside and beyond complain about traffic.

Officials have talked for years about how to improve traffic flow between the Westside and downtown, but the price tags have been daunting. The most popular idea is to extend the subway along Wilshire; the line currently ends at Western Avenue. But even if officials can raise $5 billion and gain the political support to build it, the subway would be at least a decade from completion.

"This would cost a fraction of what it would cost otherwise to increase capacity," the supervisor said. "It's a radical idea."

L.A. city traffic officials estimate it would cost millions of dollars to make the boulevards one way. The costs could include relocating street signs, moving parking meters, removing some signals, adding underground traffic detectors and re-striping the road, said John Fisher, assistant general manager of the L.A. Department of Transportation.

There could be additional costs if the city decided to install "traffic calming" measures on nearby residential streets to reduce cut-through traffic, including speed humps and barriers. Traffic engineers say one-way streets are faster because they eliminate the need for left-turn lanes and can be synchronized much more effectively than two-way streets.

"You can time them perfectly," said Harry Parker, who worked for years as the county's top traffic engineer before retiring. Parker said the one-way streets would probably benefit commuters by speeding up traffic but could cause more headaches for local residents, who would have to run a maze to get to their favorite shops or other destinations.

Westwood resident Lori Everett, who lives near Pico and Olympic, said the traffic has gotten out of control. But she worries that making them one way would result in more cut-through traffic.

"It's already so busy it wouldn't be safe at all," Everett said. "As it is, I already can't let my kids on the front lawn" because of fast drivers.

The model for this is an experiment that proved highly successful in downtown L.A. during the 1984 Olympics. City officials temporarily switched the traffic flows on Figueroa and Flower streets to improve traffic during the games.

At the time, merchants along the downtown stretch expressed concern that there would be confusion and a loss of customers. But problems were few, and officials found that the one-way lanes improved traffic flow, so they were made permanent.

A decade later, Riordan proposed making Pico and Olympic into one-way "super boulevards" designed to ease traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway. At the time, city engineers predicted the shift would reduce congestion along the east-west corridor by 17% and significantly speed up traffic.

Congestion has worsened in the 13 years since, and some business owners now hope that a one-way conversion would make it easier for customers to get to their stores. But others worry that the changes would discourage customers from coming in — especially if some street parking is eliminated for the bus lane.

"Our customers come from both sides," said Lucy Attala, a clerk at Michael's Cleaners on Olympic Boulevard in Westwood. "If it goes one way, then we'll lose people coming from the other direction. It's not a good idea."

Q & A

The ins and outs of one-way streets

How would converting Olympic and Pico boulevards to one-way traffic reduce congestion?

Answer: Although the total volume of traffic on the two streets might remain the same, traffic engineers say one-way traffic is much easier to manage. With easier left turns (not crossing traffic), traffic signals can be synchronized much more efficiently. In fact, traffic experts say one-way streets are ideal for signal synchronization.

What are the drawbacks?

Most, but not all, one-way streets are one block apart. Pico and Olympic are 0.23 miles to 0.7 miles apart. That means people trying to go from east to west would need to drive several blocks to switch directions. Some residents worry about motorists cutting through their neighborhoods to get from Pico to Olympic.

How much would it cost?

It remains unclear. Early estimates place it at several million dollars. Officials would need to change signage, repaint lines and alter traffic signals. Barriers, cul-de-sacs and speed humps might be needed to prevent cut-through traffic in residential neighborhoods. That's a tiny fraction of widening freeways, building a Wilshire Boulevard subway or extending the Expo Line (all about $1 billion).

Why Pico and Olympic?

East-west cross-city traffic has long been L.A.'s Achilles' heel. There is no rail line and only one freeway, the 10. Pico and Olympic are the best candidates for one-way conversion because they are relatively close and are relatively straight shots between downtown and Santa Monica.

Where would the route go?

Backers would like it to run from downtown L.A. to the ocean. But it might end up terminating at the Santa Monica city limits at Centinela Avenue. Beyond that point, Olympic is bisected by a large, planted median that makes one-way traffic difficult.

From Times Staff

[godblessbotox]

^^herd this on the news this morning. sounded like a good idea. the only complaints people had was that the construction would cause more congestion.

well... would the rather sit in traffic forever?

[saiholmes]

Finally, Venice gets its solar streetlight
By Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2007

About four years ago, members of the Presidents Row Neighborhood Assn. of Venice decided they wanted more streetlights.

Like many places in Los Angeles, their neighborhood had never been fully rigged for lights. That was annoying on several fronts, particularly to those who walked their dogs at night or grew weary of waiting for lost pizza deliverers.

Residents also wanted to be progressive and asked that the streetlights be solar-powered, and, back in 2005, then-Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski agreed to help fund a test program with one….



And how did that work out?

After overcoming the usual bureaucratic hurdles, the city's first solar streetlight blinked on a few weeks ago and has been going strong since, lighting a small patch of Victoria Avenue.

Residents have even given their new light a name: Plexus, as in the muscle.

The set up is pretty simple. A small solar panel sits atop the pole with a small battery tucked underneath it. The panel collects the rays, the battery stores the energy and at dusk — ta-da! — the light comes on.

--

Why did it take so long for the city to install a single solar streetlight?

City rules.

Even though members of the neighborhood association did research and had selected a solar light, the city then had to do its own research. Many moons passed.

The city installed two other solar streetlights — another in Venice, the other in the San Fernando Valley. As a result, three of about 250,000 streetlights in Los Angeles are now powered by the sun.

--

Is this the wave of the future?

Some Venetians hope so. Plexus may not be quite as bright as a conventional streetlight, but it does an admirable job.

"We love it. We don't need to land aircraft on our street. We just need to walk our dogs and have guests be able to find their cars," said Lindsey Folsom, a member of the neighborhood association.

The big hope, Folsom says, is that the city uses more solar lights in the future to save electricity and a few bucks. The average streetlight in L.A. consumes about as much electricity as a TV set, and it currently costs residents about $17 million a year to keep the streetlights on.

Sol Inc. of Palm City, Fla., manufactured the light being used on Victoria Avenue. J.R. Finkle, a sales associate with the firm, said the light in Venice costs $3,500 to $4,000 — more than most streetlights — but the devices usually pay for themselves in five to seven years because the sun's rays don't come with a price tag.

--

And the big picture here?

You may have heard the phrase "global warming" in the news lately. Assuming it is really happening, one big cause is believed to be the burning of fossil fuels.

About 76% of the electricity used in Los Angeles comes from burning fossil fuels — 47% of that is coal and 29% natural gas. Coal, in particular, is a big greenhouse gas producer.

To simplify its strategy, the city wants to reduce significantly its use of fossil fuels before we either: A) run out of fossil fuels, or B) the Earth's polar ice caps melt and the sea rises, sweeping Venice and Plexus to a watery grave.

At this juncture, the Department of Water and Power says that 8% of its power is from such renewable and clean sources as hydroelectricity.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is pushing to have 20% of the city's electricity come from clean sources by 2010 — something the agency hopes to accomplish by purchasing clean energy on the open market and by building new facilities.

--

So why does the DWP leave the lights on at its building at night?

DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo couldn't wait to answer that one — seriously.

Among his answers: Most of the lights are programmed to be turned off between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. However, some remain on for around-the-clock operations and maintenance. City building codes also dictate that some security lights stay on.

Ramallo then launched into a soliloquy over the building's super-efficient fluorescent lights. And, leaving no bases uncovered, he also said the agency will be installing low-flow toilets in the building.

A skeptical observer may suggest that it waited for many homeowners to get them first.

[saiholmes]

New York Times
Friday, April 6, 2007
Square Feet; A Glimpse of a More Vertical Los Angeles
By TERRY PRISTIN
Published: March 21, 2007

Long before ''the new urbanism'' became a tired phrase, Playa Vista, the last remaining large tract of undeveloped land on this city's traffic-choked West Side, was envisioned as a place where people could live, work, shop and play without leaving their neighborhood.

Now a community of 4,500 people, Playa Vista is situated between Westchester Bluffs and Marina del Rey, about a mile from the Pacific Ocean. It is dotted with small parks and made up of blocks of four-story buildings, mainly condominiums, in styles that include Spanish, Art Deco and contemporary, and will eventually contain nearly 6,000 units of housing.

With about 32 units to an acre, according to Steve Soboroff, the president of Playa Vista, it is one of the densest residential communities in Southern California and a harbinger, some say, of Los Angeles's vertical future.

Though Playa Vista encourages its residents to travel around their new neighborhood in electric carts, it has yet to free them from their cars. Commercial development has been confined so far to a smattering of retail storefronts and a glassy complex at the intersection of Jefferson and Lincoln Boulevards that has been leased since 2003 by Electronic Arts, the video game manufacturer.

But a new stage in the community's evolution is about to arrive. Two major developers are planning large Silicon Valley-style projects that they hope to lease to the type of new-media companies that have been flocking to the West Side.

In February, Tishman Speyer, the company that owns Rockefeller Center, and its financial partner, Walton Street Capital, acquired a 64-acre site near Jefferson and Centinela Avenue, on the eastern edge of Playa Vista, for $200 million. It is the same site where DreamWorks, the movie company, once intended to build a studio that would have been Playa Vista's showpiece. But those plans were shelved in 1999. A couple of years later, the office market went into decline.

The timing is right for Tishman Speyer to begin developing a 1.1-million-square-foot campus of low-slung buildings, said John R. Miller, a senior managing director.

''It's only recently that this made economic sense,'' Mr. Miller said. The complex will surround a nine-acre park with ball fields and tennis courts to be developed by Playa Vista.

Symantec, the Internet security technology company, is building a campus on nine acres near Playa Vista in Fox Hills, and Yahoo took 256,000 square feet of space at the former Colorado Center in Santa Monica in 2005.

Though the vacancy rate on the West Side is less than 6 percent, new construction has been hindered by a scarcity of land and strong public resistance to development. Only 65,000 square feet of new space was added to the market in 2006, according to the CoStar Group, a real estate research company in Bethesda, Md.

Playa Vista sits on land once owned by Howard Hughes, the eccentric aviation pioneer and filmmaker. The Tishman site includes 16 structures that were built from 1941 to 1953 for the Hughes Aircraft Corporation, including the hangar where Mr. Hughes created the flying boat known as the Spruce Goose. Because of their role in the development of the aerospace industry in Southern California, most of these buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and must be preserved.

Mr. Miller acknowledged that it would have been easier to start with ''a clean slate.'' But he said his company was toying with the possibility of modernizing the Spruce Goose hangar, which has been used as a soundstage in recent years for movies, including ''Titanic'' and ''World Trade Center.''

Near Tishman Speyer's site, another national developer, the Lincoln Property Company of Dallas, has begun driving piles into the ground for the first phase of Horizon at Playa Vista, which will consist of two five-story buildings totaling about a million square feet of office space, also for prospective new-media tenants.

Playa Vista has ''a lot of things that are un-L.A. in a good way,'' said David S. Binswanger, an executive vice president at Lincoln. ''We looked at the Playa culture and we looked at the culture of the tenants, and we decided they matched awfully well.''

Another selling point, he said, was the Village at Playa Vista, the new town center that Rick J. Caruso, the developer of the Grove, the popular open-air retail-and-entertainment center near the Farmers Market on Third Street and Fairfax Avenue, plans to build on an 11-acre site near the office complexes.

Mr. Caruso said the new center would have a ''beachier'' atmosphere than the Grove and would be smaller and more locally focused, with an upscale supermarket, 175 luxury rental apartments and a movie theater. Construction has been delayed by a long-running environmental lawsuit concerning the cleanup of gases emitted at the former industrial site.

In 1978 a previous owner, the Summa Corporation, a company managed by the Hughes heirs, announced plans to develop Playa Vista, prompting one of the most protracted development battles in the history of Los Angeles. Opponents said the project would destroy the fragile Ballona Wetlands to the east of Lincoln Boulevard and would have devastating consequences involving traffic and air pollution.

In the intervening years, the project has been vastly reduced in scale from the huge commercial development that Summa intended to build, and more than 600 acres of land have been preserved as open space.

In 1989, a new owner, Maguire Thomas, brought in a group of architects from the fledgling New Urbanist movement, including Andre's Duany and Stefanos Polyzoides, to design a mixed-use village inspired by pedestrian-friendly places like Santa Barbara. ''Playa Vista was the beginning, of the recognition that planning standards from the post-World War II era were wrong and counterproductive,'' said Nelson C. Rising, who managed the project for Maguire Thomas.

But litigation tied up the project for years, and Maguire Thomas lost control of it in 1997. The current owners, Playa Capital, a group led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, hired a management team from Orange County with a more suburban orientation than Mr. Rising, said Ruth Galanter, a former City Council member who was elected because of her opposition to Summa's plans for Playa Vista. Land was sold to 15 separate builders and the design standards were sacrificed, she said.

Many design and planning specialists fault Playa Vista for its narrow sidewalks, the uniform height of its buildings and architecture they regard as uninspired. ''It's such a comedown from what Maguire Thomas initially proposed,'' said Richard S. Weinstein, a professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. ''It's one of the biggest pieces of undeveloped land of any city in the U.S., and you build exactly what you would produce on any corner lot.''

But Mr. Soboroff, a former president of the City Parks Commission, who joined Playa Vista in 2001 after the project was under way, dismissed such complaints as the grumbling of purists. ''This is not a purebred, this is a Prius,'' he said. ''If we were doing pure, we'd still be an airport.''

And Ms. Galanter, who was instrumental in forging a plan to save much of the wetlands from development, said there was still much to admire in Playa Vista, including a new fresh-water marsh, a first-rate water management system and housing discounts for police officers, firefighters, nurses and teachers.

''Playa Vista fell short of what it could have been,'' Ms. Galanter said. But, she said, it was ''a lot better than any other development of the same size that I know of, certainly in Southern California.''

[saiholmes]

One-way called right way to go for boulevards
Making Pico westbound and Olympic eastbound would cut congestion, a traffic study says. But some area residents oppose the concept.
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
April 16, 2007

Converting Olympic and Pico boulevards into one-way streets from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica could increase capacity on the roads by up to 20%, according to a county transportation study to be released today.

The finding by a traffic engineering firm represents the first solid evidence that the conversion idea could reduce congestion. But the idea still faces an uphill battle at Los Angeles City Hall, in part because some residents fear that the change would increase cut-through traffic in neighborhoods between the streets.

The report, commissioned by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a one-way proponent, is meant to be the first step in what will be a yearlong examination of whether the concept could work.

Traffic engineers who studied commuting patterns on Olympic and Pico found that about 106,000 cars a day use the corridor. They also studied a traffic configuration in which Pico would go west only and Olympic east only.

Vehicle capacity could increase by 20% with one-way streets and no left turns, the study found. It was conducted by Allyn D. Rifkin, a transportation planner and engineer.

A less restrictive alternative, which would allow left turns, would increase vehicle capacity by nearly 6%.

"We need to do something specific and we need to do it now," said Yaroslavsky, who added that if the Olympic-Pico street conversion worked it could become a prototype for other major thoroughfares.

He and other proponents argue that the one-way idea could be implemented at a much lower cost than the billions of dollars that have been estimated for a Wilshire Boulevard subway or for freeway widenings.

Driving along one-way streets is quicker than most two-way streets because traffic signals can be better synchronized and turning vehicles don't have to cross oncoming traffic.

Motorists, however, might have to drive a little farther to reach their destinations and might cut through residential areas, the report found.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has "done all the things that traffic engineers do in the traditional sense," said Rifkin, who recently retired as a Los Angeles city traffic engineer. "But still, congestion is so bad, it's important to think outside the box."

But persuading other officials — and residents — could prove difficult.

Gloria Jeff, general manager of L.A.'s Transportation Department, rejects the concept on its face. City engineers believe that "cut-through streets would not be consistent with the neighborhood's desired quality of life," she said.

But Councilman Jack Weiss said he planned to ask the City Council on Tuesday to direct Jeff to analyze the report, which he called "a very constructive and thoughtful first step" toward addressing east-west traffic congestion.

"The point of this report is to generate questions and comments," said Weiss, who is creating a task force of residents, business owners and others to examine the potential effect of one-way streets on the area. (Yaroslavsky said he would post the study today on his website, zev.lacounty.gov.)

The study examined extending the one-way streets from downtown Los Angeles into Santa Monica, but some possible constraints exist. Santa Monica, for example, has built raised landscaped medians that divide the thoroughfare.

Pico between Vermont and Western avenues appears too narrow to accommodate the proposed seven lanes across, the report said. Olympic also cuts through Beverly Hills, which would have to sign on to any one-way plans.

Under the proposal, Olympic and Pico would each be seven lanes — five for mixed-flow traffic and two contra-flow lanes reserved for buses, vanpools and emergency vehicles during peak hours.

That way firetrucks and ambulances would have a passing lane to get around stopped or broken down buses without entering oncoming traffic.

Contra-flow lanes could be opened up for curbside parking and all vehicles during non-peak hours, the report said.

Costs, which are expected to be millions of dollars, may increase if residents of adjacent streets demand traffic-slowing devices such as speed humps and stop signs.

Shannan Bunch, who has lived in West Los Angeles for six years, opposes the creation of one-way streets.

"I think it's a terrible idea," she said. "It would just make trouble, especially on weekends when there is less traffic."

But Jay Handal, president of the Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, said business owners could not afford to fight the plan. Traffic congestion is driving away customers, Handal said.

As for residents' complaints, he suggested that opponents count how many speed humps and four-way stops have been installed on their streets to combat existing cut-through traffic.

"The subway to the sea is a wonderful thing," Handal said. But "the gridlock is now."

[saiholmes]

Brentwood building owner reworks plans to retain Dutton's
Billionaire would build a retail complex that includes the popular bookstore in lieu of original luxury-condo project.
By Martha Groves, Times Staff Writer
July 6, 2007

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Billionaire Charles T. Munger said Thursday that he has scrapped plans to build 60 luxury condos on San Vicente Boulevard in favor of erecting a two-story retail complex that would retain Dutton's Brentwood Books in a new and improved space.

