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  #821  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2009, 8:20 PM
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Musing some more about development: If Purple/Pink Lines are in place, East Holywood is 15 minutes or less from NoHo, Hollywood, DT, Ktown, Beverly Center, WeHo, BH and just a bit longer to CC and Westwood. Could be a great affordable urban living area with access to work, entertainment and shopping.

High rises on Hollywood and Sunset and 3-8 on the side streets?
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  #822  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2009, 8:30 AM
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I had a chance to stop by Century City today and snapped this shot of the Century, which looks pretty much done by now.

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  #823  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2009, 5:09 PM
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So in theory this view will be mostly blocked by the 2 towers replacing the Century Plaza (which is the curved structure barely seen toward the left). And the Bloomingdale's tower will be out of frame to the left with the Purple Line station in it? (in maybe 5-8 years if Mayor V gets his way).

Westfield logos are getting a little old; time for some revamping. A little more glass, metal and glitz might be nice instead of the concrete. The wooden benches and general look are a bit dated. I guess that's why they're talking about major renovations. Maybe make the whole place look like Pink Taco and RockSugar.
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  #824  
Old Posted Nov 6, 2009, 10:37 PM
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^ Save the Century Plaza!
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  #825  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2009, 7:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Westsidelife View Post
^ Save the Century Plaza!
Yes!! The Century Plaza is mad Mod and too important to let go. Cram them two shiny dullards somewhere else!
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  #826  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2009, 8:13 AM
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I haven't driven through Century City at night in quite a while. Is the Century Plaza Hotel still lit up on the outside with those awful yellow lights in the balconies? I hope so, it added to the whole hideousness of it all.

Remember the dorky beefeater costumes they used to make the doormen wear? Or do they still wear them?
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  #827  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2009, 10:23 AM
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^ I saw Ryan Phillipe there before! (Second time total, once while waiting in line at Heathrow before take off) So it makes the hotel good in my book LOL
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  #828  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2009, 4:30 PM
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All right, I’ll play bad guy. The CP is a low-rise, car-oriented, pedestrian-non-oriented, building. It is too young to be historic and just not that good architecturally. You can see versions of it in many resort areas of the world.

It will be replaced by high-rise residences (which is what CC is missing) with outside retail and direct, attractive pedestrian connections to the mall.

The mall itself will be redone to add street retail (SM Blvd, Ave. of the Stars) and make it more pedestrian friendly. A subway station will be put on the ground floor of a high-rise containing Bloomingdale’s and more residential housing. And this is all being done with zero financial commitment of any sort from the city. How can you beat this deal?

And, besides, I never saw Ryan Philippe there.
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  #829  
Old Posted Nov 7, 2009, 10:24 PM
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^ You're right pesto, get rid of that thing and replace it with the two towers
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  #830  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2009, 1:54 AM
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Anything built in Century City will be auto-oriented.
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  #831  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2009, 2:25 AM
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Anything built in Century City will be auto-oriented.
Well yeah, Century City itself is auto-oriented. Avenue of the Stars is as wide as a freeway and there's no on-street parking allowed anywhere in CC. There are high-rise residential towers in CC towards the Pico Blvd. end, but you never see people walking in Century City. It's very sterile and almost eerie, especially at night; to me it always had the look out of a science-fiction movie where somehow a bomb killed all the people and made them disappear but left the buildings and landscaping intact.

I doubt it'll become pedestrian-oriented anytime soon, and if it does, it'll only be along the Santa Monica Blvd. end because of the retail. Santa Monica Blvd., itself along that stretch is also as wide as a freeway with the same speeding traffic.
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  #832  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2009, 6:43 AM
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I'll never understand the people in LA who are staunch advocates of tearing down what little skyscrapers we have -- even if they are 'ugly' -- in favor of another one, when there are literally tons of adjacent lots...as if a block or 2 over is going to make a big difference; since most of the traffic to these new towers will be automobile (i.e don't have to worry about the building being too far from mass transit), an additional minute or 2 isn't going to spell the end of the world. All those underutilized/empty parcels and they want to go after the one with a fully-functioning, *historic* building...no wonder why this city has no history left!

And the touted successors for the CP building....2 more impersonal glass towers? yawn.
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  #833  
Old Posted Nov 8, 2009, 5:11 PM
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I agree that CC will never be pedestrian friendly like DT or other real urban areas. But bringing in residences next to offices and shopping, density, a subway and on-street retail are all good things in any neighborhood, right?

I expect that CC will have a boom in pedestrian traffic after this, precisely in the areas of the subway, mall and Century Plaza. I expect that the CC subway stop will be one of the most heavily used in LA.

