Interesting, citywatch. But I guess I wonder, why replace unexceptional with unexceptional? And I suppose I never saw anything wrong with Hollywood looking more like a small town in the Midwest (the
Time reporter who said this was most likely from east of the Hudson, after all) than an accretion of generic examples of the design stasis we've been in for 20 years--much less like an ersatz Times Square (which is really just a shopping mall now). Are tourists leaving Hollywood these days any more dazzled by the architecture than they were in the '60s? I don't think so. The streetscape of '60s Hollywood was definitely ugly in large measure, but the current sameness is equally uninspiring... IMHO. Anyway, I'm really only here to look back. I miss the old, gritty Times Square too--I'm happy to have the personal memory of a much grittier New York because it was a
much more stimulating place in about a thousand ways--but at this point I don't really mind being able to sit back and enjoy its safer if relatively boring and undiverse (is that a word?) energy. I know it's economics, its building itself up and out to the sidewalks, but I do hate seeing L.A. trying to Manhattanize itself. Stop trying! It seems like one day NY & LA will meet in the middle, and it'll all look alike Omaha. That's why I wouldn't mine having Wallich's back, even if it could have also been in '60s Omaha or Queens. (P.S. If none of this makes sense, please let me blame it on the bad head cold I have.)