"I was wrong," Munger said of his plans, made public in January, to build high-end residential units as part of a mixed-use development at the property just east of Bundy Drive. The idea sparked an uprising among residents and longtime fans of Dutton's, who feared the store's demise.

Munger, 83, said the neighborhood's staunch opposition to the project and concern for Dutton's prompted his change of heart.

"Bookstores are fragile," he said. "Jostle them slightly and they never reopen. The best thing is to make sure it never closes."

He said he plans to charge Dutton's "a very low rate" to help ensure its survival. The bookstore's new quarters would be built first, Munger said, with the rest of the project going up "in little segments" around it — a method that he said would cost significantly more money.

Doug Dutton, the silver-haired owner of the bookshop, called Munger's new scheme a "blow for literature" that was "wonderful for the store" and "wonderful for the neighborhood."

The current building, home to Dutton's since 1984, is organized around a central courtyard that has been a popular neighborhood gathering spot and the setting for hundreds of book signings by the likes of Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, Tom Wolfe and Carolyn See.

With its multi-room layout, ripped carpet and overflowing shelves, Dutton's is considered by many to be a city institution and one of the nation's great idiosyncratic bookstores.

A founder of the Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, Munger partnered in 1978 with Warren E. Buffett to run Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a holding company. He had owned the San Vicente property with his brother-in-law, David Barry, but bought him out several months ago.

Munger said he plans to enter into a partnership with Jim Rosenfield, the lessee who has refurbished and reinvigorated the Brentwood Country Mart on 26th Street near San Vicente. Munger said they plan ample parking, including valet parking underground, and community-serving businesses such as a barbershop and hair salon. He envisions three open-air plazas with an abundance of greenery.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents Brentwood, said that it was still early in the process and that Munger should continue to get input from residents and other San Vicente Boulevard merchants.

"It's a moving and evolving project," he said. "We'll see how it comes together."

Still unclear is what would happen to the effort of Diane Caughey, daughter of the late Milton Caughey, the building's architect, to have the structure declared a historic-cultural monument.

The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted in May to follow a staff recommendation that the building warranted further investigation as a well-preserved example of mid-20th century California modern architecture.

Caughey contended that Munger was hoping his new plan would prompt her and her supporters to cancel a Thursday hearing before the commission. "If we did that," she said, "it would abort the whole process, and Munger would hold all the cards."

[Robert Stark]

http://www.palazzowestwood.com/

[Robert Stark]

http://portal.oakwood.com/profiles/images/0901/8622/Photos/palazzo_Westwood2.jpg


http://portal.oakwood.com/profiles/images/0901/8622/Photos/PalazzoWestwood1.jpg

[Fern~Fern*]

^ I like the terra cota color sidewalks and walkways. As far as the structure very Westside....

I wonder what kind of retail would lease the lower floors?

[kidA]

Found this on their website....

"...community located within Westwood Village (a prime commercial and entertainment hub) and just minutes from the 405 Freeway which conveniently connects residents to all major destinations throughout the greater Los Angeles region, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and Southern California's finest beaches"

:ohno:

[Fern~Fern*]

I think they meant to say....

Minutes from the 405, but a couple of hours to reach by car. :lol:

[surfnspy]

ick.

souless.

so boring.

cal med monotony.

How would you even find your apartment in that mediterranean honeycomb?

[Robert Stark]

http://dailybruin.com/news/2007/jan/26/new_development_part_effort_revitalize_village/

[milquetoast]

Awwww. They're worried about traffic in Westwood! I've been there when the whole area was shoulder to shoulder (Tokyo like) and I've been there when there was no one there. It seems that this is the rallying cry for developement in Los Angeles. Other cities in the world, no problem. Build build build! Vehicular traffic could be problematic, but I heard about off sight parking and people either walking into the area or being bussed in. Or do we have to start putting up toll ways where our freeways used to be and charging for congestion like our lesser cousins, London and New York?:bash:

[Robert Stark]

http://portal.oakwood.com/profiles/images/0901/8622/Photos/palazzo_Westwood2.jpg


http://portal.oakwood.com/profiles/images/0901/8622/Photos/PalazzoWestwood1.jpg



I went by there today the structures are complete.

[yerfdog]

Found this on their website....

"...community located within Westwood Village (a prime commercial and entertainment hub) and just minutes from the 405 Freeway which conveniently connects residents to all major destinations throughout the greater Los Angeles region, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and Southern California's finest beaches"

:ohno:
Oh come on, this thing is barely 2/3 mile from the 405, it's right across from the Westwood BrewCo. Even the day before Thanksgiving it didn't take me more than 10 minutes to get from the middle of Westwood Village onto the 405.

[kidA]

You don't get wat I was talking about.

I just wish it said minutes away from the purple line.

[klamedia]

Oh that's ugly! It deserves to be in someplace like pastey San Diego.

[Robert Stark]

I remeber like 10 years ago when I was growing up around westwood Casden was going to build a mall complex on that lot in westwood, but they built this instead.

[solongfullerton]

Like the palazzo developments on 3rd st weren't bad enough, now even more of this shit!!!

What blows me away is that they wouldn't build apartments in this style if people wouldn't live in them. That means that somewhere in the great city are people who like this and are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of rent to live in a building that will seem as obnoxious as an 80s haircut in 10 years.

[fridayinla]

from the LA Business Journal re: Club View on Wilshire:

Posh Condo Development Sold

By DANIEL MILLER

Los Angeles Business Journal Staff

Fifield Cos. has sold a Wilshire Corridor condo development – once touted as the city’s most high-end – to a Dubai developer for its $95.4 million asking price.

The Club View development, which is under construction, will include up to 35 ultra high-end condo units priced around $2,000 per square foot. Buyer Emaar Properties, a large Dubai developer, is expected to complete the project in two years. The deal closed Sept. 18.

John Laing Homes Luxury Division, a unit of Emaar, will work on the project. Last year Emaar acquired Newport Beach-based John Laing Homes. Emaar is building the $4 billion Burj Dubai skyscraper, which is under construction and slated to be the tallest building in the world at 160 stories.

“I am very pleased we sold it to someone with their background,” said Steve Fifield, founder and president of his namesake, Chicago-based company. “I know that John Laing Homes is looking at this as a total world-class project. We understand that they are going to make some significant upgrades.”

Emaar paid about $60 million for the land and about $30 million for the construction work that has already been completed and the associated building materials. Fifield said that finishes and features in the units could be upgraded, noting “they think that L.A. really is a world-class city, and we are ready for a triple A plus development.”

Fifield, which co-developed the project with Raleigh Enterprises Inc., took the unusual step earlier this year of putting the incomplete project on the market, along with two other California condo developments. Construction of the 21-story tower at 1200 S. Club View Drive just west of the Los Angeles Country Club began in November; so far the foundations and underground levels have been completed.

At the time the project was announced in 2006 the developer’s former brokerage said the penthouse would be sold for about $18 million, which would have made it the most expensive Los Angeles condominium.

Several other ultra luxury condo projects were later announced that would have topped that price, but now there are concerns that the luxury market may be oversaturated and overpriced given the widespread liquidity problems in the mortgage industry.

Fifield discounted those concerns saying “the prospective buyers we were talking to at Club View were not people who are impacted by what is going on in the credit markets.”

[Fern~Fern*]

FUCK!!!!!! 18 Mills for a condo....:eek2: What exactly do you get for that price?

[Robert Stark]

Politicians Pressure VA on Westside Development Plan - Veterans Affairs - Brief Article
Los Angeles Business Journal, June 25, 2001 by Christopher Keough
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), in a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi, has urged rejection of a plan for the development of the VA's 388-acre Brentwood campus.

The letter is the latest in a series of salvos launched by community and political leaders, who claim the VA has shut them out of the planning process for the site, at Wilshire Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway.

The most incendiary aspect of the plan now under consideration is a proposal to repeal the Cranston Act, which protects 109 acres of the site and is the very foundation on which VA officials stood while trying to soothe community fears that large portions of the property would be commercially developed or sold.

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The Cranston Act of 1988, penned by the late Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) with great community support, set aside roughly a quarter of the West L.A. campus. VA officials continually referred to that protection when telling the community that open space was guaranteed. The act was a direct response to a similar threat during the Reagan Administration to develop VA property commercially.

What's got area representatives in a lather is a "plan for a 25-year general use plan" in which the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends up to 7.2 million square feet of potential commercial development on the property.

The VA recommended that Congress allow the plan to supercede the Cranston Act because the it "incorporates the principals of the Cranston Act in its guidelines and makes specific recommendations for a minimum acreage that will be designated as open space."

Advertisement
In his June 15 letter to Principi, Waxman addressed the recommendation to rescind the Cranston Act and the fact VA Greater Los Angeles failed to disclose the recommendation to the VA's Land Use Advisory Committee, made up of community representatives.

"Not only is this lack of notification a cause for great concern, but the Cranston Act itself offers important, strongly supported protections to the land and limits certain development," Waxman wrote. "I oppose any attempt to weaken the Cranston Act and urge you to delete this language from the report."

Two years ago, the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee ordered VA Greater Los Angeles to deliver by April of this year a 25-year land-use plan. The report was submitted to Principi on May 11, and no public comment is expected until he has responded.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he and City Council-woman Cindy Miscikowski were set to meet June 22 with Waxman and would follow that with meetings with California's Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein.

Beverly Fitzgerald, director of public affairs at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, said the VA would not address the opposition until the document returns from Washington with comments from the secretary of veterans affairs.

"We believe we have fulfilled out obligation to include everyone in the process," she said.

It's that silence from local VA officials has community leaders seething.

Miscikowski, who said she was omitted from the early stages of the VA's community input process, said the VA has no intention of cooperating with the city, county or neighborhoods that would be affected by a plan that amounts to creating a miniature city in West L.A.

"The idea of plunking down another Century City in the Westside urban core is a phenomenal thought -- almost incomprehensible," Miscikowski said.

Flora Gil Krisiloff, chairwoman of the Brentwood Community Council and member of the VA's Land Use Advisory Committee said the plan now before Principi protects just 7 percent (28 acres) of the property.

Yaroslavsky was adamant in his disdain for Phil Thomas, chief executive of VA Greater Los Angeles. "I think he's a cowboy who's trying to impress his superiors and he's going to drop a bomb on West L.A.," Yaroslavsky said.

"I cannot think of a more inappropriate place in Los Angeles to build another 7 million square feet of development," he said. "A first-grader wouldn't propose that."

Thomas did not return calls seeking comment.

Yaroslavsky said he was insulted to have been excluded from the process to create the plan. And with any development on the property utilizing county services and thus subject to county approval, Yaroslavsky said he would ask the county board of supervisors to formally oppose the VA plan and authorize any legal action necessary to halt it.

COPYRIGHT 2001 CBJ, L.P.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group










that land has so much potential. the vote is up in the Senate right now. it just sits there. the revenue could better serve Vetrans, through spread out services throughout Southern California.

[milquetoast]

tt

[saiholmes]

Sony Pictures to build "green" project in L.A.
www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-22 06:51:47 Print

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Sony Pictures began on Friday construction on a 220,000-square-foot office complex that will be built and operated to meet U.S. federal environmental sensitivity guidelines.

The project will include drought-tolerant plants, low-flow toilets, waterless urinals, motion-detector lights, low-energy light bulbs and an energy-efficient power plant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Sony officials said.

Workers will recycle more than 95 percent of construction materials, which will include non-toxic carpeting, paint, sealants, adhesives and wall coverings.

"I would like to congratulate Sony Pictures for taking these major environmental steps," California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said while attending a ground-breaking ceremony for the project at Sony's complex in Culver City of the Los Angeles area.

"This is exactly the kind of action I have been talking about and creating since I took office. We want to show the entire world that here in California, we know how to protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time." he said.

In conjunction with the new building, Sony officials said they plan to install solar power cells on the roof of the existing Jimmy Stewart Building.

Schwarzenegger also announced the release of an online "Green Resource Guide" prepared by the California Film Commission to promote environmentally conscious film production.

"The Green Resource Guide marries two of the things California does best -- making great movies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Schwarzenegger said.

[Fern~Fern*]

Sony Pictures to build "green" project in L.A.
www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-22 06:51:47 Print

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) The project will include drought-tolerant plants, low-flow toilets, waterless urinals, motion-detector lights, low-energy light bulbs and an energy-efficient power plant to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Sony officials said. .


^^ I like the idea of the low flush toilets, but the waterless urinals. Not even a quick rinse to freshen it up. Well I guess I can't complaint since the urinals in my building are motion sensor they tend to waste a lot of water. When I walk to the urinals to water the plants usually all three urinals flush all at once. They continue flushing until I get to the once motion sensor sinks. That also keep running way after I'm done. Sometimes 1 or all three start running at the same time even when you just walk by to take a piss.

[redspork02]

http://www.commercialpropertynews.com/cpn/content_display/property-types/retail/e3ia0cdb8453c13aaf117289b7294eb70c5?imw=Y

Second Phase of $145M Retail Project in Los Angeles Kicks Off
Sept 24, 2007
By: Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor
Midtown Crossing in Los Angeles moves closer toward completion as CIM Group Inc. commences the second phase of the $145 million retail project. The transit-oriented development will ultimately encompass 390,000 square feet in an area of the city that is sorely lacking retail options.

Located on a 12-acre site that was once home to a Sears department store at the corner of San Vicente Blvd. and Pico Blvd. in Central Los Angeles, Midtown Crossing opened the doors to its first phase in 2006. The property, designed by the architectural firm of Perkowitz & Ruth, currently features an incorporated bus terminal and 15,000 square feet of ground-level retail. Phase II (pictured) will add a 144,000-square-foot Lowe's Home Improvement center, as well as additional retail and restaurant offerings. Rudolph & Sletten is on board the project as general contractor, and construction of the second phase is on schedule to reach completion during the first quarter of 2009.

The mid-city section of Los Angeles lost its luster decades ago; the area surrounding Midtown Crossing is blighted and retail is scarce. "Conceptually, the project will serve multiple neighborhoods that have been underserved until now," Myron Sokolsky, a vice president with Grubb & Ellis, told CPN. "The area has really decayed over the years, so for it to come back refreshed and serve a legitimate purpose is great. It will be good for the neighborhood; it will clean it up and bring some legitimacy to it."

Headquartered in Los Angeles, CIM Group specializes in the development of mixed-use, office, retail, hotel and multi-family projects in high-density urban locations. "CIM are masters of this type of project," Sokolsky added. "The work they're doing in Hollywood, for example, is amazing. They continue to develop there and eventually they will override and create a reason to go to Hollywood Boulevard for entertainment and retail." The company has been in the process of converting a once unsavory stretch into a desirable destination by bringing in popular retailers such as the trendy Swedish clothing store H&M, which will soon open in a 10,000-square-foot space, and leading fashion retailer Zara, which has signed a lease with CIM Group for a 17,000-square-foot store on the boulevard.

[LAsam]

Has anyone heard anything about the tower California Landmark is planning to construct at Wilshire & Barrington. They demolished the old shopping center that was there a couple months ago, and they seem so gung ho about it on their website... I can't find any indication of when they will break ground. I'm assuming they are pre-leasing.

[Robert Stark]

yeah I drive by there all the time its still an empty lot.

[The Baz]

Updates on Playa Del Oro in Westchester.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/axb8000/SSC/DSCN0510.jpg
protestors, had about 15 of them at one point.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/axb8000/SSC/DSCN0530.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/axb8000/SSC/DSCN0533.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/axb8000/SSC/DSCN0531.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/axb8000/SSC/DSCN0532.jpg

Patio bar under construction that Curbed did a piece on

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b9/axb8000/SSC/DSCN0534.jpg

http://la.curbed.com/2007.08.renderingsch.jpg

[Fern~Fern*]

^^ That's my hood up there... ;)

[phattonez]

I go bowling there every Tuesday Fern, must be pretty close. Don't you love all the construction on Lincoln?

[Fern~Fern*]

I go bowling there every Tuesday Fern, must be pretty close. Don't you love all the construction on Lincoln?


Oh great! now your coming around my hood, I can't seem to shake off, can I!!! :ohno:

[phattonez]

That's nothing to roll your eyes about, lol.

[milquetoast]

Get a room, you sweet, sweet guys! Then get back on topic.:)

[solongfullerton]

I hope the inside of that new hotel is not as dark as the exterior.

[TICONLA1]

just though i'd give an update on the two Whilshire blvd. towers,

Clubview, up to the second floor with formwork, and moving alittle slow.

Carlysle, up to the fourth floor with formwork, and moving alittle faster than Clubview.

Also there is a luffing crane on the site next to the church, on Beverly Glen (NE corner) this building looks to only be about 6 floors, (7 with the ground floor) but has extensive subterrainan concrete work, also the floors look like there will be high ceilings in the units.

[saiholmes]

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=451069
This one was closed. So I post it right here.

Thursday, Dec. 20 2007
Santa Monica Place Redevelopment Wins Full Approvals

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec 20, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Macerich(R: 47.01, -0.50, -1.05%) today announced completion of the entitlement process for its much-anticipated Santa Monica Place redevelopment, which will transform the enclosed traditional mall into a modern, open-air retail and dining destination in the heart of vibrant downtown Santa Monica.

Within the last week, Macerich (NYSE: MAC: 71.06, +0.43, +0.60%) received green lights from both the California Coastal Commission and the City of Santa Monica's Architectural Review Board. The two decisions, on top of unanimous approval from the Santa Monica City Council earlier this fall, pave the way for a planned fall 2009 opening for the new Santa Monica Place.

"Next door to the Third Street Promenade and two blocks from the ocean, Santa Monica Place is the best new retail location coming on line in Southern California," said Randy Brant, Executive Vice President, Real Estate for Macerich. "With top retailers, extraordinary design and detail, plus a signature rooftop dining deck with incredible views, the new Santa Monica Place will rival the region's most successful shopping destinations."

Current plans are to close the existing center on January 31, 2008, and start construction in spring 2008. "Bringing a dynamic new shopping environment to Santa Monica is particularly important to our company, which has been headquartered right here in Santa Monica for nearly 30 years," said Brant.