The CP is not exactly a historic high-rise. It’s 15 stories or so and only 40 years old. It will be replaced by two 40 plus story buildings with greenery and connections to the mall and subway. Similarly, I do not mourn the Wilshire Grand or the Beverly Hilton (if and when they get "renovated"). Nice, but not that nice; historical, but not that historical.
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  #834  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 12:30 AM
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Fitting for Hollywood and I am glad to see another yet another theatre on Hollywood Blvd being redeveloped:

Quote:
Supperclub Launches Spring 2010 in Vogue Theatre

Tuesday, October 6, 2009, by Kat Odell
With worldwide outposts in Amsterdam, London, Singapore, Istanbul, and San Francisco, the Supperclub is headed for LA, slated to open March 2010 in the Vogue Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. Concrete Architectural Associates are heading the 15,000 square foot spacial remodel that will meld the current vintage feel of the theatre with the oddities that encompass other Supperclub locations (red and white rooms, dominatrixes, opera singers, midgets on bicycles, etc.). The end result will be a multi-purpose venue featuring an ultra-modern amphitheater as the main dining room with a bar/lounge/club. [EaterWire]·Supperclub Bringing "Midget on Bicycles" To Vogue Theatre [~ELA~]
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  #835  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 1:27 AM
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Ah, a little bit of Amsterdam or Berlin right here in LA.

I have no problem with transvestites, bicycling midgets, dominatrices and perverted cabaret as long as its done in good taste.
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  #836  
Old Posted Nov 17, 2009, 10:40 PM
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Hollywood: if you go back 20-30 years it was war surplus, low-grade wig shops, head shops (the "medical" marijuana stores of the time). Back then, pretty much only the drug store at Hollywood/Highland was selling tourist stuff. There were no tourists.

But there was CC Brown's, where the hot fudge sundae was supposedly invented.
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  #837  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 4:51 AM
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Interesting but really sad article.

Not so anymore. Sounds like you need to check out Hollywood again.
Sounds like a good idea.

Back in the mid 90's, my mother lived a couple blocks from Hollywood and Vine on Dix Street. She rented an apartment owned by the Mike Diamond plumbing company. Great building, the area looked nice, but the neighbors were another story. She bought a patio set. It didn't last a week until someone stole it. The gangs, drugs and huge homeless population was too much for her. She moved back to Orange County after only living there two years.

I visited her numerous times during that period and spent a lot of time exploring. Even though parts of Hollywood looked trashy, I icould see that it had great potential.
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  #838  
Old Posted Nov 19, 2009, 3:48 PM
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Say what you want about Hollywood & Highland; it has invigorated the area with development and IMO, it's beautiful.
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  #839  
Old Posted Nov 22, 2009, 4:47 AM
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Back then, pretty much only the drug store at Hollywood/Highland was selling tourist stuff. There were no tourists.

False. Where did you hear this? I was a tourist in Hollywood in 1989 and while there still were lots of runaway kids, drugs, and prostitution there were also tourists. Especially in front of the Chinese theater. There were tour buses like there are now, although not as many. There were also star maps, postcards, t-shirts, and other touristy stuff at many different shops.
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  #840  
Old Posted Nov 22, 2009, 7:43 AM
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Easy: Can't speak for 1989, but in 1980-83 I worked on Hollywood and walked from La Brea to near Whitley and back daily. There were still the remains of the great book district (second only to London is number of book stores) but dying; there were war surplus, wig-shops; head-shops; two magic shops and low-grade t-shirt shops, which might have carried a few postcards; Frederick's still had their HQ store but it was almost empty.

Zero tourists is an exaggeration, but it was so close that it might as well have been. Mann's Chinese courtyard was empty Monday to Friday, all day. I know, because we rented out the empty auditorium for occasional meetings. The t-shirt stores changed owners and their line of merchandise regularly. They were aimed at military, bikers and hard drug users (not tourists) who were coming down to get booze, dope and hookers (hookers on Sunset, drugs just off Hollywood and on Yucca). Typical t-shirt: a skull and the motto "Kill 'em all; let God sort 'em out" or "187th Airborne: Death From the Sky".

As long as you got me started: On Yucca, drug dealers and their clients were essentially the only people. Mostly hash, acid and other hallucinogens. I suppose they had coke and other stuff if you asked. Shooting up in the doorways of the beautiful old buildings. It was really quite sad, young painfully thin girls with that dead, heroin look.

Women in our office would refuse to walk alone, so security escorted them down Hollywood Blvd. in the middle of the day. Panhandlers and derelicts; guys on violent trips, attacking light-posts, screaming and cursing. Car radios were routinely stolen out of the guarded parking lot; we covered windows with cardboard on the inside so at night the druggies wouldn't know who was inside and gather by the doors waiting. Mace was universal among the women (always carry in your hand, not in your purse).
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