Results tagged “redevelopment”

The NoHo Arts District has over 20 live theatre spaces, but no movie theatre of note nearby. Part of the redevelopment of the neighborhood--besides adding public art that LAist readers dislike--is the third phase of the NoHo Commons development that includes a mixed use building, Phil's Diner, a parking garage and a seven-screen Laemmle Theatre, which is being delayed. "Laemmle Theatre is working on their architectural drawings and hoping to secure financing to be able to start construction," according to Curbed LA.

Going more in depth into the State Budget deal, local redevelopment projects around town could get hit pretty hard, according to the LA Times. $1.7 billion in redevelopment funds will be taken away from local municipalities, which could mean $72 million less for Los Angeles with a total loss of $360 million in private investment and 2,300 less jobs. Of those projects that could threatened include a shopping center in Reseda and a mixed-used affordable-housing project at Hollywood and Western.

As expected, the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles voted to give $5 million towards a 3.4 mile downtown streetcar route. But there is still a long way to go as the project is expected to cost $90 million with up to half of the funding possibly coming from the private sector. Earlier this week, LA City Councilman Jose Huizar said that he intends on riding the streetcar in 2014.

If you happened to see some serious goat-on-grass action Monday at 4th and Hill Streets in Downtown, your eyes were not deceiving you. There were, indeed, 100 goats put there deliberately--not as some Fraternity prank--to help clear the lot of overgrowth. LAist Featured Photos contributor Jonathan Alcorn (aka Sundogg) grabbed this great goat shot for us, and explains (via the LA Times):

Sep 09, 2008 - Los Angeles, California, USA - A herd of goats has been hired by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency to clear away thick weeds on a steep slope at the corner of 4th and Hill streets, next to the Angels Flight. Agency officials said the goats were cheaper and more environmentally friendly than a human brush clearing crew with gas powered weed whackers. Downtown office workers and other passersby gather to watch the goats eating on the slope.

The birth of a new parking structure that will serve the future redone Reseda Theater began yesterday near the intersection of Sherman Way and Reseda Blvd. "The 8,500-square-foot theater will be gutted and reconfigured into an 11,000- square-foot, state-of- the-art, live-performance and special-event venue," reports the Daily News. It will get a $7.7 million makeover and is being rehabilitated by the CIM Group, who runs Hollywood & Highland, among many other redevelopment properties in the Los Angeles area.

After the Flood - Building on Higher Ground, a part of the International symposium series Sustainable Dialogues, is the first in a series of exhibitions held at theA+D Museum that showcases eco-friendly and innovative international architectural proposals for replacement housing and the redevelopment of New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which drew from an international competition organized by Architectural Record and Tulane University's School of Architecture.

Thanks to $100 million in money from a royal family of Dubai, the Frank Gehry residential and retail project along Grand Avenue is finally getting its go-ahead, months after delay due to worries of the economy, downtown's real estate market, project details and plan approvals. The first phase of the plan takes place directly across the street from Disney Hall where starting next month, crews will begin to dismantle the parking garage and lot, making room for two buildings, one 48 stories high and the other 19.

Photo by S:U:P:E:R:M:O:D via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Who knew that for nearly a decade, newly appointed Poet Laureate Charles Simic’s work has been on display in the unlikeliest of places in Downtown Los Angeles?

NoHo Arts is a burgeoning East Valley area that occupies one very eclectic, historic, and active square mile within the limits of North Hollywood proper. The past couple of years have seen a dramatic increase in multi-use condo construction and the arrival of chain retail and food purveyors thanks in part to the neighborhood's role as major transit hub (NoHo Arts hosts the termini of both the Red and the Orange Lines) and the...

Maybe it’s because of its residents' blogginess, but these days everyone seems to know that downtown LA is booming. However, flying way below the radar is Koreatown. Yes, you already know it’s the place to go for your late night barbecue and karaoke needs, but the boozin’, beef-eatin’ hood (best known to those outside LA as one of the places ravaged by the 1992 riots) has quietly been getting a $1 billion makeover that...

