Shiny New Rendering for Academy Square

A striking new look has emerged for Kilroy Realty's Academy Square development, courtesy of commercial real estate publication Bisnow.

The $300 million project, designed by local architect Joey Shimoda, would create a 3.5-acre mixed-use campus in the heart of Hollywood.  Plans call for a campus of low-rise and high-rise structures, offering a combination of apartments, offices, ground-floor retail and possibly hotel rooms.  The project's name is a nod to an abandoned plan by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to build a museum on the property.  Academy Square would also sit directly north of the Pickford Film Center, another facility owned by AMPAS.

Kilroy's development is highlighted by a 23-story high-rise tower, slated for the corner of Ivar and DeLongpre Avenues.  The mixed-use building could move forward with up to 250 apartments, or under an alternate development program, up to 100 hotel rooms and 50 fewer residential units.  Both options would include retail space on the tower's ground floor.

Details Emerge for Hollywood's Academy Square Development

Image: Kilroy Realty via Curbed LA

Over the summer, developer Kilroy Realty unveiled renderings for Academy Square, a $300 million mixed-use development on Vine Street.  Now, a set of environmental documents released by LADCP has revealed additional details about the project, which would create apartments, ground-floor retail, office space, and possibly hotel rooms on a site once intended for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Academy Square would rise on a full city block, bounded by Vine Street, DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues.  Plans for the 3.55-acre site call for a combination of low-rise and high-rise structures, bisected by an landscaped paseo running east-to-west across the property.

A trio of four-story buildings would flank the northern and southern perimeters of the site, containing approximately 280,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space.  According to a conceptual ground-floor site plan from the Shimoda Design Group, a significant portion of the proposed commercial space would be devoted to a 40,000-square-foot market at Vine Street and Homewood Avenue.

Academy Square is highlighted by a 23-story apartment building, which would stand at the northwest corner of the property.  The proposed tower would move forward under one of two development programs currently being considered by Kilroy Realty.  Under the first alternative, the building would contain as many as 250 apartments.  Under the second alternative, the project would feature 100 hotel rooms, in lieu of up to 50 fewer residential units.  Both options would include a fitness center, swimming pool and other standard amenities.

Despite its location a few blocks south of Hollywood/Vine Station, Academy Square would feature approximately 1,349 parking spaces, divided accordingly between residential, office and retail tenants.  Vehicular access to an underground garage would be provided via DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues.

According to environmental report, construction of the potentially LEED-certified development is expected to last 27 months, starting in late 2015 and ending in early 2018.

A Quick Trip Through the Sunset Boulevard Boom

This past weekend, a broken water main spilled untold gallons of precious drinking water onto the Sunset Strip, dealing yet another blow to drought-stricken California.  On the other hand, flooding of a more figurative (and less dire) sort is also occurring further east along the iconic thoroughfare.  Let's for get about LADWP's woes for a moment as we check in on the deluge of mixed-use developments adding new office space and residential units between Vine Street and the Hollywood Freeway.

As reported in mid-September, Hudson Pacific Properties has quietly broken ground on the long planned expansion of Sunset Bronson Studios (see above).  The $150 million project will ultimately create over 400,000 square feet of Class-A office space, mostly contained within a 14-story, Gensler-designed tower.  The staggered massing of the stout, 200-foot building will create a unique presence within the mid-rise Hollywood skyline.  Currently, construction crews are removing asphalt from the southeast corner of the SBS campus, clearing the way for an immense 1,600-vehicle parking garage.

Columbia Square Now Going Vertical

The Hollywood skyline was starting to get a little sparse, with construction cranes having recently disappeared at both Emerson College and Blvd 6200.  Then, along came the $380 million Columbia Square development to save the day.  While little more than a giant dirt pit at this point in time, developer Kilroy Realty will eventually turn the parcel at 6121 Sunset Boulevard into over 300,000 square feet of new Class-A office space and a 20-story residential high-rise.  Dubbed "The Residences at Columbia Square," the Rios Clementi Hale-designed tower's 200 units will be divided between luxury rentals and extended stay hotel suites.  The project also entails the adaptive re-use of Columbia Square's historic William Lescaze designed structures, which shall be repurposed as creative office and retail space.

