(Image by Ricardo DeAratanha / LAT)
The LA Times rounds up four historically significant Hollywood buidlings getting ready for the architectural equivalent of Extreme Makeover, and the attendant hand-wringing by preservationists. Up for sale/renovation/total demolition: Nickeloden Theater, Columbia Square broadcast center, the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant and the Hollywood Palladium. All are fairly close to the corner of Hollywood and Vine, which is itself undergoing $1.2 billion in new development (much of it adaptive reuse). The studio wonks at Nickelodeon are set to leave once their lease expires and the building sold to housing developer Essex Property Trust for about $25 million. Hollywood will have lost a true treasure when we no longer have the studio where classics like "Kenan & Kel" and "The Amanda Show" were shot.
And Ralph Horowitz just can't seem to stay out of the news. First, he boots out the South Central Farmers. Now he stands to make $66 million from the sale of the Columbia Square broadcasting complex. The site has been the home of television stations KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 and radio station KNX-AM (1070). We so want to see Mia Lee and Johnny Mountain climb on top of their anchor desks (blue screen?) and shackle themselves in protest.
· 4 Hollywood Landmarks Proposed for Overhauls [LA Times]