In our continuing effort to keep you people in the industry informed about the status of your precious Oscar Museum, we present you with this update from a neighbor who writes in.
Dear LA Curbed: In response to your questions about the pending AMPAS Museum development
site in Hollywood:1) The Museum owns 90% of the land between Vine and Cahuenga to the north of its existing Pickford Research Center for Motion Pictures. The land is quite sizable - and they are working to acquire the one remaining parcel - which could be done by eminent domain - as the city deems it an important business and cultural icon to the Hollywood community.
2) The current plans are to create an campus which includes the current Pickford Center and adjoining land with pavilions spaced among gardens. Think a mini-Huntington or a better comparison can be found in the setting for the current Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits - which is located in the center of Hancock Park - alongside LACMA.
3) The AMPAS has a multi-million dollar endowment set aside for the purpose of building this museum and is soon to announce an architect and preliminary renderings. They are in a quiet period trying to work closely with the neighboring businesses in order to smooth and ruffled feathers.
4) There are a number of other office and retail developers quietly buying land along Vine from Fountain to Melrose - [also along Highland] as these are the next commercial boulevards in the west to east wave of development that started over 10 years ago. The land is worth more along these streets than the current use allows.5) I am not in the industry - we are a health care consulting firm and I happen to live on Rossmore [Vine south of Melrose] and have friends who are associated with AMPAS and who have kept me informed. Very exciting.
Exciting, indeed. Thank you to the reader for providing this update in tiny, easily digestible, numbered paragraphs. It makes things easier to read and understand. We look forward to hearing about the first movement of dirt.
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