Macerich's new concept for Santa Monica Place will bring a fresh and relevant retail experience to this famed location -- and connect the 550,000 square foot center with the thriving urban districts that surround it. The innovative design takes the roof off the existing center in an adaptive reuse that will become a pedestrian-oriented, three-level streetscape.

The approved project, which has earned wide support among local residents and civic leaders, comes at the end of protracted discussions across the city about the right design for this highly engaged, high profile community.

The new Santa Monica Place will draw shoppers from many sources: From its affluent primary trade area -- bordered by Marina Del Rey, the 405, Beverly Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains and the ocean itself -- to the City's strong visitor mix that includes nearly 5 million each year -- the center will serve an enviable set of socially-conscious, smart and worldly consumers.

Average per capita incomes are extremely high, reaching $49,356 in the primary trade area, which equates to spending power, according to a report by Jeff Green Partners/Retail Focus. The same report cites average household incomes that top $100,000 across the total trade area; and in Santa Monica's prestigious "North of Montana" district, average household income is $195,000. Downtown Santa Monica itself is expected to grow by 12% over the next five years.

"The sophisticated market in Santa Monica is ready to embrace a new high-quality mix of retail offerings -- and we've heard from many of the world's top retail names that this is exactly where they want to be," said Bob Williams, Senior Vice President, Leasing for Macerich.

Macerich is a fully integrated self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust, which focuses on the acquisition, leasing, management, development and redevelopment of regional malls throughout the United States. The company is the sole general partner and owns an 84% ownership interest in The Macerich Partnership, L.P. Macerich now owns approximately 77 million square feet of gross leaseable area consisting primarily of interests in 73 regional malls. Additional information about Macerich can be obtained from the Company's Web site at http://www.macerich.com.

[saiholmes]

Mall Remodel Clears Final Hurdle

By Lookout Staff

December 20 -- Santa Monica Place will be shut down on January 31 after plans to remodel the 30-year-old indoor mall cleared the final hurdles last week, winning the approval of the both the California Coastal Commission and the City's Architectural Review Board.

The approvals come three months after the City Council gave the go-ahead for Macerich, which owns the Downtown mall, to transform the enclosed traditional shopping venue into a modern, open-air retail and dining destination that directly links to the popular Third Street Promenade.

"Next door to the Third Street Promenade and two blocks from the ocean, Santa Monica Place is the best new retail location coming on line in Southern California," said Randy Brant, Macerich’s executive vice president in charge of real estate.

"With top retailers, extraordinary design and detail, plus a signature rooftop dining deck with incredible views, the new Santa Monica Place will rival the region's most successful shopping destinations, " Brant said.

The final approvals come three years after Macerich scrapped an ambitious plan to replace its struggling indoor mall with an outdoor shopping venue topped with three 21-story condo towers, an apartment building and an office complex.

After exploring other alternatives, the mall’s owners decided on a much more modest mall remodel that calls for removing large portions of the roof and connecting the mall to the Promenade.

The plan also calls for demolishing a portion of Parking Structure 7; creating a stronger pedestrian orientation at Second Street, Fourth Street and Colorado Avenue, and creating an open-air dining area on the third floor.

Under the proposal, Macy’s department store, as well as the two public parking structures totaling nearly 2,000 spaces, will stay open during construction.

City officials unanimously and enthusiastically embraced the proposal, which they agreed would integrate the monolithic 550,000-square-foot structure into the existing urban fabric and increase available open space and pedestrian walkways.

Scheduled to open in fall 2009, the remodeled mall will retain the two anchor department store buildings -- one of which has yet to be leased -- and maintain the existing building height of 56 feet, while reducing leasable square footage by 10,234 square feet, according to the proposal.

“Macerich's new concept for Santa Monica Place will bring a fresh and relevant retail experience to this famed location,” mall officials said in a statement released Thursday.

Macerich expects the remodeled mall to draw shoppers from the upscale Westside and “serve an enviable set of socially-conscious, smart and worldly consumers,” according to the statement.

Average per capita incomes are extremely high in the primary trade area targeted by the mall, reaching $49,356, according to a report by Jeff Green Partners/Retail Focus.

The same report cites average household incomes that top $100,000 across the total trade area and $195,000 in Santa Monica’s upscale North of Montana neighborhood, as well as 12 percent growth Downtown over the next five years.

"The sophisticated market in Santa Monica is ready to embrace a new high-quality mix of retail offerings -- and we've heard from many of the world's top retail names that this is exactly where they want to be," said Bob Williams, Macerich’s senior vice president in charge of leasing.

As part of the remodel, Macerich has agreed to improve the streetscape on Colorado Avenue and the sidewalk paving on Second and Fourth streets and upgrade the elevators and staircases in the two City-owned parking structures attached to the mall.

The design capped a comprehensive public input and outreach campaign that won over the support of the community, though some worry the new, improved mall could bring more traffic to the area.

As proposed, the project does not alter traffic and circulation in the downtown area, because a reduction in square footage factors in as not intensifying travel to and from the mall, according to City staff’s California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) findings.

[LAsam]

This is great news! Hopefully, the Expo Line will connect with this project.

[kidA]

Of course it will. There are more plans to make the 4th and colorado section of the mall more pedestrian friendlay [which is diagonal from the proposed Expo station at the same intersection] hat would lead into the 3rd st. promenade. These next few years are going to be very exciting.

[TICONLA1]

Is there a recent alingment map, or rendering showing the expo line up to it's projected Santa Monica terminus..?

[kidA]

http://www.friends4expo.org/phase2wlasm.htm

[klamedia]

Great find!

[saiholmes]

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/22/travel/22amer600.1.jpg

Classic Beach, but Much More
Santa Monica is best known for its bike path and amusement pier, with its 130-foot Ferris wheel.

By LOUISE TUTELIAN, The New York Times
Published: February 22, 2008

WITH its classic amusement pier, glittering bay and surfers bobbing on swells, Santa Monica was a perfect setting for “Baywatch.” But take a short walk inland, and this city on the edge of Los Angeles reveals itself as more than a stereotypical beach town.

Within its borders, drawings by Picasso and Dubuffet hang in the same art complex as a vast installation by a graffiti crew. A well-preserved Mission-style bungalow sits around the corner from a steel performance space by Frank Gehry. Shops sell goods ranging from vintage Parisian wedding gowns to a whimsical map made entirely out of license plates. There are homegrown coffee bars on nearly every block, with names like Groundwork or the Legal Grind, dispensing caffeine and counsel at the same time.

“The pier, the bike path — they’re the only things most people know about Santa Monica,” said Colleen Dunn Bates, editor of “Hometown Santa Monica,” an insider’s guide to the city. “And they’re fun. But they don’t reflect everything that the city really offers.”

Although it’s surrounded on all sides by districts that are part of the City of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades, Venice and West Los Angeles — Santa Monica asserts its own identity as an eight-square-mile separate city, and its population of about 96,000 is spread through several distinct neighborhoods. To make the most of time there, enjoy the games and famed carousel of the Santa Monica Pier and then step back from the beach to sample the city’s variety the way Santa Monicans themselves do.

On one recent Saturday, Ren Farrar was luring passers-by to his stand at the open-air Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, close to the beach on Arizona Avenue. By state law, all goods at the market must be grown in California, and much of the produce is picked within 24 hours of its appearance there.

“Care to try a sample?” Mr. Farrar, 37, of Spring Hill Jersey Cheese of Petaluma, shouted as I walked by. Watching intently as I savored a cube of his Old World Portuguese, he observed, “This is mild enough to go with anything, yet firm enough to stand up to the heat.”

Down the block, Adams’ Stuff’ N Olives featured feta and anchovy-stuffed olives. Fair Hills Farms offered six kinds of organic apples. Across the street, shoppers dropped dried nectarines, plums and pears into bags. A family strolled by, munching on Cajun spiced almonds and sipping ice-cold lemonade, both produced only a few miles away.

Nate Allen, 30, a personal chef and restaurant consultant from nearby Venice, shops at the market routinely, as do many of the top chefs in the area.

“The greatest thing about this market is that you’re going to get what is absolutely perfect and in season for this region,” said Mr. Allen, who flaunts his trade by sporting a seven-inch-long tattoo of a knife on one forearm and a tattooed fork on the other. “For visitors, by the time you get to the last vendor, you’ve got a great picnic for wherever you want to go.”

He often takes his own picnic to the Backbone Trail, a 69-mile system that roughly follows the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains from Will Rogers State Historic Park just north of Santa Monica to Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County. Hikers can take an easy, sage-scented, two-mile loop from the parking lot at Will Rogers up to Inspiration Point, a sensational overlook of Santa Monica Bay from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Point Dume in Malibu.

On a clear day, a hiker can see Catalina Island and the white dots of sails. Behind are the slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains, and in the distance, the high-rises of downtown Los Angeles. Up there, the muted chattering of birds and the hum of insects are the only sounds.

Back in northern Santa Monica, natural sights give way to architectural ones. Adelaide Drive, at the north end of the city, offers intriguing examples of early-20th-century architecture. Two of the homes designated as city landmarks are the Craftsman-style Isaac Milbank House (No. 236) — designed by the same firm that did Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood — and the stucco Worrel House (No. 710), which was built in the mid-1920s and has been described as a “Pueblo-Revival Maya fantasy.”

(Another selection of carefully kept old houses, in styles from Victorian and Craftsman to Spanish colonial revival, await in the Third Street Historic District.)

Some of the city’s best shopping is also on its northern rim, where the 10-block Montana Avenue district is known for upscale clothes, home de'cor, crafts, jewelry and art. At Every Picture Tells A Story (No. 1311-C) a lithograph of the cover of “Charlotte’s Web” signed by the illustrator, Garth Williams, hangs on a wall, and in the gallery (the store is also a children’s bookstore) original works by Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss and others are $150 to $150,000.

Next door, Rooms & Gardens (No. 1311-A) sells furniture, antiques and accessories like pillows fashioned from an antique Indian sari. The actress Mary Steenburgen, one of the store’s three owners, praised the walkability of the area — not a common commodity in Southern California — when I asked her about the location of her store.

“The thing I love about Montana is that you feel as if you are in a pedestrian city,” she said. “It’s fun to look out the window and see people walking by with their dogs, instead of just cars streaming by.”

Santa Monica is sunny almost all the time, but visitors who hit a rare rainy day might spend a good portion of it at Bergamot Station, a complex of art galleries that many miss because it’s so hard to find. Built on the site of a former trolley-line stop — hence its name — the complex is on Santa Monica’s east side, next to a freeway on a dead-end street. Inside corrugated tin warehouses, two dozen galleries show contemporary drawings, paintings, photographs, sculpture and mixed-media works.

Sherrie Goldfarb of West Los Angeles and her friend Nancy Recasner of Studio City, Calif., hopped puddles between buildings after one rain this winter. “I wander through here with friends and the variety of work is amazing,” said Ms. Goldfarb, 57, a regular at the galleries.

Many boldface names are represented. At Ikon Ltd./Kay Richards, drawings by Dubuffet, Basquiat and Picasso, among others, are on display through March 1. “Rarely Seen,” a show of Henri Cartier-Bresson photographs, is running through May 10 at the Peter Fetterman Gallery.

Those who want to sense what Santa Monica was like as a sleepy town of tiny bungalows can visit Ocean Park on the city’s south end, which borders Venice. This funky neighborhood, one of the birthplaces of skateboarding in the late 1960s (part of “Lords of Dogtown” was filmed there), got a makeover in the 1990s; the tiny bungalows now sell for millions.

Artsy Main Street, Ocean Park’s central artery of merchants, restaurants and galleries, manages to merge sneaker stores and used-book shops with Armani Exchange and Patagonia stores. At Varga (No. 2806) apparel and accessories seem jointly inspired by ’40s pin-ups, Barbie dolls and young Hollywood celeb-style. The inventory at Relish, off Main Street at 208 Pier Avenue, ranges from bath salts ($20 to $40) to a pinball baseball game ($110). The Frank Gehry-designed steel boxes of Edgemar (No. 2415-2449 Main Street) house retail tenants and a performance space around an open courtyard.

Appraise your purchases over a martini with a mermaid toothpick at the Galley (No. 2442), a steakhouse with signature de'cor (think tiki bar with Christmas lights), a soulful juke box and old-salt appeal. No wonder — it opened its thick plank doors in 1934, making it Santa Monica’s oldest restaurant.

As the day wanes, consider watching the jet set (the one with its own jets) fly into the sunset. Opt for dinner next to the runway at the Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Those in the know reserve a window table at the Pan-Asian fusion restaurant Typhoon or the more intimate sushi restaurant the Hump (pilot slang for the Himalayas) upstairs.

But at sunset, the most thrilling view in town is back at the beach, from the top of the solar-powered 130-foot-high Pacific Wheel, the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier. Yes, it’s touristy, and yes, it might be crowded, but it is, after all, the city’s iconic symbol.

As my seat on the wheel glided upward one evening, the entire city of Santa Monica, and far beyond, slid into view. Below, the cast and crew of the film “17 Again,” starring Matthew Perry and Zac Efron, were shooting on the beach, as they would be all night long. The whole scene was bathed in a deep pink and violet glow.

It felt just fine to act like a tourist for a while.

VISITOR INFORMATION

SANTA MONICA, adjacent to Los Angeles, has 3.5 miles of coastline, all publicly accessible; two miles of this waterfront make up Santa Monica State Beach. The city’s north-south numbered streets run from Second Street, a block from the water, eastward to 26th. The major east-west arteries are San Vicente, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Pico and Ocean Park Boulevards.

The Santa Monica Pier, with rides, games, souvenir shops and a 1922 carousel, is at the foot of Colorado Avenue. The Pacific Wheel, a Ferris wheel at the pier, will be closed May 5 to 22 as a new wheel is installed.

Beach lovers can step onto the sand from Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel at 1700 Ocean Avenue (310-458-6700; www.loewshotels.com; rooms from $349). The 72-room Ambrose (1255 20th Street; 310-315-1555; www.ambrosehotel.com; from $229) feels more like a Mission-style hideaway with stained-glass windows and fireside library.

The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market is held on Arizona Avenue from Second to Fourth Streets, on Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Backbone Trail is in Will Rogers State Historic Park (1501 Will Rogers State Park Road, off West Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades; 310-454-8212; www.nps.gov/samo/planyourvisit/backbonetrail.htm), which is open from 8 a.m. to sunset daily. Parking is $7. Picnic tables are available at Inspiration Point.

Most galleries at Bergamot Station (2525 Michigan Avenue; www.bergamotstation.com) are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Because Michigan Avenue is bisected by a freeway, the best access to this dead-end section of it is off Cloverfield Avenue.

At the Galley (2442 Main Street; 310-452-1934, www.thegalleyrestaurant.net) a 12-ounce sirloin is $23 and seafood diablo is $24.

Typhoon, at the Santa Monica Airport (3221 Donald Douglas Loop South off Airport Road; 310-390-6565; www.typhoon.biz) offers Pan-Asian fare including Thai river prawns ($21) and stir-fried crickets ($10). Upstairs, the Hump (310-313-0977; www.thehump.biz) serves some of the freshest sushi in town.

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[hello345]

Any updates on palazzo westwood? How did it turn out? Is it as cheesy as in the renderings?

[phattonez]

They finally opened up the streets around it, and it looks like they're doing work on the interior. It doesn't look too bad actually.

[hello345]

That's good to hear, even cheesy projects can look good if the materials used are of good quality!

[milquetoast]

Hope to GOD the stucco is not of this color! http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/weyburnPhoto1.jpg

[milquetoast]

Here are the authentic colors for something like that.http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/milan.jpg

[saiholmes]

Santa Monica Place Redevelopment

http://www.macerich.com./redevelopments_santamonicapalace.asp
http://www.santamonicaplace.com/

[Westsidelife]

A Waldorf-Astoria in Beverly Hills Is a Step Closer to Reality (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bevhills1-2008may01,1,4717484.story)

The City Council approves land use and zoning changes that will allow construction of a new 12-story hotel as well as condominium towers. A final vote is scheduled for next week.

By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 1, 2008

The Beverly Hills City Council has taken a key step toward approving the Beverly Hilton's controversial plan to build the West Coast's first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel along with 110 luxury condos at the busy corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards.

Tuesday night the council, by a 3-2 vote, adopted amendments to city land use and zoning rules that will enable the Hilton to proceed with a $500-million "revitalization plan" calling for the addition of two high-rise condo buildings, gardens and open space on its nearly nine-acre site. A final vote is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Project opponents said they anticipated a signature-gathering campaign to qualify the Hilton issue for the November ballot.

The initial approval, which was expected despite broad community concerns about large-scale development and traffic, comes atop the council's 4-1 vote April 9 to green-light a high-rise condo and retail project at the site of the defunct Robinsons-May department store, next door to the Hilton.

"It's a good time to be a developer in Beverly Hills," said J.A. Mirisch, a film distributor and local blogger. "That's the message the City Council is sending."

The proposal by Oasis West Realty, the Hilton project developer, calls for demolishing 217 Hilton rooms and building a 170-room Waldorf-Astoria for an overall reduction of 47 rooms. The Waldorf-Astoria would be 12 stories, four stories higher than the existing Hilton.

The plan also includes 110 condos in two separate buildings that would be branded as Waldorf-Astoria residences. One building would range from six to eight stories, with as many as 36 units. The other would start at 16 stories and rise to 18, with as many as 74 units. The average condo would be about 3,700 square feet. Corinne Verdery, who is heading the project, said the company hopes to get $1,500 a square foot, or about $5.6 million for an average unit.

Next door, plans for the 9900 Wilshire project on the eight-acre Robinsons-May site include a small amount of retail and restaurant space and 235 ultra-luxury condo units in two buildings -- one beginning at nine stories and rising to 13 and the other starting at 13 stories and going to 15.

Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker said he applauded the idea of a Waldorf-Astoria and a spiffier Hilton but voted against the plan because "it's just bigger and more massive" than he would like.

"Our gateway coming into Beverly Hills from the west on Wilshire, in my opinion, will be completely obliterated," he said.

