First Renderings for Hollywood/Western's Boutique Hotel

All images from AV Architecture

Take a first look at Eighty Cool Rooms, the so-called "European Style Luxury Boutique Hotel," that intends to set up shop down the street from the Hollywood/Western subway station.  The aptly-named development would consist of 80 guest rooms and 867 square feet of restaurant space, rising in a six-story structure designed by Westwood-based Atelier V Architecture.  Guest amenities would include an outdoor deck on the low-rise building's second level, offering both a fire pit and a swimming pool.  The hotel would occupy the address of 5600 Hollywood Boulevard, currently a vacant lot.

The project exemplifies one of the many contradictions in Los Angeles' zoning code, a 600+ page document which has developed ad hoc over nearly seven decades.  Eighty Cool Rooms would sit within walking distance of the Metro Red Line, where the city has endeavored to promote higher density development.  However, the project site would also lie within the Vermont/Western specific plan, which explicitly restricts all new hotels to lower densities.  These mixed-messages give the hotel project a somewhat unclear path forward, since a building with a less-than-ideal room count would not make financial sense for the developer.  Expect a "long drawn out process," ahead of us, with construction not expected to begin until at least mid-2016.

Boutique Hotel Proposed Near Hollywood/Western

While Hollywood and Vine is clearly the place to be at the moment, don't sleep on the Hollywood/Western neighborhood just down the street.  Over the weekend, the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council took a look at plans for a new hotel on the vacant lot at the southwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and St. Andrews Place.  The self-described "European Style Luxury Boutique Hotel," would rise six-stories, consisting of 80 guest rooms above a two-level, 31-car garage.  An environmentally friendly development, the hotel would contain passive solar energy features, recycled materials, low water usage fixtures, green roofs, and parking for bicycles and electric vehicles.  Catering to the "affordable luxury," market, rates would range from $180-220 per night.  The hotel would also feature a ground-floor cafe with outdoor seating along Hollywood Boulevard.

Although a controversial gentrification wave began sweeping through Hollywood after the completion of the Red Line, few large scale developments have occurred near the Hollywood/Western subway station.  Now, with fewer opportunities available near Highland Avenue and Vine Street, developers have started looking east of the 101 freeway.  A 120-unit senior housing complex opened across the street from the site of the proposed hotel back in 2012.   Local super-developer Sonny Astani has plans for an apartment-retail complex next-door to the historic Mayer Building.  Kitty-corner to the subway station, the CIM Group is well into construction on a one-story shopping center.  Further south on Western Avenue, an affordable housing project and a full-sized Target outpost are both under construction.