It's a challenge to find healthy, cheap, quick, and tasty food. So when I heard that The Juices Fountain in Hollywood is back in action after a short hiatus, it totallly made my day. After months battling redevelopment plans in Hollywood, this family-owned stand is juicing away again from a new location in the neighborhood near the El Capitan Theater. They assure us they still make the same fine, fresh juices, smoothies, sandwiches, salads and carrot cake that's made them famous for over 33 years from their old stand on Vine St. Screw Jamba Juice and Robek's! This place gives you the whole blender of your very own hangover remedy, I mean, smoothie conconction.

Mayor Villaraigosa, joined by Councilmember Herb Wesson and South Korean Consul General Choi, will celebrate the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the partnership between the City of Los Angeles and the Republic of Korea for the Superblock project.

I’m all for the Hollywood revival, but this time the powers that be have taken it one step too far. Tonight, low and behold, is the last night for Daddy’s. For those of us that have spent many a night, many a birthday party and drank many a cocktail at this Hollywood bar, it is a true loss.

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly.

A news tidbit last week spotlighted the shocking revelation that Surfas, the globally revered restaurant and cook's supply mecca in Culver City, is being forced to closed down after over sixty years of operation. Foodies, fans, and even some foes of the longstanding retailer hashed out the known details peppered with speculation on the net, springboarded by a news piece on the Surfas website that has since been pulled. It seems that Culver City is claiming eminent domain on the building Surfas uses as a warehouse, which puts the operation of the retail store--recently renovated and now boasting a popular eatery--in jeopardy. So while the store itself isn't at risk, the Surfas family's decades-long relationship with Culver City is. A blog has been started to send out the rallying cry of support, and today Pat Saperstein's Eating L.A. blog offers Surfas' "we're hanging in there" response to the hot issue, with Curbed LA also offering the story up. A couple of days ago on her blog, Saperstein explained:

Owner Les Surfas, whose father started the company in 1937, has refused to accept Culver City's offer to buy the Surfas warehouse through eminent domain for a large redevelopment project. Surfas contends that even if his retail outlet remains, he can't afford to run the business without the warehouse right around the corner.

78 years ago today the St. Francis Dam burst, sending 12 billion gallons of water into a small town near Saugus. The flood was so powerful and so swift that the number killed has always been approximate — around 450 people died. The dam's collapse was blamed on the LADWP's head, the brilliant William Mulholland; he's the one in the black hat surveying the dam's wreckage in the photo above.

The Los Altos was built in the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst for his mistress, actress Marion Davies, who of course got the penthouse apartment. Once glamorous, it is rumored to also have been home to starlets Clara Bow, Judy Garland and Bette Davis. But the Los Altos, like so many other grand buildings on Wilshire Blvd, fell on hard times. Some sources say it started to go to seed during the Depression (although Judy was 17 in 1939, when the Depression officially ended. Maybe she lived there with her mom). In any event, by the time of the LA unrest/riots in 1992, the Los Altos was a wreck: outdated electrical and plumbing systems, a failing roof, and a hole, they say, that went clear from the 5th floor through to the lobby.

Frank Gehry has been given the opportunity to intensify his (sort of) Hometown Hero status in Downtown Los Angeles instead of recent Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne of Morphosis.

Ed Note: We postponed publication of Monday's LAist Interview until today in honor of the Independence Day holiday.

Charles Zembillas is the consummate animator, creative entrepreneur and visual developer: he's funny, fiesty and energetic. He not only works on his own projects but also runs an animation school, the Animation Academy, in Burbank when he's not organizing animators to resist abuse and bad business deals offered by this town's entertainment-industrial complex.

History often proves unkind to ideas and plans once touted as the wave of the future. Take much of Downtown LA, such as the elevated walkways and segregated vehicular/pedestrian zones.

Well, just as one door opens and another door closes for fans of old Southern California movie palaces.

The Soto Street Bridge at Mission Road and Huntington has been deemed functionally obsolete (PDF). The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks plans to remove it and replace it with "green space" and a sculpture by Los Angeles artist Stephen Glassman.

The oft-lamented, much eulogized Red Car trolley may be about to emerge from gauzy nostalgia and faded memories to roll down the streets of the central city once more.