Marc Saleh, an orange grower and Beverly Hills resident who supports the Hilton plan, said he had watched for years as the iconic hotel deteriorated and became dated.

"It's exciting to think of it revitalized," he said. "It's more height," he acknowledged, "but also more parking and traffic abatement."

The Hilton has vowed to spend as much as $10 million on traffic improvements.

Verdery said the Hilton project would generate $750 million in revenue for the city over 30 years.

[Westsidelife]

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[Westsidelife]

Beverly Hills Approves Condo Project (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bevhills11apr11,1,6668664.story)

A $500-million condo-hotel plan may also win City Council passage. Many residents are concerned about traffic congestion.

By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 11, 2008

If you hate to sit in traffic at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, prepare to discover your inner reserves of patience.

To the dismay of residents wary of overdevelopment, the Beverly Hills City Council has approved a high-rise condo and retail project for the eight-acre site of the defunct Robinsons-May department store.

What's more, the council is expected Tuesday to approve an ambitious $500-million proposal by the Beverly Hilton to add condos and the West Coast's first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to the mid-century Hilton's fabled site. The two projects would be next-door neighbors at Wilshire and Santa Monica, one of the busiest intersections in the region.

Many Beverly Hills residents for years have been battling what they perceive to be uncharacteristically tall and dense development in the historically low-rise community. Construction of the Montage Beverly Hills, a large luxury resort hotel with condos, is well along in the city's Golden Triangle commercial district, and several other mixed-use projects are in the pipeline.

Mayor Barry Brucker said the 9900 Wilshire project, approved by a 4-1 vote Wednesday evening, would secure about $60 million in upfront fees for Beverly Hills -- "more than any other project in the history of the city" -- to help fund street improvements and other work. He added that the project would result in less traffic than Robinsons-May in its fading days.

The Hilton project, on the other hand, would create a great deal more traffic than the current hotel generates. Moreover, residents face the prospect of sharing the road with construction workers and their equipment for many months.

Critics of the 9900 Wilshire project contend that the city's planning commission and council needlessly rushed the approval process by holding twice-weekly meetings in recent weeks.

The frequency made it difficult for residents to participate, opponents said.

"Everybody knew they were going to approve it -- the steam-rolling train going down the track," said Ken Goldman, president of the Southwest Homeowners Assn. "I'm very sorry that both the commission and council didn't take time to catch their breath and give the community a chance to absorb what was going on."

The 9900 Wilshire project would include a small amount of retail and restaurant space and 235 ultra-luxury condo units in two buildings -- one beginning at nine stories and stepping up to 13 and the other starting at 13 stories and rising to 15.

The developer eliminated 17 units from what was originally proposed for the site, at the western gateway to Beverly Hills next to the Los Angeles Country Club.

Goldman maintained that the buildings "create a Great Wall of China of Beverly Hills, and I felt that was unfortunate regardless of how striking an architectural statement it might be." The project's designer is Richard Meier, the architect of the Getty Center.

Candy & Candy, a London-based firm known for building "super-premium" residences, bought the property a year ago for $500 million from New Pacific Realty, a Beverly Hills firm that had paid $33.5 million just three years earlier. New Pacific was planning to spend $500 million to redevelop the site with a number of environmentally innovative elements.

J.A. Mirisch, a Beverly Hills film distributor and local blogger, said the council should have gotten a better deal with the 9900 Wilshire developer. He said he hopes that homeowner groups figure out a way to fund an effort to put the two projects on the ballot. "Having a referendum . . . would be a great course of action," he said. "It would serve as a referendum on overdevelopment in general."

[Westsidelife]

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[Westsidelife]

I must say, Beverly Hills certainly is living up to its name. :cheers:

[Westsidelife]

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Construction Watch: UCLA Life Sciences Building in Westwood (http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/05/construction_wa_64.php)

By Neal Broverman
May 1, 2008

More Westwood (http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/04/ucla_alert_pala.php) news: UCLA's newest structure, the Life Sciences Replacement Building, is rising on what was once part of the college's first on-campus residence hall, Mira Hershey Hall. The 175,000 square foot project, which began in June of 2007 and should be finished by 2010, is comprised of two seismically separated five-story wings with a shared basement. According to a dated Daily Bruin (http://dailybruin.ucla.edu/archives/id/37499/) article, the building will feature "wet labs, lab support, and vivarium facilities for the departments of physiological science, ecology and evolutionary biology, and molecular, cellular and developmental biology." And the price tag: More than $155 million, which seems rather inexpensive for all that cool nerdiness.
UCLA Project News (http://www.capital.ucla.edu/Project_Detail_Master.asp?vRecord=86&vCount=) [UCLA.edu]
UCLA Builds Life Sciences Replacement Building (http://www.tradelineinc.com/news/18B04DE7-2B3B-B525-8D5D5E9DF3EF84F1) [Tradeline]

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[LosAngelesSportsFan]

im loving it. These are awesome projects! That corner is DYING for the subway!! get it done please for the love of God

[saiholmes]

N/A

[milquetoast]

Seeking shoppers in Westwood Village
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/38349784.jpgLawrence K. Ho/LAT
A recent burst of construction activity promises to generate some momentum in efforts to revive Westwood Village as the hippest place to be in L.A. on a Saturday night. Among longtime draws is the venerable Mann Village Theatre, at right, near this popular eatery at Broxton and Weyburn avenues.

The UCLA-adjacent area is ringed by affluent neighborhoods but has struggled for 20 years. An economic shot in the arm may be on the way.
By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 6, 2008
Remember WESTWOOD? http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/38349882.jpg
Before multiplexes changed film-going, fans stood in line for hours outside Westwood Village movie palaces to see such blockbusters as "The Exorcist." Before chain stores and Amazon wrested business from independent booksellers, readers browsed the racks of Hunter's, Campbell's and Westwood Books.
Before Old Pasadena, Universal CityWalk and Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade came on the scene, the triangular-shaped district south of UCLA was the hippest place to be in L.A. on a Saturday night.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/38349938.jpg

But in the 20 years since gang intimidation and violence chilled Westwood Village's groovy vibe, the area has struggled -- with spotty success and many setbacks -- to reclaim its former zing. Meanwhile, other shopping options have sprung up, including the faux village known as the Grove at 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue, and Westfield's revitalized Century City shopping center.

"Is it realistic to think Westwood is going to come back to anything like it was, a major shopping destination?" mused Jeff Abell, a co-owner of Sarah Leonard Fine Jewelers, a 62-year village fixture. "I think nothing substantive is going to happen unless the landlords sit down . . . and work out a cohesive plan."

Given Westwood Village's location amid the "platinum triangle" of Bel-Air, Holmby Hills and Brentwood -- not to mention UCLA's 43,000 students and faculty members -- it's a wonder that the place has ever been anything but a dazzling success.
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Village devotees say the lack of a singular vision and the area's notoriously difficult parking are squelching any hope for a robust comeback. But a burst of construction activity promises to spur momentum.

On Glendon Avenue, a block east of Westwood Boulevard, the first of an anticipated 700 tenants have moved into the 350-unit Palazzo Westwood Village even as workers scurry to complete the project. Nearby on Lindbrook Drive, the former site of a Flax art supply store, developer Kambiz Hekmat has broken ground on an "extended stay" boutique hotel that will have shops and restaurants. A modernist retail project from developer Ron Simms is planned at the site of the recently razed 1,100-seat Mann National Theater, where "The Exorcist" had its Los Angeles opening in 1973.
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Merchants and landlords say they hope that the activity will bring well-heeled customers. They warn that it is too early to tell how successful Casden Properties Inc., headed by billionaire developer Alan Casden, will be in attracting tenants. Monthly rents for an 860-square-foot, one-bedroom unit start at $2,750; three-bedroom town homes range from $6,900 to about $7,500.http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/38349918.jpg
Westwood Village is hardly a wasteland, as midday traffic jams attest. Pedestrians still crowd the sidewalks, particularly at lunchtime, when office workers spill out of Wilshire Boulevard high-rises. New eateries such as the Stand and Chipotle are finding customers, as are Urban Outfitters, American Apparel and Active Ride Shop, which sells skateboarding gear and apparel.

Ralphs, Whole Foods, the Geffen Playhouse and the Hammer Museum are big draws. June's Los Angeles Film Festival (of which the Los Angeles Times is a presenting sponsor) will be the third in the village, with visitors expected to spend about $30 each beyond the cost of tickets.
But the village, at its inception in the 1920s one of the most immaculately planned and beautifully laid out of commercial areas in the nation, has become an architectural and mercantile mishmash. Much of the original Mediterranean charm and uniqueness went missing long ago.

"As far as I'm concerned, most of it is ruined with giant buildings," said Marc Wanamaker, a historian who is writing a book about Westwood Village.

In 1970, a 24-story office building now known as Oppenheimer Tower replaced Truman's drive-in, a popular hangout at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards. "That," Wanamaker said, "changed the village. Between then and now there has been a total transformation."

Westwood still attracted throngs of visitors until the late 1980s, but they grew wary when gangs began cruising the streets and harassing pedestrians. In January 1988, 27-year-old Karen Toshima, a bystander celebrating a job promotion, was killed in a gang shootout.

"That was it," Wanamaker said. "Nobody showed up the next weekend. It was a ghost town."

Commercial rents have yet to approach the 1988 peak, when annual leases were going for $70 a square foot, said Stanley McElroy, a vice president with CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate firm. Today they range from $36 to $60.

Even longtime property owners such as Topa Management Co. -- billionaire John Anderson's real estate firm -- are struggling to lure and keep high-quality tenants. The Gap vacated a Topa building in late 2003, and Ann Taylor Loft will leave at the end of June.

Along Westwood Boulevard in the village core, "For Lease" signs have popped up like fungi after a rain, and homeless men and women hunker down with blankets and stuffed plastic bags in the doorways of vacant storefronts. Long gone are Desmond's Clothing Store and Bullock's Westwood, which served as magnets for discriminating shoppers.

All but one bookstore and many of the movie screens have left. As they have for years, merchants continue to bemoan the lack of easily accessible parking.
Westwood Village was launched in the late 1920s by Janss Investment Co., a large residential real estate developer run by brothers Harold and Edwin Janss and their father, Peter. In 1926, when UCLA chose a 384-acre section in a tract called Westwood Hills for its home, Harold Janss began preparing a meticulous plan for a commercial village.

He hired big-name architects and instructed them to hew to a Mediterranean theme, with clay tile roofs, decorative Spanish tile, paseos, patios and courtyards. Buildings situated at strategic points, including theaters and gas stations, incorporated towers to serve as beacons for drivers on Wilshire.

Janss selected the merchants, including many special boutiques, and determined where they would go. The village opened in 1929 with 34 businesses; a decade later, the Depression notwithstanding, there were 452.

James S. Rosenfield, who owns and leases properties in Westwood, said bringing the village back will take that same commitment to quality. The village's many large and small property owners have been unable to agree on reviving a defunct business improvement district, and that, he said, has hampered efforts to create a parking plan and clean up the village.

"Westwood has dug itself into a bit of a hole," he said. "People need to have a vision other than who will pay the highest rent. . . . If it's the seventh yogurt shop . . . arguably that's not the best thing to do."

Rosenfield spent years restoring the Brentwood Country Mart and is pushing for a similar approach in Westwood Village. "We need to make it look like it once did, with grassy, palm-lined medians and less concrete," he said. "If we think of it as this wonderful retail village, with wide sidewalks and wonderful shops, Westwood can be rejuvenated."

Over the years, powerful Westwood homeowner groups have defied developers who wanted to build hotels or turn Glendon Avenue into a pedestrian mall. The Casden project generated heated opposition from neighbors before winning city approval in 2004, and critics continue to decry its density.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/38533376.jpgGary Friedman/LAT

But the strong desire to recapture the vibrancy of old helps explain why some neighborhood activists who battled to scale back the Palazzo now view it as a possible saving grace.

The 4.3-acre complex, with 50,000 square feet of retail, will soon welcome a Trader Joe's, a drugstore, a coffee shop and two eateries. And for the first year it will offer two hours of free parking to the public.

"I remain concerned that it's a very dense project," said Laura Lake, a longtime activist. "On the plus side, hopefully, there will be people all the time in the village."

martha.groves@latimes.com

[milquetoast]

Saiholmes, you beat me by under a half hour- I'm not takin' it down!! :)

[milquetoast]

And get an avatar, otherwise you'll be known as X

[saiholmes]

Just deleted my post. Nice job!

[kidA]

I always liked Westwood village because it has shopping, restaurants, movies, etc without having that fake premeditated vibe that The Grove has. Its a true village gona modern. What it needs now is PURPLE LINE stop. That would work wonders for all the parking problems.

[milquetoast]

Just deleted my post. Nice job!

I should have deleted mine. You were first with the skinny :)

[milquetoast]

I always liked Westwood village because it has shopping, restaurants, movies, etc without having that fake premeditated vibe that The Grove has. Its a true village gona modern. What it needs now is PURPLE LINE stop. That would work wonders for all the parking problems.

The stop would literally cause that area to explode, which I would think would be a good thing. But you notice how 'density' is a four letter word to them almost? They'd have to re-design everything that they would have produced in order to accomodate the larger crowds. Try holding on to that mediterranean vibe then!

[milquetoast]

Landmark status sought for Westwood's Crest Theater
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/38534052.jpg

Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
Owner Robert Bucksbaum stands inside his single-screen Crest Theater in Westwood. Opened in 1940, the structure is on its way to being declared a historic-cultural monument.
By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 6, 2008
When Tammy Hoffs arrived in Westwood Village as a young bride half a century ago, she was wowed not only by the palm trees and sunshine but also by the movie business. For that, she credits hours spent sitting in the dark with strangers at the Crest Theater.

"It played a great role in my enjoyment of films and my appreciation for the aesthetics," said Hoffs, 73, an artist who became a film writer, director and producer. "It has always been one of those extraordinary places . . . a single-screen, beautiful movie palace."

Now, however, Hoffs worries that the venerable theater on Westwood Boulevard is threatened by redevelopment and the vagaries of the film industry. She supports a grass-roots campaign to declare it a landmark.

The theater, half a mile south of UCLA, features Art Deco Revival architecture and an elaborate hand-painted interior mural that pays homage to Hollywood's gilded age. The city's Cultural Heritage Commission has recommended that the Crest be declared a historic-cultural monument, and a key Los Angeles City Council committee is expected to support the nomination today. Those actions are expected to clear the way for approval by the full council.

Owner Robert Bucksbaum, 46, paid $3.2 million for the building in 2003, when the real estate market was still buoyant. "When I heard it was for sale and would become a swap meet, I didn't care how much it cost," he said. "I love everything about movies, and my main passion has always been movie theaters."

By last year, however, the resident of the Holmby-Westwood area was starting to feel the pain of owning a vintage theater that rarely screens blockbuster films. He ticked off a few of his costs: $40,000 a year in property tax, a monthly mortgage of $25,000 and $22,000 a month in electricity costs for the classic marquee alone. Bucksbaum said he subsidizes the theater with proceeds from his two businesses, Reel Source and Exhibitor Relations Co., which track box office receipts.

The theater, designed by architect Arthur Hawes in an austere Moderne style, opened in December 1940 as a venue for live performances. Known then as the UCLAN, it was financed by Frances Seymour Fonda, wife of Henry and mother of Jane and Peter.

It was soon converted to a movie theater and, during World War II, was the only screen in the vicinity devoted exclusively to newsreels. Soon after the war ended, the theater became one of the first in Los Angeles dedicated to foreign films.

Renamed the Crest Theater, it later became a venue for avant-garde films by young Hollywood directors. Among movies that had their first Los Angeles screenings at the theater are "Dr. Strangelove," "Rosemary's Baby," "Goodbye, Columbus" and "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice."

In 1987, Pacific Theaters, then the owner, and Walt Disney Co. renovated the structure, replacing the original facade with one reminiscent of an Art Deco movie palace. Overseeing the transformation was Joseph Musil, a theater designer who went on to restore Disney's El Capitan Theater, another city landmark, in Hollywood.

The Crest Theater fills now and then when Bucksbaum, who has been known to collect tickets at the door and make popcorn, lands a megahit. More typically, a handful of customers attends each showing. As an independent operator of a single-screen theater, Bucksbaum lacks the leverage to attract first-release hits and must settle for lesser films or those that have shown elsewhere for several weeks.

For many Crest visitors, the theater interior is more scintillating than what's on the screen, anyway.

A red stage curtain is emblazoned with Majestic Crest Theater, Bucksbaum's name for his prized possession. It was inspired by the 2001 film "The Majestic," one of Bucksbaum's favorites, in which two men refurbish a small town's only movie theater.

The side and back walls feature aah-inspiring murals, designed by Musil, that evoke 1930s Los Angeles. Bill Anderson, a scenic artist, executed them with fluorescent paints that glow under black lights. Among the landmarks depicted are the Pantages Theater, the Brown Derby restaurant and the Hollywood sign. It creates, Musil said, a "unique theatrical experience."

"The theaters in the romantic period of our film history loved you, caressed you," Musil said. "That's what's missing from going to the movies today."

martha.groves@latimes.com

[milquetoast]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/westwood20eighties.jpgThat's where I saw BLADERUNNER or FOOTLOOSE. Probably FOOTLOOSE.UCLA/LAT

[lan56]

I agree with kidA in terms of Westwood being great because it is not fake. I have had many nights in Westwood and I know it's not as busy as it could be, but it's still 100x better than the Grove or 3rd Street Promenade because of how simple and real it is. It's a collection of small, local almost mom-and-pop like stores (such as Enzo's, or Diddy Riese), mixed in with some big names, but nonetheless it is all real and spread out. It's not like the 3rd Street Promenade where you have to walk down their fake, (insert fancy sounding Italian or French adjective here) pathway, or walking in the Grove which is the same and filled with a bunch of high scale high maintenance shops that practically sell a can of soda for $15 + tip for ringing you up.

[BEATSLIM]

well those are tourists spots and i really dont care much for neither. i mean there nice but ehhh nothing to go crazy over. Kinda like times square. most new yorkers really dont care much for that area since theres always a ton of tourists and you cant get a real new york experience there.

