West Hollywood’s Design Review Subcommittee on Thursday will evaluate a revised design for a five-story office building at The Lot, the movie studio and office complex on Santa Monica Boulevard at Formosa.
The building will occupy what now is a parking lot and will face the two-story Writer’s Building to the east. Stephanie Reich, the city’s urban designer, largely praised the revised design. She did suggest, however, that the white plaster facade of the building might be too stark a contrast to the darker tones of the historic buildings around it. Given its height, the top two stories of the building will be visible above the wall surrounding the The Lot along Santa Monica Boulevard. Reich suggested the facade have another tone.
The project by CIM Group, owner of The Lot, is the most recent step in a redevelopment project for the 11-acre property that has been evolving and faced with delays since 1993
The movie studio and backlot was built in 1919. A few years later, silent-era stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks bought the property and renamed it Pickford-Fairbanks Studio, but it was commonly known as “Pickfair Studios.” The lot has also been known as United Artists Studio, Samuel Goldwyn Studio and the Warner Hollywood Studio.
Warner sold the property in 1999 to BA Studios, which submitted a revised development plan to the city in 2003, which was approved in 2007. Because of the recession, the first phase of that plan wasn’t implemented until 2013, when construction was completed on the Formosa South building.
A revised plan presented by CIM earlier this year called for removing only 19, 513 square feet of the existing historic buildings rather than the 166,255 square feet that would have been removed under the plan approved in 2007. That partially addressed the concerns of local residents who were unhappy about the destruction of historic buildings on a property were films such as “West Side Story,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “The Apartment” and “Some Like it Hot” were made.
Recently CIM announced that OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, would move its headquarters to The Lot.
Also Thursday, the Design Review Subcommittee will assess the proposed design of building at 8650 Melrose Ave. at 8650 Melrose Ave. at Norwich. The building is a project of Ben Soleimani’s BMB Investments.
As originally approved in 2011, the building was one story high and contained 9,656 square feet of commercial space. Construction already has begun on an underground parking garage. The building the Design Review Committee will assess Thursday would be two stories tall and contain 18,771 square feet of commercial space. BMB is seeking the city’s permission to expand the project by having it included in The Avenues Commercial Development District where such bigger properties are permitted. The district would have to be expanded to include it.
Given the visibility of its location on Melrose, Stephanie Reich, the city’s urban designer, is recommending changes to “reduce the monumentality of the design, relate better to the site and context and provide pedestrian scale and orientation.”
The Design Review Subcommittee will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at Plummer Park Community Center, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd. at Martel.
Brian Hamilton Yes we need a Light Rail line but so far the MTA is not even considering it. More rail for the SFV, the Downtown Connector which is redundant service of the Red Line, is being built to relieve congestion at Seventh and Flower after the opening of the Expo Line on the same tracks and then again the Crenshaw Line which will not have a physical connection with the Expo Line. Finally another station about a mile from LAX but no service into the airport. I propose we refuse to vote on any new tax measure proposed by… Read more »
Wehoan NIMBY’s utopia seems to be a place where nobody creative lives, no one thinks for themselves and no one voices an opinion that differs from the official party line. A place where the populace enthusiastically bends over to accommodate the whims of developers and those sponsored by them. Sometimes I think we’re close
to being that kind of a place but I’m glad we are not quite there yet.
Oh look: the design police are out in full force again. I really pity anyone who tries to build anything in West Hollywood. My god, it must be soul-sucking.
Another big development and still NO new PLANS for PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION! WeHO has no streetcars, no light rail, no subways. Every new apartment building and shopping center brings thousands more cars to the area, clogging the streets with traffic. Why is this essential component of urban planning and afterthought? or none at all?!
Jonathan (if you are the same Jonathan from the 3rd comment): You’ve just lost any shred of credibility you may have had, and you’ve so clearly illustrated what is wrong with wacko preservationists. What you seem to be saying is that The Lot shouldn’t tear down buildings and improve the property because of their historic nature, but they also shouldn’t make the SMB facing side more inviting to those unfortunate enough to live across the street? You are so off base about this it’s not even worth discussing. The Lot should do everything they can internally to make it remain… Read more »
We are all for the “clean up” of SMB frontage. However, the “opening up” of the courtyards should not be part of the discussion. Those courtyards are part of the interior property and provide outdoor private patio spaces for those working within the production offices. They serve a purpose which is within the walls of the lot. They were never intended for public use and they should remain that way. However, if there is a structural way to remove the outside A’C units and still protect the structural and historic integrity while providing climate controlled spaces within…that avenue should be… Read more »
I agree the design looks dreary, although I do like the new Formosa building they put up. But part of me wonders why we bother to ask them to change it when the hideous new 10 (?) story parking structure on the same property dominates the East side skyline. I wasn’t able to make it to tonight’s meeting but I do hope that they will be made to clean up (paint) the historic SMB facade and wall and remove those AC units. Apparently they have promised to do so but never followed through. The facade is ugly now but only… Read more »
This newly redesigned multi-level office building proposed for the lot is NOT fitting an example of new construction blending with historical structures. The goal of Save The Pickford Fairbanks Studios was not just in saving the structures that are already there but to preserve the campus feel of the lot. Thus far it seems there is some good news in that regard. However, as this article suggests there is still work to be done. And to suggest that “The Lot” is suffering from productions leaving L.A. is really far from accurate. Every studio space on the lot has been leased… Read more »
Thank you Hank, for reminding us about high standards but most of all thank you for providing the community with a means for constructive and constructively critical opportunities for discourse in WEHO. We can certainly never have enough positive news as well. Your balanced philosophy was more than needed and much welcomed.
A reminder about Comments standards: WEHOville implemented the Comments feature to enable residents of West Hollywood and others who love this community to comment on stories, ask questions of one another and engage in informed debates. With the exception of AOL’s now all-but-defunct Patch, that is something that was missing in West Hollywood until we launched this website in October 2011. As of this writing, there have been 6,381 comments posted on WEHOville since our launch, with the monthly average growing rapidly as our readership grows. Our commenters have raised some smart and provocative questions and offered up some innovative… Read more »
A fitting collaboration between the current buildings and what is proposed seems to have escaped the grasp of the architect and CIM. A solution lies in the hands of one skilled or at least knowledgeable about the design of the original structures, how to bring them forward aesthetically and accurately and how to design a new structure that rises to a level of aesthetic value. Since this location is on a main boulevard, the city planning department should clearly evaluate and articulate the cumulative effect of the redundant buildings already taking shape in the immediate area which lack any real… Read more »
I’m all for more offices and production facilities at The Lot, but I agree with most of the comments that the architecture leaves something to be desired. I sure wish they would remodel the existing (Spanish-style?) bungalows and offices and install modern central AC systems so they could get rid of the ugly window units sticking out along SMB. Nobody talks about finding a way to improve the intersection of SMB and Formosa which handles most of the traffic in/out of The Lot. It also handles much of the traffic for the DMV (which is always busy when it’s open).… Read more »