[Obey]

L.A. City Council OKs Elaborate Digital Signs
http://archrecord.construction.com/y...y_id=157408223

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved an elaborate package of new flashing signs, illuminated graphics and moving text for two planned downtown skyscrapers, ignoring critics who warned that such brightly lighted images would degrade the look of the city.

On a 12-0 vote, the council unanimously created a new one-block sign district for the planned 45-story replacement of the Wilshire Grand Hotel and accompanying 65-story office tower.

That district will allow various kinds of digital advertising on the first 10 floors of the two towers. The tops of the two skyscrapers will feature digital signs promoting the buildings' owner and major tenants. And on dozens of stories in between, LED lights would display noncommercial images such as flowers and vines that would fade in and out.

Councilman Ed Reyes praised the "architectural lighting" on the upper floors, saying it should not be confused with other brightly lighted billboards. "It is art. And I believe it adds more culture" to L.A., he said.

Added Councilman Dennis Zine: "I am amazed at how anyone could be opposed to this."

The sign district is the first approved since the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the city's ban on new billboards last year. That law allows sections of the city to be exempted from the ban.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl initially cast an opposing vote, saying the city should have found a way to share in the financial proceeds of the new digital advertising. But he essentially rescinded it minutes later to speed the project's approval. The council had already agreed to give developer Korean Air and its subsidiary a tax break of up to $79 million for the two towers over the next 25 years. Council members also agreed to sell the developers more than $25 million in "floor area rights," allowing the proposed office tower to be taller than the zoning allows.

Union members who packed the council chamber praised the hotel proposal, saying it would create about 7,300 construction jobs at a time of high unemployment. "This project is going to bring a lot of hope to a lot of members in our community," said David Kersh of the Carpenters Contractors Cooperation Committee.

Opponents said they did not oppose the hotel's redevelopment, but argued that new flashing signs would barrage the public and, in some cases, distract motorists. "Digital billboards do not solve the unemployment in the city. Digital billboards will not increase tourism in our city," said Marina del Rey resident Jan Book.

The Wilshire Grand sign district is so complicated that it is divided into four vertical levels and three geographic subsections. Some lighted signs will change every eight seconds, others every four minutes. Still others will feature scrolling text.

The hotel proposal was backed enthusiastically by Councilwoman Jan Perry, a 2013 mayoral candidate who pushed hard for approval of the signs and images sought by Korean Air and its partner, Thomas Properties Group.

Perry persuaded her colleagues to double the size of the scrolling news ribbons on the first three floors of the towers. She and her colleagues tripled the amount of signage allowed by the Planning Commission, from 7,100 square feet to 30,900 square feet, between the fourth and 10th floors.

Perry also won approval of the architectural lighting on the upper floors that the Planning Commission opposed. Without those lights, the hotel would quickly become "dated," said Jim Thomas, chief executive of Thomas Properties.

These images "are the wave of the future," he said. "There will be no major building built in the future that does not take advantage of this new technology."