[milquetoast]

City Council Delays Hilton Project Approval
The Beverly Hills City Council has postponed a vote granting approval to the Beverly Hilton’s plan to build the West Coast’s first Waldorf-Astoria and condominiums.
The City Council now plans to give its approval during a meeting scheduled for Monday morning. The five-member council late Tuesday did approve the development agreement between the City and Oasis West Realty LLC, the Hilton’s owner and developer.
Oasis West Realty wants to build a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, which would replace a parking lot and empty Trader Vic’s restaurant.
The $500 million “revitalization plan” also includes about 100 condominiums in two buildings. The building planned for a parcel along Wilshire Boulevard and Merv Griffin Way would be six to eight stories, with as many units as 36.
The building along Santa Monica Boulevard and Merv Griffin Way would start at 16 stories and rise to 18 stories, with as many as 74 units.
Once completed, the Waldorf-Astoria would be 12-stories, and 170-rooms.
If council members approve the plan, it’s estimated the 8.97-acre property could generate nearly $730 million in revenue for the City over the next 30 years.The Beverly Hills Courier

[klamedia]

These people must DIE!

[Westsidelife]

Beverly Hills Council OKs Waldorf-Astoria Complex (http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/05/12/ap4999124.html)

By JACOB ADELMAN
May 12, 2008

LOS ANGELES - The Beverly Hills City Council on Monday approved a plan to build a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and two condominium buildings on the grounds of the Beverly Hilton, but area residents concerned about traffic vowed to derail the $500 million project with a petition drive.

The 4-1 vote to allow a zoning change was the final approval necessary for the project to go forward. It followed last month's approval of an amendment to the city's general plan that was needed by developers.

Opponents said they were gathering signatures to put the general plan amendment up for referendum on the November ballot.

"The campaign to put it on the ballot is to let voters decide if it makes sense to have three big high-rises at the busiest intersection in Beverly Hills," said Larry Larson, a leader of the petition drive and vice president of the Beverly Hills North Homeowners Association.

Increasing traffic congestion has become a major concern throughout metropolitan Los Angeles.

Larson said construction foes began their signature drive on Saturday and that he foresaw no problem collecting the 2,200 signatures needed by the May 29 deadline.

Hilton Hotels Corp. (nyse: HLT - news - people ), which owns the Waldorf-Astoria brand, plans to demolish all structures on the nine-acre Beverly Hilton property except the existing hotel's main eight-story tower, said Beverly Hilton Vice President Corinne Verdery, who is in charge of the project.

In their place would stand a 170-room, five-star hotel, two luxury condo buildings with a total of about 100 units and a conference center, as well as a landscaped garden studded with public art works that would be accessible to the community, Verdery said.

Larson and other opponents said the condominiums would draw more traffic to the already cramped streets and that workers at the hotel-and-condo complex would take up parking spaces on nearby streets.

But Verdery said the hotel's plan to move all parking into an underground structure would add some 1,300 new parking spaces to the Beverly Hilton's existing 818 spots. She said an extra lane would also be cut out of each edge of the triangle-shaped property in order to alleviate traffic.

"We've taken a very close look at parking and traffic," she said.

Beverly Hilton officials also said the project would add more than $750 million to Beverly Hills' coffers over 30 years and would draw new customers to local shops and restaurants.

The Beverly Hilton complex will be the chain's first Waldorf-Astoria on the West Coast.

[BEATSLIM]

hoooray for development!

[phattonez]

Traffic calming would be a boon to Westwood Village. All of the cars make it not very pedestrian-friendly. They could take a lane of traffic to widen the sidewalks, but then they'll have to figure out what to do with those buses. At 10 today they had 7 buses in a row bunched trying to get to the same stop.

I only hope that someone has the courage to decrease the amount of vehicular traffic through there.

[BEATSLIM]

And how do you suppose they do that?

[phattonez]

Extend the sidwalks into the streets a little. The sidewalks definitely could be widened (and certainly need some TLC). This would slow down traffic and make the area more pedestrian friendly. Some housing development would be great down there as well: with plenty of ground-floor retail of course.

[milquetoast]

Shoot all the tires out at the Federal building. There's no cameras over there.

[phattonez]

Well that's one way to get all of the cars out of Westwood Village.

What's ruined Westwood Village is not tall buildings or density, but neglect and lack of a cohesive vision. And why not turn Glendon into a pedestrian mall? The business and homeowners need to come together and formulate a plan that will lessen traffic, make it more pedestrian friendly, and cap parking. More parking, and you might as well build a covered mall. You already have enough people who will come from UCLA, and the rest will come by bus (and those numbers are huge). Homeowners might decry it, but density might be the greatest thing to come to Westwood Village. Hopefully they can all agree on one architectural theme though; I really like those pictures from before compared to now.

[LAsam]

What's ruined Westwood Village is not tall buildings or density, but neglect and lack of a cohesive vision.

I had this same discussion with some relatives of mine recently... and I took the EXACT same position you are taking here. Couldn't agree with you more.

[phattonez]

What did your relatives think that the solution was? And I'd be interested in hearing what other people have to say about this too.

[klamedia]

Finally!! Rosendahl is the shhhhhhh! First he pushes for the Green Line now this! Can he please become city czar!
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/05/new_design_stan.php
New Design Standards Set for Westchester, Venice
The City Council has moved ahead with "community-friendly" (read: awesome) design standards for new buildings in Venice and Westchester, councilman Bill Rosendahl announced today. Expect more pedestrian-friendly, urban streets along Lincoln Boulevard from the Santa Monica border to Maxella Avenue, and on Manchester Avenue in Westchester. The Community Design Overlay districts (CDOs) will set new guidelines for future developments, like enforcing new buildings to be constructed closer to sidewalks, forcing parking lots to be underground or hidden in the back, putting ground-floor retail in parking lot structures, and making sure 60% of new storefront space consists of windows. There's also a lot of tree planting and a designation that upper floors of buildings should have design features like columns and balconies; sculptures and landscaping are also encouraged. Drive-thru businesses will be banned, except for gas stations and car washes. Whoa—can we get this citywide?

[AlexTheMartian]

"Drive-thru businesses will be banned"? What does that mean, that means fast food locations and starbucks with drive-thrus and stuff?

[croyboy]

banning drive-thrus are a little tough. especially for those who don't want to pay for parking just to get a burger.

most of that stuff sounds great, but variety counts. los angeles would be pointless as a world-class city if the whole place looked the same

[milquetoast]

UCLA Medical Center preps for its biggest operation: Moving Day!
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/40216399.jpgMel Melcon/LATimes

Capping months of preparation, an army of healthcare professionals Sunday will transfer 350 patients to their new hospital across the street.
By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 25, 2008
On Sunday, 2,100 doctors, nurses, technicians and managers at UCLA Medical Center participated in a task of epic proportions: moving to the gleaming new hospital across the street.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/2008_06_UCLA.jpg

Although the distance is short, the details are daunting. The shift to the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center required military-style precision. Using 30 ambulances and 80 gurneys, three teams of professionals transfered 350 patients -- many of them hooked up to monitors and respirators -- at the rate of one every two minutes.

Getting the hospital ready involved installing 18,000 pieces of furniture, 2,800 computers, 1,700 networked medical devices, 3,100 phones and 580 flat-panel TVs; ordering and stocking fresh gauze, linens and pharmaceuticals for 65 departments; rehearsing rescue-helicopter landings on the two new helipads; and ensuring that every radiologist, pharmacist and surgeon will know how to navigate the building and operate the latest in high-tech equipment from Day 1.

The long-awaited move to what UCLA officials describe as the nation's most up-to-date hospital has been eight years in the planning.

The 1-million-square-foot building, which visitors have likened to a concert hall or museum, was designed by C.C. "Didi" Pei and his firm, Pei Partnership of New York, with guidance from his father, architect I.M. Pei. It replaces the 53-year-old center that was heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.martha.groves@latimes.com LATimes

[phattonez]

What's that roundabout there? They just paved that street. Did they get rid of the roundabout idea?

[LAsam]

What's to come for the old hospital?

[milquetoast]

What's to come for the old hospital?

The 1-million-square-foot building, which visitors have likened to a concert hall or museum, was designed by C.C. "Didi" Pei and his firm, Pei Partnership of New York, with guidance from his father, architect I.M. Pei. It replaces the 53-year-old center that was heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

After it is "decommissioned" as a hospital, that structure will continue to house the David Geffen School of Medicine, the UCLA School of Dentistry and the UCLA School of Public Health. LATimes

[milquetoast]

Beverly Hills residents to vote on hotel proposal
The plan to turn the Beverly Hilton into a high-rise Waldorf-Astoria hotel and condo complex is put on the fall ballot. Opponents say it would create traffic and parking problems.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 10, 2008
Beverly Hills residents fighting a developer's plan to turn the Beverly Hilton on Wilshire Boulevard into a high-rise Waldorf-Astoria hotel and condominium complex succeeded Tuesday in placing the issue on the November ballot.

After the City Council voted 3 to 2 in favor of the hotel project in May, opponents began circulating a petition to place the issue on the ballot.

On Tuesday, the City Council certified that the petition contained the required number of signatures, 2,754, more than 10% of registered voters, and voted unanimously to place the issue on the November ballot.

"What the developer had presented was just too large and massive," said Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker, who voted against the proposal in May.

"The city prides itself on its passion for quality of life and achieving a complementary balance" between commercial and residential development, he said.

Developer Oasis West, which staged an advertising campaign against the petition, still plans to pursue the project, a spokeswoman said.

"We look forward to the vote in November and are confident that the residents of Beverly Hills will confirm the council's approval of the project," said Corrine Verdery, Oasis West's senior vice president in charge of the Beverly Hilton Revitalization Project.

Oasis West wants to overhaul the 9-acre property, replacing the Hilton with a 170-room, 12-story Waldorf-Astoria hotel -- 47 fewer rooms and four added stories.

It would be the West Coast's first version of the New York landmark.

Plans also include two condominium high-rises: a six- to eight-story tower with 26 to 36 units and a 16- to 18-story tower with 64 to 74 units, according to a statement.

A two-story conference center would be replaced, and a park added with 4.5 acres of landscaping and gardens.

The developer has promised to spend as much as $10 million on traffic improvements and estimates that in 30 years, the project would generate $750 million in revenue for the city.

Opponents fear the proposed hotel complex is too big for the city, would worsen traffic and disrupt local parking.

They say the burden the project would impose on the city in terms of water and other services would far outweigh the property tax benefits, and note that the developers do not plan to offer free parking to the estimated 800 employees.

Larry Larson, a longtime Beverly Hills resident and lawyer, spearheaded the petition effort as treasurer of the Citizens Right to Decide Committee, which he said planned to stage a campaign to build opposition to the project before the November vote.

"We're going to get the true facts out -- how much financial benefit perhaps the city is going to get," Larson said.

If most voters reject the hotel complex plans in November, Oasis West will still have a year to submit new designs to the city Planning Commission.

Larson said it was too early to say what changes would make the project acceptable to his group and other opponents, but said some changes would be necessary, including free employee parking and smaller condominium towers.molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com Los Angeles Times

[saiholmes]

Development threatens the funky life of Marina de Rey
The locals -- old-timers who live on their little boats -- have a lot to lose as development encroaches.
By Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
7:46 PM PDT, July 17, 2008

All along, Carla Andrus' life seemed landlocked, literally and figuratively: she was born in Utah, raised in Watts and was scraping by in a tiny apartment near downtown L.A. when, one night, her husband came across a magazine ad for classic wooden boats being built in Marina del Rey. That, he told her -- teak decks, billowed sails -- looked more like the life he'd once fancied for himself.

"Well," she said, "load up the truck," and the words would amount to her salvation.

They moved onto a boat in Marina del Rey, the largest man-made pleasure boat harbor in the world and one of the great assets, and enigmas, of L.A. County's 75-mile coastline. After her divorce, she bought the 22-foot sailboat Seguin for $1,400 -- still the most cash she has ever held in her hands at any one time. As of today, Andrus has lived on a boat for half of her 55 years.

The life is not for everyone, Andrus acknowledges. When she stands up, her head brushes the weathered tarp that is her roof. Her bedroll consumes the entirety of the floor space, and when she lies down, her belongings are all within arm's reach: a tiny alarm clock, a tiny bottle of olive oil, three tiny houseplants. "I know the boat could use a couple things, maybe a little varnish," she said. "But to me, it's heaven."

It is a way of life that is under duress in Marina del Rey, where a building boom has added a layer of turmoil to a timeworn throwback.

More than a dozen development projects worth several billion dollars have been built or proposed -- projects that could add 3,000 apartments, as well as hundreds of hotel rooms and tens of thousands of square feet of restaurant and retail space, to an 800-acre area that has only 8,500 residents to begin with.

The most vocal among them are lined up at the docks and pledging to do battle: "live-aboards" like Andrus, boaters, old-timers alarmed to see their local diner closed to make room for "mixed-use" construction. Most, however, say it would be an oversimplification, even a falsehood, to give them the usual no-growth labels.

Instead, they contend, the trouble is that government regulators have forgotten that the marina was built on public land for public recreation. The county earns rent from the businesses that lease the waterfront -- and, cash-strapped, has become intent on maximizing profit.

The activists say the marina's economy is ballooning, with skyrocketing rents and new rules -- against boats that are small, old and decrepit -- that seemed designed to push out the working class. The funky character of the marina, where salty live-aboards have long rubbed shoulders with yacht owners, is being lost.

They point, for instance, to the area known as Mother's Beach, a popular horseshoe-shaped beach at Admiralty Way and Via Marina.

The beach is popular with locals and visitors, from young mothers who gather regularly and gave the beach its name to families who hold extravagant weekend barbecues replete with exotic ethnic dishes and vases of flowers atop picnic tables.

Developers would like to surround it with hotels, new apartments, restaurants and retail, which would probably push aside picnic tables and parking spaces and effectively turn it, critics argue, into a private beach on public land.

"So you can see that we're not anti-development activists. We're humanists," said Bruce Russell, 79, a retiree who has lived here since 2000. "They could do marvelous things here. But if you just ask the developers what they want -- and you don't ask the people who live here -- what do you think you're going to get?"

Marina del Rey is a cash cow. Everyone agrees on that, if nothing else.

The leases will generate more than $35 million this year, much of which goes into the county's main bank accounts and is used to pay for law enforcement, healthcare programs and the like. That figure could double once the development is complete, and that doesn't even include other revenue, such as hotel bed taxes.

"We've got a 45-year-old asset that should be the crown jewel of the county," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. "We need to pick up the pace."

The county has competing agendas: public recreation and raising as much money as it can from the leases. David O. Levine, president of the Marina del Rey Lessees Assn. and chief of staff to Jerry B. Epstein, a prominent lessee, said both agendas can be pursued at once, "but it requires some common sense."

Levine's company has proposed tearing down the dated 202-unit Del Rey Shores apartments and replacing it with a 544-unit apartment complex, a project that would cost more than $130 million.

In 2001, the company submitted its proposal to extend its lease. After a series of public hearings, the county's Small Craft Harbor Commission and county supervisors voted to negotiate a new lease. Then a design committee had to weigh in. Regional planners held five hearings; their approval was appealed to supervisors, who turned down the appeal after two more hearings.

Then, a nearby condo association sued to block the project. Last month, a judge threw out most of the lawsuit, Levine said, but sent a technical question involving displaced soil back to the county. Earlier this month, supervisors approved an exhaustive process for resolving that issue, including more public hearings and a 45-day public comment period before actual soil analysis could even begin. The condo association could still appeal the dismissal of the rest of the suit.

"We started this," Levine said, "before George Bush was inaugurated."

Don't feel too sorry for them, says Nancy Vernon Marino. She's lived here for 20 years and, like many locals, says it's hard to overstate how much even the already completed development has disrupted lives -- and even the wind.

Marino belongs to a small sailing cooperative and recently tried to pass a test that would enable her to check out a class of sailboat. The test required her to show that she could make delicate enough maneuvers to rescue a passenger who fell overboard.

It required deft maneuvering, but she said she would have been fine if she hadn't taken the test next to the Esprit, a new luxury apartment complex. The complex features Berber carpets and sells itself as "urban, urbane and utterly Westside," but it is so big, Marino said, that it has disrupted the area wind patterns.

"I flunked," Marino said.

Tonight, Andrus will lie down on the floor of the Seguin, wrapped in her sleeping bag under the stars, her head pointed toward the stern.

"From the first day I was here, it was like I was free," Andrus said the other day as she got ready to go to work at an after-school program, where she is an instructor.

She pays $375 a month for the slip. That's about what she can afford on her $12,000 salary. The alternative is scary, she said -- "maybe a cardboard box downtown." But the marina has lost hundreds of slips in recent years and one development is expected to cut in half the number of slips in her little marina.

"If people only knew what was being taken away from them, there would be a riot," she said. "I feel so lucky. And when you have real gratitude, it becomes your responsibility to make sure this opportunity isn't lost forever."

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-07/41075011.jpg

[milquetoast]

This is one of the more interesting articles I've read in a while regarding developement in the area, and proposes the most emotional arguments. This is the age old question: How far is too far? Where do you draw the line? Mother's Beach? How can you not feel for that? I didn't know that slips were being replaced, and I didn't think that the area was receiving that much attention- as far as developement. Why developement would take out the actual slips for the 'vehicles' that use them, the reason for the harbor to be there in the first place, is beyond me. I simply cannot believe that future proposals would endanger their being. Still, the arguments are well thought out. This is one of those non-bullshit areas that are unique in the Los Angeles metro. Santa Monica is another. Hollywood is another yet, like Beverly Hills and the south bay and it's communities............. all wanting to be left alone by the people who already live there- NOT IN MY BACKYARD! Cities have to be developed in the best possible way; They HAVE to move forward. If they remain stagnant, they die. When cities die, guess who moves out? Everyone. Nimbies remain, to inherit an environment they did not sign on for, a landscape unfamiliar to them. They leave last, in denial of what they are ultimately responsible for. A developement of their own they will never "own up" to. (Anything falling apart at The Marina should be replaced. Any other towers should be considered. No more replacing boat slips. You don't develop to make the harbor smaller! That would be killing the hand that feeds you.)

