Hollywood WELCOME HOME

Despite the myriad obstacles in its path, the controversial Millennium Hollywood development continues to march toward reality. Earlier today, the Los Angeles Times reported that the City’s Department of Building and Safety approved new geological reports which found that no active earthquake fault beneath the site of the proposed high-rise complex. This result contradicts the official stance of the California Geological Survey, which concluded last year that an active fault line ran directly through the properties at 1720-1770 and 1745-1753 North Vine Street.

Vertical construction is nearing completion for 1411 Highland Avenue, a new mixed-use development from the Lennar Corporation. The six-story structure - located on a formerly vacant lot between Leland Way and DeLongpre Avenue - will feature 76 luxury apartments and 2,500 square feet of ground-level commercial floor area. Plans call for a mixture of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units and underground parking accommodations for up to 143 vehicles. Designs from Torrance-based Withee Malcolm Architects are intended to evoke the feel of classic mid-century residential complexes in the nearby Hollywood hills.

Approximately eight months after purchasing the Jack-in-the-Box restaurant at 6409 Sunset Boulevard for $13.8 million, developer R.D. Olson has filed plans to construct a hotel on the half-acre property. According to a case filing from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning (LADCP), the proposed hotel would rise 19 stories and include at least one food-and-beverage venue. LADCP records do not indicate the number of guest rooms planned within the building.

Hollywood’s insatiable demand for new hotels has generated yet another proposed development near the red-hot neighborhood twest of Vine Street. Yesterday, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles for a new boutique inn on a nearly half-acre site at 1400 North Cahuenga Boulevard. The proposed hotel would include 176 guest rooms approximately 5,800 square feet of commercial floor area and 76 parking spaces. Located one block south of Sunset Boulevard, the project appears to correspond to the Tommie Hotel announced earlier this year by Commune Hotels + Resorts.

A promotional video from Kilroy Realty has unveiled a fly-through glimpse of Academy Square, a proposed mixed-use complex in Hollywood. The $300 million project - which is being designed by architect Joey Shimoda - would feature a combination of low-rise and high-rise structures on a 3.5-acre lot bounded by Vine Street, DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues. A series of four-story buildings would rise on the eastern edge of the property, creating 280,000 square feet of office and retail space.

Conventional wisdom holds that most Angelenos will greet new developments with alternating complaints about traffic congestion and gentrification. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in Hollywood, where a small-but-vocal group of residents have fought tooth and nail against the dense commercial and residential complexes which have recently swept through the neighborhood. With that information in hand, it is an exceedingly rare sight for Hollywood residents to not just tolerate, but to actually embrace a new development.

With a tower crane now in place, the J.H. Snyder Company is finally ready to take its $70 million Hollywood office building above ground. 1601 Vine Street, proposed since 2005, will consist of an eight-story structure featuring approximatley 115,000 square feet of office space, 174 underground parking spaces and roughly 2,000 square feet of ground-level commercial floor area. Renderings from architecture firm Gensler portray the building with a glass curtain wall.

With demolition now complete for a former five-story office building, site preparation is now commencing for a high-rise hotel development near the Capitol Record Building. The Argyle Hotel, which is rising on a now vacant lot at 1800 North Agyle Avenue, will consist of a 16-story tower featuring 225 guest rooms, 6,000 square feet of meeting space and 3,000 square feet of restaurant space. Designs from San Diego-based ACRM Architects call for a three-level podium with above-grade parking for up to 107 vehicles and amenity space.

A document from CRA/LA has unveiled plans for a new apartment complex with ground-floor retail on Sunset Boulevard. The six-story development, slated for a .32-acre site at 6630-6634 Sunset Boulevard, will consist of 34 market rate apartments and slightly over 5,000 square feet of ground-floor rcommercial space. Plans call for a mixture of studio and one-bedroom apartments, supplemented by a rooftop deck and a parking garage for 49 vehicles and 28 bicycles.

Two weeks after developer Townscape Partners unveiled architect Frank Gehry’s new design for 8150 Sunset Boulevard, the Los Department of City Planning (LADCP) has released new environmental documents providing additional details about the upcoming mixed-use development. The project - slated for the current home of a two-acre retail center bounded by Sunset Boulevard, Hayvenhurst Drive and Crescent Heights Boulevard - would consist of two residential towers featuring a combined 191 market rate apartments, 28 affordable housing units and 30 for-sale condominiums.