It's difficult to imagine anyone looking at Hollywood in the 1980's and seeing the potential for luxury housing and shiny new office buildings, but here we are all the same.  Kilroy Realty is confident enough in the neighborhood's future that they recently announced plans for a second project just a few blocks away.  The West LA-based developer paid over $45 million to acquire the four acre site on Vine Street where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once planned to build its museum.  With the proposed museum relocated south to the LACMA campus, Kilroy will instead construct a $285 million mixed-use complex containing 220 apartments, retail and office space.

Another New Look for Columbia Square?

All images from Rios Clementi Hale Studios

Work is already underway on Kilroy Realty's Columbia Square development, but that doesn't mean it's too late to change the project's design...again.  Rios Clementi Hale Studios, one of three architectural firms collaborating on the project, recently posted updated renderings of Columbia Square to their website.  While a PR representative for RCH has informed me that these plans are in no way finalized, the new renderings indicate that a redesign may be in the works for the project's 22-story residential tower.  Gone is the boxy, minimalist high-rise unveiled earlier this year, and in its place an asymmetrical glass tower, featuring misaligned windows and vertical lines stretching the length of the building.  RCH has designed the ground-up structures to mimic the architectural massings of the William Lescaze designed CBS Studios complex, with "shifted upper-stories to allow the buildings to adapt as they rise."  RCH's project may not be as ambitious in scale as Johnson Fain's original vision for the development, but it may in fact mesh better with the adjacent 1938 buildings.  At the very least, we are spared a five-story parking podium.  Columbia Square is expected to open in phases staring midway through 2014, with the residential tower ready for occupancy in early 2016.

Excavation Underway for Hollywood's Columbia Square

When we last saw the Columbia Square project in August, I wondered if the site was being readied for construction.  We now have an answer, as excavation has started for Kilroy Realty's $300 million re-development of the former CBS Studios.  The parking lot on the northern side of the parcel is making way for two new office buildings and a 22-story residential high-rise, set to create 330,000 square feet of office space and 200 apartments.  The new buildings will sit atop a four-and-a-half level subterranean parking garage (?!).

The adaptive re-use of Columbia Square's original 1938 buildings began over the summer.  Construction crews are currently gutting the interiors of the William Lescaze designed complex to repurpose it as creative office and commercial space.  I feared that the fire which damaged the construction site in September might have delayed the project.  Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

Viewed from the southeastern corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street

• Columbia Square Getting Ready for Construction? (Building Los Angeles)
• Columbia Square Complex in Hollywood Damaged in Fire (ABC7)

Columbia Square Getting Ready for Construction?

Selma and El Centro

The giant parking lot at the back of the former CBS Studios complex on Sunset Blvd is starting to make way for the long awaited Columbia Square development.  Work on the adaptive re-use of the existing buildings began in Spring of 2013, and now it appears that developer Kilroy Realty is readying the site for construction of the new office and residential buildings.

Here's a look at what we have in store.

All images from Kilroy Realty

Landscaped courtyard serving the office buildings and residential tower.

A still image from Kilroy's promotional video, providing a bird's eye view from the southeast.

The building in the foreground is Studio B/C, re-envisioned as creative office space.

Overhead view of the interior courtyard.  LA is an outdoor town, and Kilroy has included a lot of outdoor amenities in their vision for Columbia Square.

View from the corner of Selma and Gower.

A bird's eye view from the southwest.  Glad to see storefronts along the Sunset Blvd side of the property.

Since Columbia Square is a large, multifaceted development, the project will open in phases.  The renovation of the historic CBS Studios and the construction of the new subterranean parking garage are both set to wrap up midway through 2014.  The new office buildings are scheduled to open late in 2015.  Completion of the 22 story residential tower is expected by early 2016.

When finished, Columbia Square will bring 200 residential units and 330,000 square feet of office space to Hollywood.  The development will activate Sunset Blvd with 33,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.  This project is one of many set to break ground in Hollywood within the next several years, including two buildings at Selma and Vine, Sunset Bronson Studios' new office tower, and the infamous Millennium Hollywood Towers.  Perhaps Crescent Heights will have shovels in the dirt for the Palladium Residences as well.

In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out the fly through video posted on the Columbia Square website.

• Columbia Square
• Selma and Vine Moving Towards Construction (Building Los Angeles)
• First Look at New Design For H'wood's Sunset Bronson Studios (Curbed LA)
• A Look at the Open Space in the Millennium Hollywood Project (Building Los Angeles)
• Here Are Your Palladium Residences (Building Los Angeles)