A Hollywood Sign That Gets Mixed Reviews
By the end of the year, the celebrated views from Hollywood Hills homes may include a new and not unanimously welcomed sight: a big, bright ad for the latest in fashion, media or entertainment.
That ad, expected to hang on a 150-foot tower, is planned to be part of the extensive signage at the Hollywood & Highland Project, a $615-million retail and entertainment complex that will include a new theater for Academy Awards ceremonies.
Many residents and businesses have welcomed the complex as a milestone in Hollywood revitalization, but the project has triggered some fears about proposals for 13 large signs expected to evoke Times Square.
The matter is to come today before the Los Angeles City Council for a vote.
Some Hollywood Hills residents worry about glare, view obstruction and damage to the historic flavor of Hollywood.
Hollywood Heights resident Fredrica Cooper said, “The lighting issue is yet to be dealt with. If it’s over-lit, it will blot out the rest of our city views.”
The City Council will consider an exemption for the project from rules that ban most rooftop signs, such as the proposed tower ad. In addition, the council has had a moratorium since December on additional billboards in the city.
The complex’s backers have asked for flexibility to create bigger and brighter ads, and even electronic ones with video capabilities--all specified to the inch in the plan they submitted for council approval.
The overall project--at the Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue intersection near Mann’s Chinese Theatre--got the go-ahead more than three years ago and is expected to open in November.
Built to recreate a piece of Hollywood history, the project’s inner courtyard is based on the Babylon scenes in D.W. Griffith’s 1916 epic “Intolerance.” It has a large white archway and two white columns topped with two statues of big white elephants.
Seeking a Hollywood Times Square
At the Yamashiro restaurant in the hills above Franklin Avenue atop Hollywood Heights, tourists gather for pictures with a backdrop of panoramic Hollywood views.
Sara Willard, administrative director for Yamashiro, said of the signs, “It’s difficult to tell how the impact will affect the area.”
The signage has some support on the City Council, including new Councilman Eric Garcetti, who began representing the Hollywood area this week, according to Roxana Tynan, District 13 economic development deputy.
“We are looking to create in Hollywood . . . a Times Square,” Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski said, referring to former District 13 Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg’s plans to revive the Hollywood area. “That’s what this [sign ordinance] is meant to be following.”
If approved, along Hollywood Boulevard, a 6- by 170-foot electronic video sign will advertise entertainment. Most of the other ads would protrude from the building.
The Highland Avenue side would display two ad sequences, each by the same advertiser. One would consist of three 30- by 36-foot ads and another of two 36- by 31-foot ads. TrizecHahn Development Corp., the project’s developers, has said special signs, as well as ad revenue from them, will help Hollywood and the project succeed.
“We want to develop our own signage identity,” said David Malmuth, senior vice president for TrizecHahn. “We need to create a new vision.”
‘It’s Not Going to Be Noticeable’
The lighting, pointing upward or downward on the signs to bring added attention to the ads, will be regulated by glare-control rules already in the environmental impact report, officials said.
Malmuth said, “We designed the signs with all the agreements and restrictions in mind. It’s not going to be noticeable given all the lights on Hollywood Boulevard right now and the distance of any of those light sources from neighborhoods.”
While many residents in Hollywood Heights and the vicinity back the project, they want to be sure the developers are not entirely exempt from regulations.
Other residents welcome the signs and their lights.
Elliot Johnson, a Hollywood Heights resident, said his home looks down at the project, and he praises it.
“All of my windows face the project, and I’m very excited about the project. . . . It’s something that will revitalize the concept of Hollywood,” Johnson said.
Developers say they have held community meetings to talk over the signage and have gotten approval from community groups and the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The signs are compatible with a proposed Hollywood Entertainment District Sign Overlay Zone that would be centered on Hollywood Boulevard. Under that, signs that add to the entertainment ambience would be encouraged within certain guidelines, Tynan said.
Some residents said the complex’s sign plan should await the council’s approval of the overlay zone rules.
When completed, the complex will include shops; the 640-room Renaissance Hollywood Hotel; the Kodak Theater, where the Academy Award ceremonies will be held; and a 40,000-square-foot ballroom with catering provided by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.
With shops such as a Sephora makeup boutique and a Christian Dior clothing shop, project backers hope to create a different image for an area often known more for T-shirt shops and piercing parlors.