[dweebo2220]

um.. what
I have never ever ever thought of marina del rey as funky. Funky like my rich grandmother's house, maybe...

[milquetoast]

Marina Del Rey Shores Project Loses Approvals http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/Parcel100101fffff.jpg
Thursday, July 17, 2008, by Dakota
What a migraine this thing is: Back in May, a judge ruled that the EIR (environmental impact report) for the mixed-use, 554-unit development at 4201 Via Marina in Marina del Rey was flawed, and now the whole project has been stripped of its approvals, reports The Argonaut's Gary Walker. The project, which'll rise on the site of a 202-unit apartment building called the Del Rey Shores Apartments (that structure will be demolished), also faced opposition aka a lawsuit from a group of homeowners from the Marina Strand Colony Homeowners Association over numerous concerns, including traffic. Still, some people want this thing to go forward, just revised. And "if the Department of Regional Planning fully complies with all of the Board of Supervisors' instructions, there will be another hearing before the board for possible recertification of the EIR and possible restoration of the land use entitlements."
CurbedLA

[milquetoast]

Sinatra and Columbo: We've Got Pens But No Pals http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/docs_0218.jpg
Posted Aug 12th 2008 8:19PM by TMZ Staff

The builder of the new Beverly Hilton Hotel expansion wants Nancy Sinatra and Peter Falk to keep their two cents to themselves.

A lawsuit filed today against the City Clerk of Bev Hills and the Registrar of Voters of L.A. County claims Sinatra -- mother of singer Nancy Sinatra -- and Falk helped pen misleading details urging voters to put the kibosh on the project.

Their less-than-stellar opinion of the project was set to appear in a ballot pamphlet for the November election -- when celebs (and regular folk) get to vote on it.

Karim Kano, who filed the complaint, wants to stop their comments from making it to the printing press.
TMZ

[saiholmes]

Santa Monica Place will gain ocean view in major makeover
The Frank Gehry-designed shopping center will feature a broad plaza surrounded by curving walls that open both to the street and toward the beach.
By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:21 PM PDT, September 10, 2008

The new incarnation of Santa Monica Place, the Frank Gehry-designed shopping center that is getting a major makeover in downtown Santa Monica, will feature a broad plaza surrounded by curving walls that open both to the street and toward the beach.

With flourishes of curved shining material unwinding from a third-story plaza, the $155-million renovation will allow patrons to see the nearby ocean from its rooftop dining level, according to architectural drawings released Wednesday.

The mall's owners, who mostly demolished the original structure, say that upon completion the new center will differ vastly from its predecessor and sport a Bloomingdale's department store instead of longtime anchor Macy's.

Designed by noted Los Angeles architect Gehry early in his career, the old mall, completed in 1980, had an enclosed suburban-style configuration that was incongruously set in one of the most affluent urban shopping districts in the region.

The existing mall is about a block from the beach but does not allow shoppers to see the ocean or local streets. It was one of many inwardly focused shopping centers built during an era when owners wanted to lure customers into a self-contained bubble where there was little to do but shop.

The center's owner, the Santa Monica-based shopping center chain Macerich, launched the renovation in January. The new center, which was designed by the Jerde Partnership, is intended to connect with Third Street Promenad

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-09/42273755.jpg

[saiholmes]

Expo Phase 2

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/10/phase2map.jpg

The Construction Authority is saying that it will likely declare its preferred alternative for a route in early 2009 for the second phase of the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica.

[saiholmes]

Ambitious mall project moving ahead in Century City
Westfield is pursuing an $800-million development that would move Bloomingdale's, add retail and office space, and replace a Westside landmark with a 49-story tower.
By Martha Groves, The Los Angeles Times
November 12, 2008

Unlike some cash-strapped competitors in the shopping center business, Westfield has nearly $7 billion in the bank and can't wait to start knocking down buildings and digging dirt for an ambitious expansion of its Century City mall.

The $800-million project entails relocating Bloomingdale's, adding retail and office space, razing one of the original twin "Gateway" buildings designed by Welton Becket and replacing it with a 49-story tower with 262 apartments or condos.

Despite a boom in high-rise development in Century City that has surrounding neighborhood groups on high alert, the mall expansion has experienced remarkably smooth sailing for a proposal of its size.

On Thursday, the city Planning Commission is expected to approve the Australian company's environmental impact report, paving the way for passage by the City Council. The project has the backing of Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents Century City and has received more than $8,000 in contributions from Westfield executives for his city attorney campaign.

Westfield has also been a big donor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, giving him $100,000 for his committee to take over the school district and $50,000 for his 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors, held in Century City.

The Westfield project reflects a new direction in Century City's core, which for decades featured mostly offices and hotels but is now creating hundreds of upscale residences. Westfield says the mall expansion would add to the "live, work, shop and play" vibe.

Neighborhood groups contend that the project is too big and too tall and will produce too much traffic. But traffic isn't their only concern. They say the development will further strain already inadequate services, from police and fire to schools, libraries and electric and water utilities.

"We have a huge project and no corresponding infrastructure to go with it," said David Tyrone Vahedi, an attorney who is running for City Council in District 5, which includes Century City. "When they're selling these condo units for $3 million, do they tell these people that there's very little police protection? That there's traffic congestion and so few officers that response time is unacceptable?"

For years, Century City and environs have experienced an almost unrivaled building boom. Century City in particular has been a hotbed of construction, with projects including 2000 Avenue of the Stars (which replaced the ABC Entertainment Center) and Westfield's $170-million first-phase redo of the outdoor shopping center, including a rooftop dining deck, enlarged movie theaters and, most recently, a parking system that directs patrons to available spaces (green light overhead) and away from occupied spaces (red light overhead).

Also underway is Related Cos.' 39-story condo tower at the site of the former St. Regis Hotel on Avenue of the Stars. Down the street at the corner of Constellation Boulevard, JMB Realty Corp. of Chicago plans three condo towers.

In nearby Beverly Hills, the Montage resort hotel is scheduled to open this month. And the Beverly Hilton is hoping that a final vote count on Measure H will allow it to proceed with a 12-story Waldorf-Astoria hotel and two luxury condo towers.

Some residents say that the accumulation of projects will inevitably exacerbate traffic problems. Westfield's environmental impact report concluded that the expansion would indeed worsen traffic.

"People are saying, 'We can't take any more density until we have the ability to offer [transit] alternatives,' " said Barbara Broide, president of the Westwood South of Santa Monica Homeowners Assn. "We are hoping that the council district office, the Planning Commission and the City Council all realize that a project of this magnitude can't be built as proposed unless some strong investments are made in the community."

Westfield executives counter that urban density beats sprawl. The company plans to encourage other Century City businesses to participate in a shuttle program for the area's 40,000 employees, and it envisions adding a station to link up with a proposed "Subway to the Sea" or another Metro mass transit program.

"This sort of development will lead to a much better and much more integrated Century City," said Peter Lowy, Westfield's co-chief executive, who heads the company's U.S. operations.

By demolishing two high-rise office towers, he added, Westfield will be reducing peak-hour traffic. (The other structure is the Houlihan Lokey office building on Century Park West, which will be replaced with a five-story parking structure with a rooftop parking level and two existing below-ground levels. The project calls for adding 1,899 spaces, for a total of 4,529 spaces for retail, office and residential.)

Lowy said the company is eager to establish a proper retail frontage on Avenue of the Stars and Santa Monica Boulevard, which would be accomplished in part by relocating Bloomingdale's from the mall's core to the new tower on the avenue.

Westfield acknowledges that it is negotiating with a coalition of neighborhood groups, which are urging the company to contribute funds that could be parceled out to police, fire, schools and other community services. As of Tuesday, no settlement had been reached.

Then there's 1801 Avenue of the Stars, one of the twin glass-and-aluminum gateway buildings featured in the 1961 Century City master plan developed by Welton Becket & Associates. After the 1957 repeal of the city's 150-foot building height limit, Century City was conceived as a high-rise satellite commercial center. The full plan, for a pedestrian-friendly, beautifully landscaped zone, was never realized.

In a Nov. 4 letter, the Los Angeles Conservancy urged the Planning Commission to consider alternatives to demolition. But Westfield contends that it would be impossible to convert the building to condos and build a transit station.

"I think there's a lot that's good about this project," Weiss said. "At this point in time, with this economy, it would be public policy malpractice to tell someone who wants to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in your community to go take a hike," he said.

Groves is a Times staff writer.

http://www.latimes.com/media/mapimage/2008-11/43322344.gif

[saiholmes]

Westfield gets OK to expand Century City shopping center
The Los Angeles Planning Commission unanimously approves the developer's plans after it agrees to make modifications.
By Martha Groves, The Los Angeles Times
5:59 PM PST, November 13, 2008

The Los Angeles Planning Commission has unanimously approved Westfield Group's plan to expand its Century City shopping center after the developer agreed to make modifications.

The panel devoted several hours to testimony from supporters and detractors before voting to approve the project, which calls for relocating Bloomingdale's, adding parking and replacing an original Welton Becket-designed tower with a 39-story, mixed-use building with 262 condos.

The Comstock Hills Homeowners Assn. had protested the original 49-story plan for the tower and was pleased that Westfield agreed to lop off 10 stories.

The company also announced settlements to satisfy some residents' concerns about traffic improvements.

The $800-million project also entails relocating Bloomingdale's and adding retail and office space.

The Westfield project reflects a new direction in Century City's core, which for decades featured mostly offices and hotels but is now creating hundreds of upscale residences.

Westfield officials said the mall expansion would add to the "live, work, shop and play" vibe.

Neighborhood groups contend that the project is too big and too tall, and would produce too much traffic.

But traffic isn't their only concern. They say the development would further strain already inadequate services, from police and fire to schools, libraries and electric and water utilities.

Groves is a Times staff writer.

[saiholmes]

Beverly Hills voters narrowly approve hotel-condo project
The L.A. County registrar-recorder's final tally shows 50.41% voted for the Waldorf-Astoria project, and 49.59% opposed it. Opponents vow to continue the fight in court.
By Martha Groves
December 3, 2008

With November election results finally tabulated and certified Tuesday, Beverly Hills voters have narrowly approved a plan to add a Waldorf-Astoria hotel and two luxury condo towers to the Beverly Hilton complex.

Opponents of Measure H, however, vowed to continue their battle in court. They contend the drawn-out vote was tainted by irregularities.

The Los Angeles County registrar-recorder's office spent the weeks since the Nov. 4 election counting provisional and absentee ballots. The final tally was 7,972 votes in favor, or 50.41%, and 7,843 votes opposed, or 49.59%.

The battle over Measure H sharply divided the affluent community. The City Council earlier this year approved the proposal by a 3-2 vote. But opponents gathered enough signatures to place the measure before voters.

Advocates said the proposal would revitalize the Hilton's site at Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards and bring in needed revenue for city services. Opponents decried the project as too massive and tall and said it would boost traffic at the already congested intersection.

The plan would entail adding a 12-story, 170-room Waldorf-Astoria hotel and two condo towers, one of them six to eight stories and one 16 to 18 stories. The new hotel rooms would replace 217 Hilton rooms that would be demolished as part of the plan, for a net reduction of 47 rooms. The Waldorf rooms are expected to draw far higher rates, and tax dollars, than the Hilton's.

Beny Alagem, the Hilton's owner, spent more than $3 million to woo voters, holding lavish cocktail parties, sponsoring coffees and distributing elaborate fliers and brochures.

On Tuesday, opponents of the expansion charged that the final count was flawed, "because they were counting questionable provisional ballots," said Larry Larson, treasurer of the anti-Measure H group Citizens Right to Decide Committee. Larson said he personally reported to the registrar a couple who he says live in Los Angeles but voted provisionally in Beverly Hills on election day.

Larson said his group plans to pin down evidence of tainted ballots and then take its case to court. "You have to convince the judge it's more likely than not that, but for these tainted ballots, Measure H would have lost," he said.

Marie Garvey, a Beverly Hilton spokeswoman, said: "We have full faith in the county's process." She added that the Hilton planned to begin construction on the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in 2009, after the January Golden Globe Awards show, which is to be held at the Hilton. The aim, she said, is to "develop a world-class project worthy of Beverly Hills."

At least one Beverly Hills official said the matter appeared to be resolved in his mind.

"I voted no on Measure H because of its mass and size," said Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker. "But I'm respectful of the process and the outcome. Now we need to move forward to make certain the project is the best it can possibly be."

Aware of voter fraud allegations, he added that he planned to push the state to require voters to show identification at polling places.

"I find it so odd that that would not . . . be required at the polling place, just to ensure the election process is followed to the letter of the law," he said.

Groves is a Times staff writer.

[LAsam]

I wonder how long this will now get held up in court, and how much more expensive the project will be as a result.

[surfnspy]

The city approved it.

The people voted to do it.

Unless there is CLEAR evidence of vote tampering this will get the right to move forward.

The only real hurdle is the economy. And that's a big one.

[rst22]

I remember thinking about doing something with this area about 5 years ago. finally.

Casden's Pico-Sepulveda Project Jumps on Expo Line Bandwagon


http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/12/casdens_pico_plaza_jumps_on_expo_line_bandwagon.php

[LAmarODom420]

Spare me the crocodile tears of those West LA denizens opposed to the project--how could anyone be resistant to a dilapidated concrete/gravel factory being replaced by housing on top of light rail?

However, the project as is is extremely flawed. First, the design is crap. Second, it fronts Pico Blvd and not the Expo Station. At the very least it should have a paseo of some sort connecting the station on Exposition to Pico. I am sure it will be hammered in meetings with community groups and hopefully something better looking emerges.

[saiholmes]

Edit

[milquetoast]

..

[milquetoast]

NIMBY ALERT: Westfield's Century City project faces challenge http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/3020096110_9f3c01b61b_o.jpg8:37 AM | March 24, 2009
Westfield's ambitious proposal to enlarge its Century City shopping center and build a 39-story tower with 262 apartments or condos is facing a challenge from a coalition of homeowners.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/3019260135_7cbaf6ef53_o.jpg
The appeal of the Los Angeles Planning Commission's approval of the $800-million project was set to be heard Tuesday at a hearing of the Planning and Land Use Management committee. But the city has postponed the hearing to an as-yet-unspecified date.

The project "puts too much of a strain on our infrastructure," said Mike Eveloff, one of the challengers. Meanwhile, Eveloff said, funds paid by Westfield and other developers to help schools affected by their projects "end up going into the maw that is LAUSD," rather than easing the effects at specific schools.

Also postponed was consideration of a challenge to the so-called La Brea-Willoughby project, a seven-story, mixed-use project that a neighborhood coalition says will bring too much traffic and density.
Martha Groves L. A. NOW Los Angeles Times

[croyboy]

one thing for certain (and it is too obvious) is that CC needs rail connections immediately. the project is really appealing though.

[surfnspy]

Crap, I can't find the LAX thread. The only one I see is locked. Here's a little news anyway.. .

LAX project gets additional $51M

By Art Marroquin Staff Writer
Posted: 04/21/2009 07:16:21 PM PDT

» LAX terminals to receive makeovers
The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners on Tuesday awarded an additional $51.2 million to Denver-based Fentress Architects to provide more designs for the ongoing modernization of Los Angeles International Airport.

The revised contract, set to expire in May 2015, calls on Fentress to draw up plans for the federal inspection and shopping areas within the expanded Tom Bradley International Terminal. Earlier this year, Fentress unveiled schematics for a new exterior of the Bradley terminal and six new aircraft gates capable of handling super-jumbo jets.

The new facility, dubbed "Bradley West," is expected to be completed by 2014 at a cost of $1.5 billion.

"This takes us all the way to the end of the project, to the ribbon cutting," said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that operates LAX.

The project comes as LAX continues to struggle with dwindling passenger volumes, but airport officials said they intend to press ahead.

In the meantime, the International Air Transport Association has expressed concerns about the project's costs and has asked airport officials to openly discuss a variety of funding options.

"Basically, the airlines want a seat at the table and want to provide important feedback about the plans before it's too late," said Steve Lott, a spokesman for IATA, which represents 230 domestic and international airline carriers.
"We've seen expansion projects at other airports where we were not brought in early and we are stuck with the bill for something that doesn't work," Lott said. "We don't want that to happen in L.A."

LAX officials said they hope to sell enough bonds to complete construction of the Bradley West project, along with a new crossfield taxiway and several new elevators and escalators, but additional funds will be needed to complete a series of infrastructure improvements to the airport's other terminals.

To fill the financial gap, LAX officials have signaled their support for a proposed increase of passenger facility fees, which allows the nation's airports to collect up to $4.50 for every airline passenger.

"We cannot complete those other projects without an increase in the user fees," Lindsey said.

Lott warned that hiking passenger facility charges would also increase costs for airlines landing at LAX.

"We shouldn't jump on one option," Lott said. "LAX should look outside the box for funding options before jumping on that."

The four-year contract extension with Fentress comes just one year after the airport commission signed off on a $41.5 million, three-

year deal with the firm. Under the deal, Fentress will also design a new central utility plant that will provide an improved heating and cooling system for the airport.

In a related move, the airport commission approved a $10.9 million contract with the Phoenix-based joint venture of Austin Commercial and Walsh to provide pre-construction services for the Bradley West project.

Additionally, the airport commission put out a call for bids for a construction manager to oversee efforts to renovate the federal inspection areas, restrooms, airline lounges and concession areas in the Bradley terminal.

Separately, the airport commission awarded a $5.8 million contract to Santa Fe Springs-based Griffith Co. to build a new aircraft ramp, airfield security fences and emergency exits at the American Airlines maintenance hangar.

[saiholmes]

http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/26368/north-exterior-at-night-570_large.jpg

UCLA to outline plans for Pauley Pavilion
School officials will also start a fundraising campaign to help pay for the $185-million renovation project.
By David Wharton
The Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2009

Other than championship banners hung from the rafters, not much has changed around Pauley Pavilion since the arena opened in 1965.

A building steeped in college basketball tradition has become more outdated with each passing year.

