The West Hollywood City Council received final design plans Monday night for the long-stalled Sunset Millennium project, which includes four towers on the south side of Sunset Boulevard straddling La Cienega Boulevard. The Planning Design Review Subcommittee previously approved the plans at a Feb. 21 meeting.
The project, which was first proposed in the late 1990s, is now called “Sunset|La Cienega” and includes two 10-story hotel towers with a total of 296 rooms and two condominium towers (one eight stories, the other nine).
In 2011, local development company CIM Group purchased the property from Sunset Millennium Associates, who was having trouble financing the project, and began working with the city to modify the project.
At a Dec. 13, 2012 meeting, the Design Review Subcommittee approved the design for the two condo towers on the south side of Sunset, west along La Cienega. However, the subcommittee asked for a few changes to be made to the design of the hotel buildings on the east parcel, hoping to add “more architectural flash” and an “enhanced monumentality, verticality and iconic presence.”
As a result, project developers worked with subcommittee member Roy Huebner over the next few months. They modified the roof to be “more sculptural,” made both buildings white and used color as “an architectural accent,” provided additional glazing at the northeast corner of the east building and the northwest corner of the west building, added balconies into the buildings’ facades and made other changes to the buildings’ “skin,” the exterior materials that cover a building.
With those changes made, the subcommittee approved the final design for the project at its Feb. 21 meeting.
The original plan between the city and SMA called for 435 public parking spaces beyond what was required by zoning. However, after a city survey found that privately-owned public parking in the area was underused, the city agreed to a reduced parking plan with CIM that included 50 parking spaces on top of the required number.
On Monday, the City Council did not discuss the design plans. According to a city report, staff members still need to work with developers on a few issues before the project can receive building permits.
