UPDATE: Information supplied by Curbed LA indicates that the above rendering no longer represents the current vision for the project. Plans now call for 200 apartments and 4,700 square feet of retail space.
Sunset Boulevard, already in the midst of a pronounced building boom, is adding yet another large scale project to the pipeline. According to a recent case filing with the Department of City Planning, the parking lot adjacent to the historic Earl Carroll Theatre will be replaced with a new mixed-use complex. Developed by the Palo Alto-based Essex Property Trust, the seven-story Essex Hollywood would create 217 apartment units and a whopping 51,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. With architectural work from San Francisco-based NC2, the project is designed to both incorporate and preserve the adjacent theater complex (for more on the history of the Earl Carroll Theatre, click here). Essex's residential-retail complex would join a host of other developments currently planned or underway near the intersection of Sunset and Vine Street. West LA-based Kilroy Realty recently broke ground on their $380 million redevelopment of the Columbia Square campus, with plans for a second project nearby on Vine Street. Across the street from the Essex Hollywood, developer Crescent Heights has plans for a pair of high-rise towers on the parking lot of the Hollywood Palladium. Despite concerns about fault lines and consistent NIMBY pushback, it appears that developers are still very eager to get in on Hollywood's revival. With so much forward momentum, you have to wonder if the Gower Gulch strip mall is living on borrowed time.
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| The Earl Carroll Theater, which shall be incorporated into the new project. Image via The Garden of Allah Novels Blog. |
- Case Information Summary Sheet (LADCP)
- Hollywood Mixed-Use (NC2)
- Earl Carroll Theater - "Through these portals..." (The 'Garden of Allah' Novels Blog)
That's a lot of retail. The model for this project looks good, but does this mean no more Nickelodeon Studios? I personally like the tacky, western-themed Gower Gulch and wouldn't mind it being one of the few strip malls in L.A. county that are spared the wrecking ball. Always good to have a reminder of where we've come from, and this reminder has fake storefront facades and street lamps!! I'd more like to see the demise of the Discount Tire Center and Out of the Closet Thrift Store on the opposite corner. I hate walking past that lot.
ReplyDeleteCrossing my fingers for the Palladium Project.
Gower Gulch isn't half bad, in the greater scheme of things. If you're going to build a strip mall, it might as well have some character.
DeleteNot entirely sure what to make of this proposal, in all honesty. Kind of odd that the first two pictures portray a different massing than the third, although they were all listed under the same project.