This afternoon, university officials will give the public a glimpse of a $185-million project that, over the next 2 1/2 years, aims to enlarge the multipurpose facility by nearly 30% and drag it into modern times.

They'll also start a fundraising campaign to help pay for the work.

Pauley Pavilion's shortcomings have been cast in a brighter light with the recent opening of the Galen Center across town at USC.

UCLA administrators wanted to preserve the history of their arena. Replacing it altogether would have been costly and difficult given its long, skinny footprint.

Still, the renovation is expected to address a number of issues.

A change in seating could eliminate the empty spaces behind each basket, increase capacity and make crowd noise more of a factor during games.

The three concession areas are squeezed into tight spaces with additional food booths set up outside.

Fans have complained about uneven steps and a shortage of restrooms; the teams use old locker rooms.

The building also needs upgrades in its disabled-access and safety systems.

According to a document filed with the University of California regents, UCLA plans to do significant expansion underground, increasing the size by almost 57,000 gross square feet.

Construction work would begin in February 2010 and be sequenced over the ensuing months so that teams could continue to use the building except for a period from April 2011 to October 2012.

During that time, the Bruins would compete at a yet-to-be-determined site.

The university hopes to raise $100 million of the construction costs through "The Campaign of Champions." Annual fees that students already pay would provide $25 million and the remaining $60 million would come from external financing.

At this point, the document said, UCLA has received $3 million in gifts, $14 million in pledges and $33 million in unconfirmed pledges. That leaves $50 million still to be raised.

Administrators have left open the possibility that they will have to increase the amount to be financed. That raises a question about whether fans will bear some of the brunt, perhaps through donations to gain access to better seats.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and Athletic Director Dan Guerrero will offer more specifics during an announcement at Pauley Pavilion today. The public is invited to attend the 1 p.m. event, with the arena doors opening at 12:30.

[Westsidelife]

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2009.06.westwoodtower.jpg

Robert AM Stern Tower Proposed for Wilshire Corridor (http://la.curbed.com/archives/2009/06/robert_am_stern_tower_proposed_for_wilshire_corridor.php#more)

By Dakota
June 10, 2009

Meet the Wilshire Gayley, that long planned tower set to rise on the site of the old Hollywood Video building at Wilshire Blvd and Gayley Avenue. You may recognize the slim tower as the work of New York-based architect Robert AM Stern (also behind Related Co's Century project), while the developer here is Kambiz Hekmat. A local developer, Hekmat is playing it safe and requesting two development options (all based on market conditions): A hotel and 10 condos, or an 144-unit condo building. Both options would have ground floor retail, restaurant, and a business center. And most interesting: According to the documents submitted this week to the city's planning department (the documents are June 2009), "construction of the project would begin in approximately the third quarter of 2009 and would end in 2012." Who knows if that'll actually happen? For his part, Hekmat declined to comment on the project.

And what we are guessing is the view from Gayley:

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2009.08.westwood2.jpg

Excerpt from Planning Department: "The project would require the demolition of an existing one-story commercial building on the south parcel. The Applicant is requesting review of two development options. Option 1 would result in the development of a 134-room luxury business hotel and 10 for sale condominiums. Option 2 would result in the development of 144 condominium units. Both options would have approximately 6,510 square feet of ground floor retail uses. Amenities in both options would include a public restaurant, a coffee shop, a business center with meeting rooms, a swimming pool, a spa, and a fitness center. The building envelope and exterior treatment would be the same for either option. The building, which would contain approximately 303,709 gross square feet of floor area, would be 29 stories and approximately 427 feet in height. Parking would be provided in a four level, approximately 200-space subterranean garage."

[vidgms]

I like this project. With two different options available, it will make it more likely to be built. I would go with the Hotel and condos because even by the third quarter I do not believe that the housing market will warrant having 144 condo's available.

[milquetoast]

You may recognize the slim tower as the work of New York-based architect Robert AM Stern

Looks more Daniel Burnham-ish, but I like it.

[LAsam]

That building would be a welcome replacement for the eyesore currently on that parcel. I have a funny feeling the local HOA's are going to raise hell about this one and try to hold it up.

[saiholmes]

Theaters fading to black in Westwood
The Mann Festival is the latest to close as filmgoers continue migrating to multiplexes. Preservationists brace for the possible loss of the Mann Village and the Mann Bruin.
By Martha Groves
From the Los Angeles Times
8:36 PM PDT, July 31, 2009

Moviegoers in the 1960s and '70s flocked to Westwood Village, where they had their pick of first-run films on nearly 20 screens. With parking scarce, patrons stashed their cars at the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard and took shuttles into the village. A-list celebrities turned out for frequent splashy openings.

The occasional premiere still brings red carpets and klieg lights, but the neighborhood near UCLA is no longer the movie hub it once was. Nearby multiplexes have lured away most of the crowds, who favor comfortable stadium seating, state-of-the-art sound systems and other modern amenities.

The closing Thursday night of the Mann Festival Theatre on Lindbrook Drive -- on top of last year's demolition of the Mann National Theatre and previous losses of the Mann Westwood 4 and Mann Plaza, among others -- is further indication that Westwood's movie culture appears in danger of fading to black.

Preservationists are also bracing for the potential loss of the village's two most architecturally distinctive theaters: the Village and Bruin, which date from the 1930s. Encino-based Mann Theatres has given notice that it intends not to renew its leases on the Broxton Avenue theaters -- one Spanish Mission style with the famed neon-lighted Fox tower, the other Art Moderne with a distinctive wraparound marquee. Both are city historic-cultural monuments.

The building owners say they are seeking new operators. Whether they will find them, given the tough economy and the challenges facing single-screen theaters, is far from certain.

"We've lost a staggering number of important theaters," said Ross Melnick, co-founder of the Cinema Treasures website. "The idea of the Village closing and being lost is nearly unfathomable."

Of all the theaters, many of them virtual museum pieces from another era, the Village, with its Fox tower, might loom the largest. Melnick described the spire as "an international signpost of Los Angeles and movies."Katy MacQuoid, waiting in a long line near the Bruin for a fresh ice cream sandwich at Diddy Riese, had her first and last experience at the Mann Festival on Thursday night, when she and co-workers attended a private screening of "Funny People."

"In general, I prefer smaller neighborhood theaters to cineplexes, but the cineplexes are so much more convenient," conceded MacQuoid, 30, of Hermosa Beach.

Jole' Nguyen, 25, a freelance movie production assistant from Studio City, said she prefers multiplexes. "Even when I had friends at UCLA, we'd always go somewhere else that had bigger theaters, like the Grove or the iMax theaters at Universal or the Promenade," she said.

Oddly, that suggests that Westwood, envisioned as a village for students and residents, has been outdone by faux villages such as the Grove and Universal CityWalk, with their megaplexes and see-and-be-seen ambience.

Such patterns, particularly among younger theatergoers, explain why venues such as the Festival have become expendable. They also reflect the general economic malaise that has afflicted the village for years. Storefronts along Westwood Boulevard and side streets are filled with vacancy signs.

"[The Festival] was red ink on the Mann chain's books," said Marc Wanamaker, a historian who is writing a book about Westwood. "We're living right now in a catastrophe for theaters."

The Mann Festival was located in a former Ralphs grocery store -- listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- that opened in 1929 as one of the village's first six buildings. The theater had had many identities, including UA, UA Egyptian and Odeon Cinema. Opened in 1970, it featured a simplistic but comfortable auditorium -- not flashy enough for today's movie crowd.

Paul Colichman, a publisher and self-avowed theater geek who as a boy worked behind a movie theater candy counter, said ideally an investor would design a modern complex around the Village and Bruin, much like the Arclight Hollywood at the Cinerama Dome. At one point, he noted, Mann Theatres thought of putting a multiplex in a parking lot behind the Bruin.

Meanwhile, preservationists fret over the outlook for neighborhood theaters. Robert Bucksbaum, owner of the Majestic Crest on Westwood Boulevard, is struggling to keep the theater alive and has put it up for sale.

"It is very worrisome," Wanamaker said, "this slippery slope of one little one closing and finally people start looking at the Village and the Bruin, the holy grail ones. I don't know what the solution is."

[milquetoast]

Sad.... I can't imagine a theatre too much larger than The Village Fox. That whole area might have to be razed and redesigned, of course leaving "the holy grail ones" alone! Whole blocks redesigned with blocks chopped up and new pathways added for retail.... fortunately or not, not unlike The Grove.

[pesto]

This is something I have wondered about for years and it is still kind of sickening to think about. There aren't many historic sites on the westside but those two theaters clearly are.

If they're dead as theaters, then how about restaurants? Or UCLA buys them for live theater? Or keep the exteriors but turn the whole block into multiplexes? Business in general in the Village is not that bad.

[santiagotemoczin]

Hello fellow Angelinos.

It is a sad business to see that the changes of times, and of economic realities, throws little jewels as the Festival through the board. Yet I refuse to believe that there can't be a way to accommodate landmarks as the Westwood theaters in the future of Los Angeles! If people prefer multiplexes over single screen theaters is because of parking and traffic problems. So, I think it would be reasonable to think that such venues could survive if local demand increases.
Westwood needs a new wave of inhabitants that is not limited to students. At some point the residents of Bel Air and Westwood North Village drove the local bar called Madisons to close because the wanted to prevent the village to attract undesirables from outside.

The solution: increase the local population, it would be good for business!!

[milquetoast]

It would be unprecedented, for a buyer to come in and purchase an organically developed area- and a historic one at that- but it may be time for a single owner, or a consortium, to invest in the area and redevelop the crap while saving and restoring the valuable assets. They would converse with something like "The Westwood ReDevelopment Agency" and then the area would attract people with that special something in their pants. No, not that- MONEY!

[klamedia]

The Westside really fucked itself by preventing the subway from coming through over the last 50 years. Now it's a traffic choked hell where Neighborhood Councils have been lionized to the point that absolutely every new development is criticized and discouraged. Everywhere else that got the subway is seeing an incredible revitalization like Hollywood, Koreatown(as per the article that "milq" provided") and Downtown. Interesting that the hoods with proximity to those specific points seem to be doing well like Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park, East Hollywood and MacArthur Park.

[surfnspy]

You point out the problem.

All the places that got the subway needed revitalization.

Santa Monica is flush with cash--they don't want MORE people in their area.

Yes they NEED mass transit, but they'd rather drive their x5's and s class mercedes.

[milquetoast]

Awww, that's the prob with SM. They're an entryway to PCH and a final destination with the Pier. Get ready to give up that little pastoral vision of sweet, dense little seaside living.

[klamedia]

And what Santa Monica foresees is being increasingly cut off from the rest of the city while these revitalized places become much more attractive and tourists opt to just stay in Hollywood and Downtown instead of going through all of that trouble just to get to their city. Having transit access doesn't mean that folks will start strapping their bed and couch to a train and move to SM in droves. No, what it means is that folks (tourists, tourists, tourists)would most likely come to the city, spend money and leave. They would more readily stay in those seaside hotels knowing that Hollywood and Downtown are just 20 minutes away via subway. Santa Monica gets this! Why do you think they are pushing so hard for Expo? Beverly Hills gets this! Why do you think they are pushing for BOTH Purple and Pink Lines???? West Hollywood really gets this!! The Pink Line will be an endless stream of cash for that city. When residents and tourists alike can get to the Pride parade and frequent their cafes and retail stores.....and leave.
Just because a place has transit access doesn't mean that it is affordable to live within. To the contrary, around the world the places with the best transit access are the most expensive. Over time this will begin to happen here, as traffic gets slower and slower and our transit system continues to become more and more comprehensive.

[surfnspy]

Santa Monica residents are not pushing for both lines. There is already significant political pressure against the expo line due to stupid issues like rail yards.

Seaside hotels are already full. Restaurants are booming relative to other areas of town.

AND a major transit line is already scheduled for Santa Monica.

Wouldn't you feel bad if we push for the Purple line and the feds say no since the area will already be served by rail? Doesn't it make more sense to fight for rail in areas that don't and are not scheduled to have it?

Look, I totally agree, subway would have been MUCH better for Santa Monica. But the expo line is happening. Isn't it better to deal with reality?

[milquetoast]

We need to kneecap................ we need to strongly convince those who would run an above ground transit system through an area that doesn't want it- TO STOP! If it's Purple, run it underground to the shore.

[klamedia]

Santa Monica residents are not pushing for both lines. There is already significant political pressure against the expo line due to stupid issues like rail yards.

Seaside hotels are already full. Restaurants are booming relative to other areas of town.

AND a major transit line is already scheduled for Santa Monica.

Wouldn't you feel bad if we push for the Purple line and the feds say no since the area will already be served by rail? Doesn't it make more sense to fight for rail in areas that don't and are not scheduled to have it?

Look, I totally agree, subway would have been MUCH better for Santa Monica. But the expo line is happening. Isn't it better to deal with reality?
Once again you're being dishonest when you say that there is significant political pressure against the Expo Line when the SM city council is fully behind the line and are making all sort of mitigations to bring the line into the city (in their opinion) in a grand way. They are talking about making the Promenade area even more pedestrian and bike friendly, inhibiting car traffic, slowing down auto speeds around downtown and even talking up capping the 10 freeway. They also fought for the train to be at-grade and not elevated. Santa Monica is very involved in preparing for Expo as well as what impacts it will have once in SM. This doesn't sound like any sort of significant political pressure against the line. The controversy stems from a group of homeowners who feel that they have taken the brunt of LA county regional projects, not just Expo. And they are not against the alignment of the train but against being sandwiched between a rail yard and a freeway. I'm not sure why you feel that you have to mislead this conversation to prove your point.

With that said, an additional rail line terminating in Santa Monica i.e. the Purple Line just makes logical sense, excluding density tracts and ridership. We're talking just another 2 miles, though expensive it will make the system seem much more comprehensive. Someone traveling from Noho, Pasadena, Long Beach or East LA would have to take 3 trains just to get to the beach........yeah, really smart people.

[surfnspy]

Bottom line is that it doesn't make sense to build two parallel multi million dollar lines transit lines to the same location.

Furthermore, pursuing this path, may jeopardize funding for other lines.

By the mta's own words, it will be difficult to secure federal funding for the purple line to santa monica because average ridership of both lines goes way down when both are in place.

I'd simply rather see areas without rail at all get it before santa monica gets two lines.

And to be clear, I think it would have been better if the mta had built the purple line and scrapped the expo line, but the expo line is reality.

[klamedia]

Well I certainly can't argue that I've never heard nor read about the lines cost/ridership issues once in SM. I wish they would use the same approach when building highways. They build the highway first many times expecting future growth. 50 years from now the end of the Purple Line terminating in Santa Monica is going to be sorely missed.

[milquetoast]

Will someone who's up to date post a graphic showing the proposed lines?

[croyboy]

Bottom line is that it doesn't make sense to build two parallel multi million dollar lines transit lines to the same location.


i disagree... we're talking about santa monica, not ontario.

have you seen new york, boston, tokyo,... manhatten has a few parralel lines within 2 blocks of each other. tokyo has rail lines on top of other rail lines.

and here we are talking about connecting the densest corridors on the west coast. and they travel through totally separate neighborhoods: beverly hills/koreatown/westlake on one line. north marvista/palms/culver city/USC/south figueroa on the other. Santa Monica is just getting the terminus'.

maybe someone from beverly hills doesn't want to hike or bus 5 miles (that could be a 30 minute bus ride counting waiting time) to get to an expo station.

using the "they should'nt get two lines" is like saying downtown shouldn't get five terminus (blue, purple, red, gold-pasadena, gold-east la).

[pesto]

Agree with Croyboy: within the DT to SM core, there eventually should be a subway within easy walking distance of every person. I admit this will take 50 years.

SM is fighting high-rises but it can't fight greater density; there is too much long-term demand on the westside.

[surfnspy]

Ah, post the lines. Good idea!

I am not sure how to copy it here, but here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Purple_Line_(LACMTA)

Maybe someone cleverer than I can copy to this page.

It's a little out of date, but this blog description is current per the lamta planning meeting I attended a month or so ago.

http://pedestrianviewofla.blogspot.com/2009/08/scenes-from-purple-line-scoping-meeting.html

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

i disagree... we're talking about santa monica, not ontario.

have you seen new york, boston, tokyo,... manhatten has a few parralel lines within 2 blocks of each other. tokyo has rail lines on top of other rail lines.

and here we are talking about connecting the densest corridors on the west coast. and they travel through totally separate neighborhoods: beverly hills/koreatown/westlake on one line. north marvista/palms/culver city/USC/south figueroa on the other. Santa Monica is just getting the terminus'.

maybe someone from beverly hills doesn't want to hike or bus 5 miles (that could be a 30 minute bus ride counting waiting time) to get to an expo station.

using the "they should'nt get two lines" is like saying downtown shouldn't get five terminus (blue, purple, red, gold-pasadena, gold-east la).

thank you. i could not have said it better myself. Santa Monica is just one stop on the way. the rest of the lines serve very different areas and needs. i wouldnt mind seeing a couple more lines to santa monica.

[klamedia]

I hear "surf"s sentiment all over the transit blogs, "why build 2 lines in SM" it's not cost effective? It's as if they aren't preparing for future growth and they think SM will be the same SM 50 years from now. Hell, Hollywood used to be filled w/ sfh 50 years ago. And everytime someone is selling a sfh in Noho it's being bought up and torn down for a monstrous apt building. Density is going to happen whether we like it or not.....we better prepare for this and make the right decisions now.

[saiholmes]

Eli Broad expands plans for his Westside museum
Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and a third, unnamed Westside location are vying to be the contemporary art institution's home.
By Mike Boehm
The Los Angeles Times
November 16, 2009


Art collector and philanthropist Eli Broad has nearly doubled the size of the museum he intends to build on the Westside for his 2,000-piece collection of contemporary art, and the cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica are vying to be its home.

Broad said Saturday that he isn't playing two municipalities against each other -- and he said a third city is in the running that he declined to name. He said he hopes to accelerate the process of building the headquarters for his Broad Art Foundation by talking to several cities.

"We don't know which of those sites are going to work out. None of them are without complications," Broad said as he prepared to preside as co-chair over the local art scene's big event of the season, Saturday night's 30th anniversary gala for the Museum of Contemporary Art.

"We don't want this to go on indefinitely, which can happen when you're dealing with cities," Broad said. "It could be three years, and I'm 76 years of age."

He said he plans to create a $200-million endowment that would generate $12 million a year to operate the privately run nonprofit museum.

The only bigger single cash donation to the arts in Southern California history would be J. Paul Getty's initial $700-million 1976 bequest to establish the J. Paul Getty Trust -- $2.65 billion in today's dollars.

Broad says that establishing another major venue devoted to contemporary art would solidify L.A.'s standing as a leading center for works created since World War II.

MOCA -- to which Broad pledged $30 million after a fiscal crisis that had led its leaders to consider merging with another museum -- has about 75,000 square feet of exhibition space in its two downtown venues.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which shows art from all regions and times, includes the free-standing, 50,000-square-foot Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which opened in early 2008. Broad paid its entire $56-million cost.

But to the disappointment of museum leaders and many art lovers, Broad decided not to donate his collection to LACMA as well. Instead, 1,500 works have remained under his foundation's umbrella, and more than 400 others are in the separate personal collection he owns with his wife, Edythe.

They are made available regularly as part of the Broad Art Foundation's mission as a "lending library" that sends art to museums around the world. Among the artists the Broads have collected in depth are Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.

L.A.'s third leading contemporary art institution, Westwood's Hammer Museum, has 14,000 square feet of gallery space.Broad said that factoring in his museum, at about 40,000 square feet, Los Angeles "would have more contemporary art space for the public than any place in America."

He said his collection, which he continues to build by buying 25 to 100 pieces a year, is large enough to present a changing array of exhibitions without having to compete with LACMA and MOCA for choice touring shows.

Broad had approached Beverly Hills about building his museum at the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard. A year ago, Joanne Heyler, director of the Broad Art Foundation, said two other sites were under consideration, with plans for a 25,000-square-foot museum, plus space for the foundation offices and a storage and research area for all the works not on display.

But conceptual drawings delivered to Beverly Hills officials last month show a much bigger project: a 126,600-square-foot, three-story building with the footprint of an arrow pointing east. Of that, a museum of about 43,000 square feet and an adjoining 6,100-square-foot outdoor sculpture court would occupy the top floor. An additional 67,000 square feet would provide an "archive" for the art not on display and offices for all three Broad foundations -- for art, education and medical research.

An additional 10,000 square feet of commercial space was requested by the city, Broad said, to spur street life along one of the adjoining streets, Little Santa Monica Boulevard; about a third of that retail area would be for the museum's restaurant and store.

Broad said parking is a problem at the Beverly Hills site. The conceptual plan calls for an underground garage with 170 spaces. Also, he said, the city would have to acquire the privately owned property, then lease it to his foundation for a nominal amount. Broad said the city would own the building after the lease is up.

Two or three months ago, Broad said, Santa Monica officials proposed that he build on 2.5 acres of city-owned land next to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The City Council is scheduled to discuss at its meeting Tuesday whether to launch formal negotiations with Broad.

The plan, outlined in a report by City Manager P. Lamont Ewell that was sent to city officials on Friday, calls for the city to lease the land to Broad's foundation for a "token" amount, to kick in about $1 million for design and construction, to provide parking, and to plant and continue to maintain the museum's exterior landscaping.

The report says Broad also wants the city to absorb the project's permit costs and pay for the required environmental impact review. Additionally, Broad and the city will discuss a possible $6-million sale of the existing Broad Art Foundation building in Santa Monica to the city. The 1927 vintage building isn't big enough to house all of Broad's art, and because of parking problems it never has been open to the public.

The tone of Ewell's report is both enthusiastic and urgent.

"The benefits of the proposal are readily apparent," the city manager writes -- "a world-class cultural amenity . . . [that] would significantly advance city policies that strongly favor promoting the arts and fostering cultural opportunities." Broad, Ewell wrote, would hire "an internationally renowned architect."

The city manager added that, because swift action is important as Broad weighs where to plant his museum, it would be wise to avoid bureaucratic red tape, "consistent with complete transparency and full public review."

Cheryl Burnett, the city of Beverly Hills' spokeswoman, issued a statement Saturday making it clear that Beverly Hills will continue to vie for the museum. "While we recognize that the Broad Foundation has many options. . . . There's no better place than Beverly Hills to showcase this world-class contemporary art collection."

Kevin McKeown, a Santa Monica city councilman, said members learned about the Broad proposal Friday when they received the staff report.

"I'll do everything I can to make this happen," he said, noting that a museum would dovetail with the city's plans to rejuvenate the Civic Auditorium as a performance venue. He said officials are in negotiations with the Nederlander Organization, which operates the Greek Theatre and the Pantages Theatre, to renovate the city-owned auditorium, then book its concerts and theatrical shows.

McKeown downplayed the notion that Santa Monica might face a bidding war with Beverly Hills. "I think they'll do what they can do," he said. "I think what Santa Monica has to offer is an incredible audience, a prime location and willingness to work with the Broads."

John Walsh, former director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, said that, while Broad's art philanthropy has been "very public-spirited," he would rather see the foundation headquarters built and run in partnership with one of L.A.'s existing museums, perhaps fulfilling MOCA's long-standing ambition to have a sizable Westside venue.

A stand-alone Broad museum "might bring a different kind of originality to the scene," Walsh said, but "that depends on the extent to which he is prepared to endow the organization, to ensure it collects competitively and imaginatively, and does major shows and has a first-rate staff, which is expensive. And nobody is going to foot the bill but him. On the whole, I think it's healthier if he uses this great power both to encourage innovation and to back and support the organizations that really need him."

LACMA's director, Michael Govan, said he's not concerned about overcrowding on the contemporary art exhibition scene in L.A. There are "complaints that shows don't make it to L.A. because there are not enough venues," Govan said. "There's a lot of growth potential. I feel like there's plenty of room. The thing is for each institution to distinguish itself with a particular identity and way of working."

Govan said the only drawback would be if Broad were to become insular, focused only on his own museum rather than helping to fund exhibitions and art acquisitions citywide. "I don't think that's the case. I think he'll continue to support us all."

[Kenni]

Ah, post the lines. Good idea!

I am not sure how to copy it here, but here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Purple_Line_(LACMTA)

Maybe someone cleverer than I can copy to this page.

It's a little out of date, but this blog description is current per the lamta planning meeting I attended a month or so ago.

http://pedestrianviewofla.blogspot.com/2009/08/scenes-from-purple-line-scoping-meeting.html

Here you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/WestsideMetro.svg/793px-WestsideMetro.svg.png


I disagree. Both lines tho departing from Downtown and ending up in SM, will be servicing two completely different type of passengers.

The Purple Line is obviously perfect for all those "west-coasters" who work in Downtown LA, have you seen the 10 fwy lately? :nuts:

And the Aqua Line, picks up a section of the central portion of the city. Eventually the MTA's future plan is for another line that hugs the coast from the Purple Line connecting to the Green Line ending up in San Pedro. That takes care of the "Venice Beach" issue. :lol:

[Kenni]

I hope we don't end up with a "Bus Transitway" for this...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Crenshaw_corridor_jerjoz.jpg/620px-Crenshaw_corridor_jerjoz.jpg


I'm very exited about the Aqua Line,... I wonder if they will expand the public area at 7th St Metro Center.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Expo_map.jpg/800px-Expo_map.jpg

[Kenni]

http://www.buildexpo.org/vid_western1.php

What a weird concept for the Western Aqua Line Station.

Some Pictures of the Aqua Line's progress..
http://www.buildexpo.org/gallery-pictures.php

[Kenni]

Is this the "Transportation" sub-forum? lol

[milquetoast]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/top_render.jpg . 23RD and Flower - PHASE I http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/DSC_096720hirez20copyrighted.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/DSC_068420hirez20expo20copyright202.jpg . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/expo665.jpg . EXPO

[milquetoast]

^^ Kenni, you tricked me into posting Downtown stuff in West L. A. ....

[surfnspy]

no, the crenshaw line study group just officially recommended that the line be light rail as opposed to bus or heavy rail. (That means it would be like the blue and gold lines.)

It is not official yet, as the MTA has to officially adopt the recommendation of the committee's study to be part of the LRP. (long range plan)

That should happen soon, however.

L.A. Times, 11/10/09

South Los Angeles has won a significant victory as transportation officials recommended this week that a proposed transit corridor along Crenshaw Boulevard be a light-rail line rather than a less expensive dedicated busway.

The proposed line would run about 8 1/2 miles down Crenshaw Boulevard, starting at Exposition Boulevard, past Leimert Park, shopping centers, through Inglewood and south to a stop near the airport and a connection with the Green Line.

[surfnspy]

and while we're on this topic:

L.A. Times, 11/16/09


El Segundo city officials are seething over a county pitch to build a train maintenance facility in town as part of an estimated $1.7 billion proposed light rail project.

The facility - envisioned for about 15 acres of a former industrial site now designated as the second phase of megashopping center Plaza El Segundo - is an element of a large-scale mass transit project designed to ease freeway congestion in the Crenshaw Corridor and improve access to Los Angeles International Airport.

El Segundo officials have argued the proposed site in town is inconsistent with surrounding commercial use, and could have significant environmental impacts, such as noise and air pollution.

"We've got two power plants, a giant sewage treatment plant, and we're next door to an airport," McDowell said. "It's time for government agencies and others to stop dumping these awful uses into the city of El Segundo. We have done our part."

The first batch of Plaza El Segundo's 425,000 square feet of retail shops - including Whole Foods, Best Buy, Borders and PetSmart - began opening in late 2006.

Since then, smaller chain retailers such as A. Crew and Banana Republic have filled out the development, and others, including Linens `N' Things, have closed.

As part of the project's second phase, developers hoped luxury, upscale boutiques would grace the 110-acre property south of Plaza El Segundo by 2008 - but Crosser said development is indefinitely delayed until the economy improves.

Still, El Segundo would at least like the possibility of eventual revenue from the site, an impossibility with an MTA maintenance facility, McDowell said.

"I would rather see a slaughterhouse than the rail yard because it brings more benefit to the city," he said. "At least it would pay taxes."

[Kenni]

^^^^Nice! no more Transitways. Light Rail or Subway please. Thanks for the answer. :)



^^ Kenni, you tricked me into posting Downtown stuff in West L. A. ....

Youzz calling me a trick? huh?










:lol:

[milquetoast]

trickster doofus

[saiholmes]

City nears museum deal with Broad Foundations
By Nick Taborek
Santa Monica Daily Press
January 07, 2010

CITY HALL — Negotiations to bring a contemporary art museum financed by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad to Santa Monica's civic center are close to complete, several city officials said Wednesday.

The terms of the agreement would require approval from the City Council, which could vote on the museum deal as early as Tuesday.

"I feel that the vast majority of issues have been discussed thoroughly and agreed to," City Councilman Bob Holbrook said.

The museum agreement had not been placed on the council's agenda for next week by press time Wednesday, but Holbrook said the only remaining sticking point was the legal language locking in the museum's endowment.

"It's my understanding that we're going to have a staff report on the agenda for next Tuesday [that will] make a recommendation to us on a variety of deal points for moving forward on the project," said Councilman Richard Bloom.

If approved by the council, the agreement with the Broad Foundations would be a major win for City Hall, which since November has been competing with Beverly Hills to attract the museum. A third, undisclosed location for the museum also has reportedly been in the running.

Neither City Manager Lamont Ewell nor a spokeswoman for the Broad Foundations could be reached for comment on the museum negotiations Wednesday.

In Beverly Hills, City Hall Spokeswoman Cheryl Burnett said she wasn't aware of any new developments in negotiations with the Broad Foundations, but added, "It's my understanding that we continue to pursue the potential opportunity of the Broad museum here in Beverly Hills."

The Santa Monica officials who spoke about the museum talks on Wednesday were clearly pleased it appeared City Hall was close to a deal on the project, but were cautious about declaring victory.

"Until everybody is in complete agreement it's still an aspiration," Bloom said. "But when it comes to fruition it's absolutely huge for Santa Monica and for the region."

Holbrook said he's been confident Santa Monica would prevail since he spoke privately with Eli Broad last month and shook hands on the project.

The museum would become home to a 2,000-piece contemporary art collection featuring names like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Andy Warhol.

Terms of the potential deal have not been made public, but Holbrook said City Hall would likely agree to contribute at most $3 million to the project in site preparation costs and fee waivers. The proposed location for the project is a 2.5 acre, city-owned lot located between the Santa Monica Courthouse and the Civic Auditorium that would be leased to the foundation for a nominal amount.

The Broad Foundations — made up of the Broad Art Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation — would cover the rest of the construction costs and would contribute an endowment in the hundreds of millions of dollars that would amount to one of the largest donations to the arts in Southern California history.

http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2010-01-06-67429.113116_City_nears_museum_deal_with_Broad_Foundations.html

[saiholmes]

http://www.latimes.com/media/graphic/2010-02/52047839.gif

Officials approve plans for Expo Line route on Westside
Some neighborhoods disagree with proposal and want parts of the route underground.
By Ari Bloomekatz
The Los Angeles Times
February 5, 2010

Los Angeles transportation officials on Thursday took a major step in bringing commuter rail to the Westside, approving plans for a route linking downtown L.A. to Santa Monica.

Officials hope to begin work later this year on phase two of the Expo Line, a nearly seven-mile link from downtown Culver City to the corner of 4th Street and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica's main business district. Phase one of Expo Line is already under construction from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City.

Extending the line to Santa Monica would be an important milestone in Los Angeles' ambitious rail-building campaign. It would also mark the farthest west a rail line has reached in several decades, serving a section of the county that is notorious for traffic problems.

"Every other part of Los Angeles has been served by mass public transportation," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westside. "This part of town, this part of the county has waited a long time for this."

Transportation planners believe they will have the $1.5 billion in local and state money to build it.

And although there is broad support for the extension, some neighborhood residents have concerns about portions of the plan.

Some homeowners say the plan for the route approved Thursday is unsafe and will create traffic problems, particularly a stretch near homes in Cheviot Hills as well as areas near Sepulveda Boulevard and Overland Avenue.

Those residents insist that at least one portion of the line should be built underground, saying that would make the route safer for motorists and pedestrians. They also argue that the underground route would improve traffic flow.

Robert P. Silverstein, an attorney representing a coalition of Westside homeowners' associations called Neighbors for Smart Rail, said his clients support extending the rail line but feel strongly it can be made better.

"I want to be clear that my client is not opposed to the project, but is opposed to it being built without below grade, grade separation between Overland and Sepulveda," he said at Thursday's public hearing of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority board. "Build it, but build it right."

The Expo Authority, which is building the line, said a subway along that stretch is unnecessary. Building a subway between Westwood Boulevard and Overland Avenue would add about $224 million to the project's cost.

Some speakers on Thursday agreed -- and urged the authority to approve the plans for the route as is.

Sarah Hays, co-chair of the group Light Rail for Cheviot, told the board that she was in favor of approving the plans for the route.

"I live . . . less than half a mile from the [rail] right of way, and I work within half a mile of the 4th Street Station in Santa Monica, so I would use this line," she said.

After the board approved the plans, she added: "It means we can move forward -- that we are one step closer to having an alternative to sitting in traffic."

The MTA has for decades wanted to build a subway along Wilshire Boulevard through Beverly Hills and into Santa Monica. But the high price -- several billion dollars -- has stalled the effort. And that leaves the Expo Line as the only viable plan right now for an east-west rail link from downtown to Santa Monica.

Opponents of the plans approved Thursday are threatening to file a lawsuit that could delay construction of the second phase, which officials hope to open in 2015.

The line is being mostly built on an abandoned Southern Pacific right of way and was originally touted by planners as a cost-effective and fast route for rail service to the Westside.

But the first 8.6-mile link from downtown Los Angeles to Venice and Robertson boulevards is already more than a year behind schedule and is more than $220 million over its original budget of $640 million.

Some delays are due to safety issues near schools. Activists have complained that the first phase's route poses a risk to students at Dorsey High School and Foshay Learning Center and have called for improvements, including running the line above or below street level.

That issue is still unresolved and the state Public Utilities Commission is deciding which safety improvements are needed near Dorsey High, and those improvements could be costly.

Furthermore, the Expo Authority and the contractor for the first phase of the project are at odds over some of the delays and are wrestling over who is to blame. That could further raise the project's phase one cost depending on how the dispute is resolved.

Rick Thorpe, chief executive of the Expo Authority, said that is why officials are using a different contracting process for the second phase.

Thorpe said that for the second phase, two contracts will be awarded for design, and then one of those same companies will also receive the contract for construction. That way the contractor is responsible for the plans and the follow-through, Thorpe said.

Officials said they hope to open the first part of phase one, from downtown Los Angeles to Crenshaw Boulevard, sometime this year and estimate that the second part of phase one will open about a year later.

Thorpe said the timeline of the first phase will not affect the second phase of the project because the sources of funding are different.

But fully funding the line is not a sealed deal because sales tax revenues are lower than expected, there is a state budget crisis and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has projected a historic $251.3-million operating deficit in the 2011 fiscal year.

[milquetoast]

BACK ON? . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/2009_06_westwoodtower.jpg . Read how a douche bag is trying to block its construction because the tower would block his supergraphic at LACURBED

[LAsam]

^ I really hope they build that... it's a perfect fit for the abandoned Hollywood Video building it will replace. Douche bag will not prevent it from being built, if anything he will just extort some money from the developer to get him to shut up.

[VZN]

BACK ON? . http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/trolltoast/album%202/2009_06_westwoodtower.jpg . Read how a douche bag is trying to block its construction because the tower would block his supergraphic at LACURBED

I thought it was just funny the way you worded this. :lol:

But I hope it gets built.

[Mr.Hollywood]

^^^ where is this located?? "NICE!" :pepper::carrot::cucumber::banana2::banana:

[milquetoast]

VZN? Why don't you just put a picture of Dennis Haysbert up as your avatar?

[Mr.Hollywood]

HAHA y???